Links, thinks, and Batman hijinks
Sep. 21st, 2012 03:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grammarwomanOh, Friday. I had such good intentions to get shit done at work, and then I got thwarted by both Javascript being inscrutably annoying (seriously, why is there no built-in function to enforce all-numeric entry?) and a developer NOT GETTING IT when I'm asking for help. (Dude, I have asked you three different ways to tell me where the code for the main page is and how I'm supposed to tie in my shit. You've given me NOTHING USEFUL. Don't make me stoop to including bosses on my email!)
So yeah, in response I've been following my Twitter stream, (yay,![[twitter.com profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/e0caa790ec10/-/twitter.com/favicon.ico)
TahmohPenikett is now on Twitter!) which is freaking HUGE because my add philosophy is a two-second "Do I know them?" question and not a "How cluttered is my list already?" ponderance. I'm a little jealous of everyone in the LA area who gets to see the last piggyback ride of the Space Shuttle.
I've also caught up with the last week's worth of LJ, which means investigating many blurbs of sales and deals. In the past few hours, I've sent people links to a sale on towels and Katniss Barbie, among others.
In other non-news, I finally saw "The Dark Knight Rises" last night! It was the last day of showing in the closest movie theater to me, and the husband graciously let me out of mommy duty for a night while he took the Emperor to Cub Scouts. So there I was, one of three people total in Theater 14 with no one in front of me. It felt so decadent and awesome, like my own private screening. I liked it, and I'm very glad I saw it on the big screen, but it definitely won't have an impact on me like "The Avengers".
The main problem is, I walked away from it basically with the reinforced opinion that Batman is an asshole. He spends seven years pining over his lost love, letting all of his investments and endowments slip away, and then whines about his existential angst to justify it? Douche move, dude. Rachel would not approve. At least his Marvel counterpart Tony Stark owns his own assholishness. Plus, Bruce pours how much money and research into Miranda Tate's clean energy mission and doesn't even investigate her? Way to fail to use your Bat computer to Bat-Google a potential threat. I appreciated, though, that the visit to the doctor detailed how much damage super-heroing would do to a baseline human body.
I loved Anne Hathaway as Catwoman. I give many props to Props (heh) for the flippy-up-into-cat-ears goggles. I even liked the catsuit and the heels-as-weapons. Looking pretty hot in smoky eye makeup and ruby red lips didn't hurt, either. I might have reservations about how easily she took to riding the Batcycle, but oh well. I think she did a great job actually giving the character depth and moods and motivation, as well as kicking a lot of ass.
I wish I could say the same for Christian Bale - I think the scenes he had with Michael Caine especially pointed out the lack of fucks CB gave about being there. I really felt for Alfred, but I could not be assed to care about Brucie's manpain.
I liked Tom Hardy's approach to Bane. He felt menacing just standing/looming there, and he carried off intelligent thug quite well. I could have done without the frequent farmer's overalls pose, though. And the way he got blown away by Catwoman and then never seen again felt so dismissive, without even a lingering death shot or "where'd the body go?" villian slip-away. He's the big bad for most of the story, and yet the movie seemed to say "eh, who cares if he dies?".
I spent the movie wondering about the Talia al Ghul connection, so I'm glad that came into play - huzzah for bringing in a female villain with a badass backstory! I was pleased, too, to see several female faces among the police officers. Nice job representing, Nolan! Now, if you had only included some women in the thug army, that would have been even better.
I also loved Joseph Gordon Levitt as The Cop. He did a great job as our POV character. I was a little surprised that he determined who Batman was simply by Bruce's Angry Orphan Stare; I was expecting a "you saved me when I was a little kid" story to parallel the Gordon/Wayne initial encounter.
Overall, I can appreciate what Nolan was trying to do. I think it was disingenuous of him to claim that he wasn't making an allegory to the Occupy movement; they both came from the same place, for sure. The biggest problem, IMO, is that the movie tried to be too many things: action movie, dark drama, popcorn entertainment. Thus, it couldn't fully invest in any of them, the way that "The Avengers" was a gonzo paean to summer blockbusters.
I think I'll take one more stab at actual work. Have a lovely weekend, everyone!
So yeah, in response I've been following my Twitter stream, (yay,
I've also caught up with the last week's worth of LJ, which means investigating many blurbs of sales and deals. In the past few hours, I've sent people links to a sale on towels and Katniss Barbie, among others.
In other non-news, I finally saw "The Dark Knight Rises" last night! It was the last day of showing in the closest movie theater to me, and the husband graciously let me out of mommy duty for a night while he took the Emperor to Cub Scouts. So there I was, one of three people total in Theater 14 with no one in front of me. It felt so decadent and awesome, like my own private screening. I liked it, and I'm very glad I saw it on the big screen, but it definitely won't have an impact on me like "The Avengers".
The main problem is, I walked away from it basically with the reinforced opinion that Batman is an asshole. He spends seven years pining over his lost love, letting all of his investments and endowments slip away, and then whines about his existential angst to justify it? Douche move, dude. Rachel would not approve. At least his Marvel counterpart Tony Stark owns his own assholishness. Plus, Bruce pours how much money and research into Miranda Tate's clean energy mission and doesn't even investigate her? Way to fail to use your Bat computer to Bat-Google a potential threat. I appreciated, though, that the visit to the doctor detailed how much damage super-heroing would do to a baseline human body.
I loved Anne Hathaway as Catwoman. I give many props to Props (heh) for the flippy-up-into-cat-ears goggles. I even liked the catsuit and the heels-as-weapons. Looking pretty hot in smoky eye makeup and ruby red lips didn't hurt, either. I might have reservations about how easily she took to riding the Batcycle, but oh well. I think she did a great job actually giving the character depth and moods and motivation, as well as kicking a lot of ass.
I wish I could say the same for Christian Bale - I think the scenes he had with Michael Caine especially pointed out the lack of fucks CB gave about being there. I really felt for Alfred, but I could not be assed to care about Brucie's manpain.
I liked Tom Hardy's approach to Bane. He felt menacing just standing/looming there, and he carried off intelligent thug quite well. I could have done without the frequent farmer's overalls pose, though. And the way he got blown away by Catwoman and then never seen again felt so dismissive, without even a lingering death shot or "where'd the body go?" villian slip-away. He's the big bad for most of the story, and yet the movie seemed to say "eh, who cares if he dies?".
I spent the movie wondering about the Talia al Ghul connection, so I'm glad that came into play - huzzah for bringing in a female villain with a badass backstory! I was pleased, too, to see several female faces among the police officers. Nice job representing, Nolan! Now, if you had only included some women in the thug army, that would have been even better.
I also loved Joseph Gordon Levitt as The Cop. He did a great job as our POV character. I was a little surprised that he determined who Batman was simply by Bruce's Angry Orphan Stare; I was expecting a "you saved me when I was a little kid" story to parallel the Gordon/Wayne initial encounter.
Overall, I can appreciate what Nolan was trying to do. I think it was disingenuous of him to claim that he wasn't making an allegory to the Occupy movement; they both came from the same place, for sure. The biggest problem, IMO, is that the movie tried to be too many things: action movie, dark drama, popcorn entertainment. Thus, it couldn't fully invest in any of them, the way that "The Avengers" was a gonzo paean to summer blockbusters.
I think I'll take one more stab at actual work. Have a lovely weekend, everyone!
