i have a big ninja fetish

[verbminx]

I am aware that I shouldn't be up this late posting to LJ, but hey, whatever. I went to a late showing of Batman Begins earlier tonight and I'm just now winding down.

I'm not going to go deeply into what I thought of the movie, because I'm going to go see it again sometime this week with different people (welcome to my weird social life), and when I do so, I'm going to write something funny, albeit not as Yoda. I promise you that this will include the neologism "NINJAGASM." at least once or twice, but you'll have to wait to hear the context. Hah.

Briefly, though... I liked the movie overall. I thought the direction of the action scenes was pretty bad; you can't really tell what's going on. Action direction is one of those things where you sometimes don't appreciate the people who do it well until you see it done badly. As far as performances, the only complaint I have is about Katie Holmes. She isn't bad, but she seems too young for her role, doesn't speak with any authority, etc. Seems especially inadequate in a movie anchored by great understated performances from Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Gary Oldman. Christian Bale and Liam Neeson are both decent. Cillian Murphy is hot, and lots of other actors you might recognize show up in smaller parts. Finally, it's too long, and the final twist is predictable (I missed a detail, but was pretty close).

Comments

[robotazalea.livejournal.com]

Some of the fight scenes were shot too close. Joel Schumacher had the same problem in Batman and Robin. I almost laughed out loud during Phantom of the Opera when he put a fucking TREE between the camera and the fighting.

[verbminx.livejournal.com]

LOL! It's so true! But Schumacher's relative incompetence is well-known... the other hilarity for me in Phantom was related to all the "arty", faux-silent-film framing sequences... I think the phrase I used when I saw it last month was that they seemed self-mocking, like "a parody of their own pretentiousness."

[djymm.livejournal.com]

yeah, Katie Holmes is there to sell tickets, and looks like she should be collecting petitions for Greenpeace instead of representing the D.A's office. Michael Caine was good, which is a 50/50 proposition - Morgan Freeman could join the Paul Newman club of actors who always turn in a good performance.

I was actually thinking about Mr. Freeman's homespun stage persona in contrast to his career as a hollywood actor. I'd love to follow him around for a week.

The fight scenes - I won't even call it choreography - were the weakest point in the movie. Still, I liked it. Gotham was beautifully done.

[verbminx.livejournal.com]

I think we're in complete agreement!