What MOVIE(s) have you been....seeing? watching?

Yesterday The Batman came out on HBO, and I watched it. I can't imagine watching this behemoth in the theater. It was nice to have some breaks. I really enjoyed the first hour. The subsequent two hours steadily got worse, but not by much, really.

It is clear to me that the creators really enjoyed the film Se7en, as its influences seem to be everywhere. I don't think that's a bad thing.

I like Robert Pattinson as Batman. I don't so much care for him as Bruce Wayne. I found the Riddler's performance to be annoying. His shrieking is not unlike a crying baby. Penguin didn't do much for me either. Alfred is great!

The action and fighting are great. The Batmobile is very cool, and the chase scene that goes along with it was very enjoyable.

Overall I think it's a decent film that is worth your (admittedly a lot of) time to watch. I'd probably give it a 6.5 or 7 out of 10. I think it's a good start on a new set of Batman films, and I hope they make another one so they can improve on what they have.

hotseatgames wrote: Yesterday The Batman came out on HBO, and I watched it. I can't imagine watching this behemoth in the theater. It was nice to have some breaks. I really enjoyed the first hour. The subsequent two hours steadily got worse, but not by much, really.

It is clear to me that the creators really enjoyed the film Seven, as its influences seem to be everywhere. I don't think that's a bad thing.

I like Robert Pattinson as Batman. I don't so much care for him as Bruce Wayne. I found the Riddler's performance to be annoying. His shrieking is not unlike a crying baby. Penguin didn't do much for me either. Alfred is great!

The action and fighting are great. The Batmobile is very cool, and the chase scene that goes along with it was very enjoyable.

Overall I think it's a decent film that is worth your (admittedly a lot of) time to watch. I'd probably give it a 6.5 or 7 out of 10. I think it's a good start on a new set of Batman films, and I hope they make another one so they can improve on what they have.

I watched it last night too; my daughter saw it in the theater and insisted we watch it. I agree with you - too long but okay.

I appreciate The Batman for NOT rehashing his parents death over and over, but realizing that the AUDIENCE has been conditioned to expect it and playing with that

But I agree, emo-Bruce Wayne was unsympathetic at best. I felt the Catwoman storyline was superfluous and almost totally divorced from the Riddler storyline, which in and of itself was retrospectively nonsensical. More time/effort spent making the Riddler more sinister and clever, perhaps drawing more from "The Usual Suspects" instead of Se7en, instead of the energy dumped on the penguin/catwoman stuff might have improved the film. Making the gorgeous Colin Farrell an unrecognizable ham was a choice for sure.

The political themes of the film were also a bit heavy handed but such as it is for films these days.

I'm not sure how, but somehow found myself watching Blade Runner and then Blade Runner 2049 more or less back to back over a few nights. 40 year old news, but whichever streaming channel I was on offered both right next to each other at the top of my recs list.

This time the Blade Runner version was Final Cut where Scott more or less holds your head under water until you capitulate and say that Deckard is a replicant out loud. All in all I think each subsequent version of the film neutered it a bit more. Perhaps my 20th viewing of the film in one version or another over the last 40 years. But still a well crafted film where you have to pay attention to fully understand the thread of execution. Deckard's revealing of evidence and following it is really well presented. This final cut version cleaned up the production messes of the original, but in some ways I'm more tolerant of the mistakes in the earlier than the condescension in the later.

Then 2049 followed over two nights shortly after, which I had only seen once before and felt that I hadn't given it a fair chance. But I think if anything my opinion of the film dropped a bit, because the main character's examination of evidence and his following of it felt like a D&D adventure written by a high schooler (who has no faith in his players.) Really elementary and in your face, and frankly the pieces don't hold together very well. Much more of a blunt-instrument. That said, the woman antagonist is quite good in the role, perhaps the one redeeming part of the film.

Oddly enough, it's an exposition of how the violence in film has become so much more personal. The first film has violence aplenty, but the second one is much more gruesome. Perhaps I'm just getting old.

jason10mm wrote: All the Old Knives on Amazon. This is a classic 70's style slow burn character driven spy flick. Chris Pine, absolutely NAILING a distinguished salt and pepper beard, and Thandiwe Newton, proving vampires are real and can be seen on film, star as former lovers reunited when rumors of a mole (is there ever NOT a mole? ) resurface about a failed CIA OP they worked on together in years past.

No shooting, no car chases, not really any running even, just good acting and simmering tension. Alas I think the jumping around time line, designed to keep the viewer guessing till the end, makes it kinda confusing because all you really have to go on is the color of Pines beard and the length of Thandiwes hair to orient yourself to various periods. It feels like a covid film as there are rarely more than 2-3 characters on screen at once, giving a palpable sense of isolation to many scenes.

But it holds together well enough in the end and is a suitable film for a few glasses of wine and adult company.

I need to finish watching this (maybe start over), but I've been impressed by the increasing maturity of Chris Pine, both physically and acting wise. His take on Kirk in the last Kelvin Star Trek movie was actually starting to be about right, although you have to attribute some of that to the improved quality of the script relative to those for the first two movies. Kind of looking forward to a fourth, which seems back on again (maybe?), but only if it goes in the direction of Beyond and not the other two (not likely).

