What films have you seen recently?

[Kaikyaku]

I seem to be watching things in pairs recently. This time I watched both version of Yasujiro Ozu's Floating Weeds, the silent, black and white version from 1934 and the sound, colour version from 1959. I've seen a few different Ozu films now and they have always struck me as being stylized in his particular way. The seemed under-acted and the characters did not give away a lot of emotion. Both Floating Weeds movies felt a lot more natural.

The original film focuses on the main story and only really gives one other character, an older man, any kind of side story, though it is an important one. The second version takes it time and fleshes out both the setting and the other side characters more, though sadly excluding the old man. A scene with him near the end of the film carries far less weight in the remake because we haven't taken the time to get to know him the same way. Otherwise, the two films are very similar, both with strong performances. There are a few scenes that are better in the original, and a few that are better in the second version.

What was especially interesting was the cultural changes that are apparent in the two films. In the first, before the war, the characters predominantly wear traditional Japanese clothes. The young son is going to school and will soon be drafted into the military. In the second film, set in the 1950s, the characters wear a mixture of traditional and western style clothing and the son is working to save up to go to university and study electronics. These changes don't have any great impact on the story, but were interesting to see when watching the movies over a weekend.

Overall I enjoyed both films, but I'd have to say that Late Spring is still my favourite Ozu picture.

[Shadowmage]

So, I just watched the Western version of Battle Royale, aka The Hunger Games, and it was a very good movie until the actual games started.   For a good portion of the movie I thought "if this occured in real life this is how things will play out."  The emotions felt genuine; the circumstances while a tad fantastic nonetheless felt real.  Everything leading up to the games was near pitch perfect.  Then the games started and it was pretty much Survivor: Extreme Human Hunting Edition for the first portion which was quite good.  Then friendships started developing.  Okay, it was a tad weird but not dealbreaking.  Then a romance was shoehorned in out of nowhere.  Cue the Twilight comparisons.   

Now, this movie was a whole lot better than that one live action adaptation of Battle Royale.  That movie laid out its melodrama so thick that if someone were to rule 34 "laughably over the top drama" Battle Royale should be the accompanying picture. However, Hunger Games never really digs into the rather interesting moral quandary of its premise.  The movie is written in such a way that the world will warp like a joke in Code Geass before the main protagonist Katniss has to make any kind of "evil" decision.  Everything she does is in immediate reaction to the circumstances; none of her kills are premeditated.  To be fair, this is not unrealistic since the environment can be just as dangerous as a fellow contestant, but the movie doesn't make full use of what the human-hunting-reality-show-Olympic idea offers.

So, what do we ultimately have here?  A cool idea accompanied by some realistic build up to a climax that feels a tad off.  I do realize that this was based on a books for teens, but I am still disappointed that it did not go out and actually explore the implications of its premise.  In hindsight, the goal of the movie seems to be the love story and the premise is just a hook to lure outsiders like me in.

6/10

[Sorrow-kun]

Title: The Dark Knight Rises

Spoiler for Hiden:

A very impressive movie, but just not quite as good as The Dark Knight.  The set pieces were incredible, and there were some mind-blowing plot twists along the way, but the movie lacked the depth and believability of TDK.  Too often it felt too obsessed with making everything go to hell, eg, Gotham and Bruce Wayne, which came off as too overblown and contrived.  The ticking time bomb scenario was a pretty big cliche as well, and an unnecessary one given the major revelation towards the end of the film.  The acting was superb.  Nolan seems to have his favourites, and picked many of the old crew from Inception for this movie, eg, Tom Hardy and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who were excellent.  Anyone who remains unconvinced that Anne Hathaway is an amazingly talented actress, I will fight them in the street.  But the star of the show was Michael Caine, who was brilliant in all the movie's emotional scenes.  Unfortunately, such scenes were somewhat few and far between.

Rises shares more similarities with Batman Begins than TDK (which I think has already been said countless times).  I don't think it's as strong a movie as Batman Begins, which had a refreshing feel when it first came out, and had some unforgettable sequences, particularly during the first half.  It lacks the thematic depth of its two predecessors, but (partially) compensates for it with the acting and action scenes.

In summary, every time Anne Hathaway was on screen, I got a funny feeling in my pants.

The Rating: 8/10, but not as resounding an "8" as I gave to The Dark Knight

[TypicalIdiotFan]

Glad to hear you made it out of the threatre alive, S-K.

[Kaikyaku]

I went to he morning showing of TDKR today and came home with a lot to say about it. After catching up on the news, I don't really feel like it anymore.

Maybe I'll try to put some thoughts together later, but not right now.

[leokiko.]

I'm glad I don't live in the US.

[Kaikyaku]

OK, after I couple hours I think I can actually focus on the film.

I rewatched The Dark Knight last week, but I really wish I had rewatched Batman Begins as well. This third film actually had a lot more connection to the first film than the second, and I felt like I had forgotten a lot of the details since I hadn't seen it for a few years.

Overall I really enjoyed the film, but I have to agree with Sorrow-kun (and a lot of other people) that it wasn't as quite as good as The Dark Knight.

I think best way to tackle the film is by character, since this film was more focused on the characters than the plot. Spoilers of course.

Spoiler for Hiden:

Commissioner Gordon - I was a little worried we wouldn't see much of him after he got shot. I really liked the conversation between him and Blake. However, I couldn't believe how surprised Gordon sounded at the end when he figured out it was Bruce Wayne. Seriously? Batman and Bruce Wayne both disappear for eight years, return at exactly the same time and you don't put this together? I rather expected him to just nod knowingly, but I guess the mask is just that good. Rating: Awesome

Selena - Sorrow-kun is totally right, Anne Hathaway killed this. She is a fantastic actor. If you haven't seen Rachel Getting Married, please do. I was honestly a little worried when I heard Catwomen was going to be in the film, but she is never really Catwomen in the traditional sense. Her story was predictable, but well executed. I just wish she didn't have those ridiculous heels. Rating: Awesome

Dr. Pavel: Dude, they were going to kill you anyways, why would you activate the bomb? Rating: Not-awesome.

Blake - When the lady said Robin at the end, my head just about exploded. YES! I might have even squeeed (I'm sorry!). I really liked Blake and I think he was my favourite character in the film. It just seemed a little odd that he would end up quitting the force because he was disillusioned with it, in a movie where the police are portrayed so heroically. They charged into battle at the end and retook the city. But ok. My other question would be, what on earth is he going to do with the batcave? He doesn't have the money or resources or Alfred or Lucious to back him up. I know this is not the point and I was happy with the ending (see aforementioned squeee) but I couldn't help but wonder. Rating: Awesome.

Bane: Huh. I didn't like Bane. I spent the entire movie wondering why he talked like Sean Connery and whether that was the actor's real voice or if they were pulling a Darth Vader. The mask hid any emotion from his face and the fact that his voice was louder than everyone else's bothered me. That and his motivation and objectives are so unclear. He wants to kill Gordon, then lets him roam the streets later? He wants to release the city from the tyranny of the police, but then goes and tried to blow the whole thing up. Why exactly did he send Bruce to the pit? So he could break him mentally? Well he seems to have forgotten all about it later. Nobody really tried to prevent Bruce from escaping. (Also, if the League of Shadows raided the place and rescued Bane years ago, why is there anyone still in there anyways, especially from that time?). Even after it is revealed Bane is not the mastermind, it still doesn't make sense. Apparently there was some backstory about the motivation of the League of Shadows in Batman Begins that I don't remember exactly, but still! Also, pathetic death. Rating: Not-so-awesome.

Miranda: Well, I did not see that coming! I was completely fooled. It felt like the filmmakers did cheat a little on the twist though. When the old guys in the pit are talking about the child, I would have been fine if they left it at 'the child', but when they mention it, Bruce specifically says 'Bane' and they never correct him. At least her motivation seems to be a more straightforward 'Gotham has to burn', though I am curious how she was planning to escape the city, or if she was at all. The one thing that bugged me is that she was outdone by a monologue. Didn't she watch The Incredibles? The whole while she is telling about her poor childhood and her dear Bane Gordon is getting the box thingy onto the bomb. That would have been the end right there, but she had to tell Bruce her story. Rating: Mostly-awesome.