Several of us did see Everything Everywhere All at Once, which some people were talking about upthread. I wasn't as moved by it as some in my party, but I also thought it was very good and would, of course, love to see more "adult" movies in the cinema--and I have yet to watch an A24 movie I haven't at least liked.

Please don't bother watching Cursor, about a cursed video game, which is on streaming somewhere across my 8-10 services (eek). To the extent it's any good at all, it's because it borrows so heavily from The Ring.

Sagrilarus wrote: Scott more or less holds your head under water until you capitulate and say that Deckard is a replicant out loud

man, do not get me started

Another vote for being thankful that I didn't have to endure THE BATMAN in the theater. I watched it last night on HBO over two sessions. Robert Pattinson, who I'd only known by reputation from the TWILIGHT films, had actually impressed me somewhat in TENET but here he's back in full teenage angst ridden emo mode it seems. I am not sure its him so much as the writing/direction; in reading about the films development the director had zeroed in on him from the start.

I am not sure why this director ( whose CV is fairly thin outside two of the PLANET OF THE APES reboots ) got the job on such a tentpole film but he seems to have been given free reign, perhaps too much so. It BADLY needed an editor of some kind; without spoiling it too much , if you didn't know the running time before going in, you could be forgiven if you thought the movie could have ended at 3 different times.

Why they chose Colin Farrell for Penguin then buried him under a fat suit and piles of makeup/prosthetics is beyond me. As it is, it appears his appearance was a sort of back door pilot for a future TV series.

What little we saw of Alfred ( Andy Serkis ) was quite good but he was sadly underused; given the run time I would have liked to have seen more of him.

Catwoman was fine, but seemed sort of force fit in rather than an integral part of the story. The main villain, Riddler, was just...fucking stupid, 98% of the time covered up in some sort of homemade gas mask/glasses costume.

The Batmobile was pretty cool, the most practical one I've seen for the most part.

While part of these issues could be due to the fact that with so many different versions of Batman out there in recent years, they were trying something different. But the relentless grimdark atmosphere, total lack of humor, and practically non existent screen time given to the Bruce Wayne side of things make this a slog best endured at home at your own pace.

I wish folks would revisit the idea that the reason people in-universe do not IMMEDIATELY accuse Bruce Wayne of being Batman is because Bruce Wayne is Batman's cover identity and is deliberately very public and very inoffensive to the point that arch villains simply can not connect the dots. Bale touched on it a little but I feel like Affleck and Pattinson were just Batman in a suit when they were Wayne. Not a schizophrenic angle, but a conscious choice to shift attention away.

And I really really though the end of The Batman would be a realization that but if that was the message I missed it.

Msample wrote: total lack of humor

OK, I'll give you that one. But that was about it. I vaguely recall Penguin mocking them mixing up Italian and Spanish, but overall the film was just totally focused on being gritty/grim etc.

I am not sure why this director ( whose CV is fairly thin outside two of the PLANET OF THE APES reboots ) got the job on such a tentpole film but he seems to have been given free reign, perhaps too much so. It BADLY needed an editor of some kind; without spoiling it too much , if you didn't know the running time before going in, you could be forgiven if you thought the movie could have ended at 3 different times.

LOL my wife (who works in the business, art director), her first comment was “who the fuck is this director and how did he get this job”.

The movie isn’t quite absolute trash- there are some really great things about it (no “flying pearls”, gothy Batman, super hot Catwoman, best Batmobile of all time, the venom reference, soundtrack) but it is so overindulgent and bloated that it just collapses under its own weight. Yet it never feels as epic and sweeping as TDK. It is 100% a badly -directed- movie, and it plays like 4 hours of prestige TV rather than a 3 hour movie. It’s a dreadful bore, almost like watching some junk “arty” bar band moping and noodling through endless solos in search of one good riff. It ends more times than flippin’ ROTK; by the time it actually did end I felt like I had been beaten up by The Batman and he had sauntered off to cry in a corner.

I think Pattinson is a solid actor that will matriculate into a great actor with the right roles. But this wasn’t it. I liked his look but the mopey, mumbly thing had me lining for Kevin Conroy.

Penguin sucked. Riddler sucked. Carmine Falcone sucked. Did really like Jim Gordon though. Alfred might have been interesting with more screen time. Joker? Whatever. We’ve already had FOUR absolutely iconic depictions of the character. Let him rest FFS. Do Court of the Owls or something.

I put it on I’m the background last night while I messed around with some board games and actually shut it off halfway through.

I really enjoyed the use of Nirvana - Something in the Way. I didn't much care for that song when it actually came out, but it's grown on me over the last... several.... decades..... oh no

I actually kind of liked it. Mostly because it depicted Batman as a detective and was more focused on mystery than action.

Its motif and structure was totally Fincher's Seven or Zodiac, and it was a vibe I appreciated.

Way too long, yes, but I still thought it was entertaining and worth my time.

Michael Barnes wrote: [Joker? Whatever. We’ve already had FOUR absolutely iconic depictions of the character. Let him rest FFS. Do Court of the Owls or something.

I put it on I’m the background last night while I messed around with some board games and actually shut it off halfway through.

A guy at work thinks Leto is the best Joker…makes me want to quit

jason10mm wrote: And I really really though the end of The Batman would be a realization that

Warning: Spoiler!

billionaires can do way more good with devoted charity without corruption than with fisticuffs and maybe Batman ISN'T the hero Gotham needs right then

but if that was the message I missed it.

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