Bruce Wayne: There's definitely a lot more Bruce Wayne than Batman here. I'm not sure what to say about Bruce. I didn't really like the scenes in the pit, but mostly because they didn't feel like they fit with the rest of the movie. I just didn't feel the personal struggle as much as I wanted to. Bruce kept saying how he needed to save Gotham, save his city. I guess I just can't imagine putting that much value in a place. In The Dark Knight, Gotham was more personal - it was Rachel, Alfred, Lucious, Harvey etc. Here it felt like saving the city for the city's sake, as if cities are the crowning achievement of humanity.  I felt like they were going for the right approach, but didn't get it quite right. I didn't feel like I was on Batman's side as much. I felt more like I was cheering for Gordon and Blake. Rating: Medium-Awesome.

Alfred: Spot on. Rating: Awesome.

[AC]

What I think of TDKR:

Spoiler for Hiden:

It didn't WOW-ed me as much as TDK, and I bet that a lot of people would say the same thing.

For one, Bane Hardy didn't grab my attention as much as Heath Joker. Yes, he has a very menacing persona and Nolan gave him a makeover and a background story unlike anything I've ever seen before, but there's only so much he could do to impress when his face is half-hidden behind a mask the whole time. His background revelation is amazing, but his character depth wasn't as gripping. Plus, just as I feared, I couldn't make out a number of things he said because his dialogue sounded too muffled. I think I have to rewatch the movie with subtitles when I get my hands on it. And wwo, there were some plot holes here and there. Like, how the hell did Wayne get into Gotham City when it's under Bane's control? Lastly, the doomsday-device ending is a trope. Nothing much I can say; almost every superhero uses it as their climax.

But the movie did a number of things better than the predecessor. One, the storyline is better in the sense that it's more intricate and there are really good plot twists, especially the one about Bane not being the true villain. Two, Hathaway-Catwoman is amazing. I admit that I was among those who were sceptical at her filling the shoes of the anti-villain but she proved me wrong indeed. Plus, it's a good call that Nolan omitted her feline-costume design and made her less psychotic and more hate-filled... and anti-capitalistic. Not directly related to TDKR itself, but Nolan's choice of usual suspects for his cast and his somewhat signature ambiguous and pessimistic ending are put to good effect.

Just like SK, I give TDKR an 8/10. It's special in its own way but TDK is still the better movie. In fact, in a way TDK and TDKR are like the games Arkham Asylum and Arkham City respectively. The former really pushed the franchise to the limit, leaving the latter very little room to up the game since it has basically reached the ceiling as far as impressing the crowd is concerned.

[Shinmaru]

I like The Dark Knight Rises for the most part, and in particular how it plays with people's knowledge of the mythos in regard to the biggest twist, but that ending sucks. Feels like a total Batman fanfic to me.

Spoiler for Hiden:

Batman escapes from the nuclear bomb with the patch he made for the autopilot and escapes with Catwoman to Barcelona where they live happily ever after! The end!

Barf. Not bad enough to ruin the movie for me, mind. If Christian Bale's hilariously terrible Batman voice can't ruin it, then almost nothing will.

Also, yes, I have to agree with those who love Anne Hathaway in this movie. She totally nails it.

[AC]

If I understand how Nolan's mind works based on his previous movies, the ending isn't as straightforward as it looks:

Spoiler for Hiden:

Alfred indeed saw Bruce Wayne and Selena Kyle at that restaurant, but it may not be in a true sense. Alfred said to Bruce before that he could/want to imagine him in such a post-Batman lifestyle, and hence that was merely what he pictured in his head. To me, this interpretation is more credible; there's no way I will accept Batman escaping an N-bomb explosion in the middle of the sea. Nolan and his penchant for open-interpretatation endings, much.

[Shinmaru]

That thought crossed my mind, and I'd rather accept that interpretation, but then ...

Spoiler for Hiden:

... the scene where they find out the autopilot is fixed is then utterly pointless. Unless it exists to feed Alfred false hope that then leads to his delusion; then it's unnecessarily cruel.

So, yeah, even if that's the case, I'm still not a huge fan.

[DrIdiot]

TDKR:

Spoiler for Hiden:

Maybe it's just that I'm getting bored of these movies, but I didn't like this so much.  Bane is no Joker.  The plot twists were implausible, and much of the movie didn't reaaally make sense.  The social experiment bit was contrived, much more so than the second movie.  The whole pit thing was kind of silly...

But that non-Catwoman woman was pretty sexy so...

3/5

I guess I also saw this movie: Yureru, which was pretty good.  4/5?  Teruyuki Kagawa is great as always.

[thesupremekaidbz]

Contagion

It's an okay film with Matt Damon. It's a movie about an epidemic and how various people struggle through it. It's not good and it's not bad. It's just okay.

[Kavik Ryx]

The Dark Knight Rises: 9/10

A little late on the bandwagon, but given all that has been going on here in Colorado, it didn't feel appropriate to watch until some time had passed.

Two and a half hours have passed and my eyes are still glazed over

By this point, I doubt anyone will say TDKR was superior to TDK; however, it did outdo TDK in one key aspect, character balance. If there was anything holding TDK back (aside from a hiccup in the pacing following the Joker's arrest) was how much Heath Ledger, and to a lesser extent Aaron Eckhart overshadowed everyone to the point that it felt more like a movie staring The Joker with Batman/Alfred/Fox doing detective work between set pieces. Though that is going to be an issue whenever The Joker is involved. However, given a less legendary villain, everyone is capable of proving why they are worth screen time with the Caped Crusader, especially Bruce Wayne. While the role of Bruce Wayne has been to serve as the mask for Batman, but here he is given a character arc that extends to him as a person and not just the decoy for a lunatic vigilante. I've heard that his arc follows suit a tad closely from Batman Begins, but having never seen Batman Begins, this did not bother me. Everyone has said pretty much everything about the rest of the cast, so I'll keep it short. Every scene with Michael Caine was equal parts heartfelt and heartbreaking; Anne Hathaway managed to make "Catwoman" so to speak NOT completely ridiculous, though was conspicuously absent from the second act; oh, and Gary Oldman was nothing short of amazing, even from a hospital bed. As for Joseph Gordon-Levitt, by halfway through the movie, I wanted him to have his own spin-off.

Spoiler for Hiden:

And if there is any justice in the world, it will happen

.

Though ultimately this movie is a rung below its predecessor. Though it is not for being an inferior film in terms of presentation and construction, but rather due to a greater quantity of flaws, few as they may have been. The least of which was the overuse of Batman's aircraft compared to good old fashioned brawling, granted the guy was running on multiple previous injuries and being broken enough to be the worlds most exploitable video game. The fact that Bane would be

Spoiler for Hiden:

running around the city with an effective time bomb for three months given his personal goals, though the motivations of Marion Cotillard's character (another excellent performance) put his willingness to let Gotham burn somewhat less absurd.

One thing I did like about the movie was the redemption of the city's police force, given the events of the last film; however, this could have been the time for the redemption for the people of Gotham as well. I suppose that was supposed to be the purpose of Selina Kyle, but her lack of presence in the middle portion, such a chance felt missed. Also, and this is the biggest of them all,

Spoiler for Hiden:

Bane went out like a punk.

. And this is more of a systemic TDK issue than a TDKR specific one, but Batman sure packs a lot of ammunition for a guy who refuses to carry a firearm.

Everything unmentioned was up there for me with TDK, and the only reason this may not be the best super hero/comic book movie of the year is because The Avengers rivals it for the slot. Though what TDKR had over The Avengers, and most movies for that matter, is that I was able to forget that the heroes were going to win it out in the end. This was one of those times I actually teared up during a movie. Granted seeing

Spoiler for Hiden:

Bruce Wayne alive in Firenze

did sour it somewhat, I wouldn't go as far as Shinmaru and say it sucked. It was a bit of a cheat for the audience. But for Alfred, it was understandable, and hey, he deserves it.

[lapoune]

Just saw A Letter to Momo at fantasia, and I found it very good. I won't say much since I doubt many have seen it and I don't want to spoil anything...but it is a must watch...even if only for the mind-blowing quality of the art\animation

I'd give it a solid 8/10