Joy. That's what I felt when I left the theater. Yeah, I really liked this version of Spider-Man. But here's where I'm coming from... Spider-Man 1 and 2 are great. The first one got the origin just right, and the second one gave us one of the most perfect comic book villains we've ever seen with Alfred Molina's Doctor Octopus. This one (finally) does away with the origin story ("I got bit by a spider."), and focuses completely on Peter Parker in the days, weeks, and months following his appearance in Captain America: Civil War. And Peter is itching to do something as epic as that. Instead, he's spending his time as Spider-Man stopping bicycle thieves, and helping old people who are lost. But then he stumbles upon a group of bad guys (led by Michael Keaton) who are using leftover alien technology to create weapons. And Michael Keaton plays the Vulture, completing his avian trilogy of Batman, Birdman, and now the Vulture.
What's interesting about this version of the character, is that there are long stretches without any sort of action. It's a lot of character and world building business. We find out who Peter hangs out with, who he has a crush on, and what all the cool toys are that Tony Stark put into Spider-Man's costume. Because of this, I was more involved in all these characters than most of the other films.
What's great about the movie, is that it really is a hero's journey. Peter has a lot of lessons to learn. They're not insurmountable, but he has choices and decisions that he has to make, and because Spider-Man is arguably one of the best superheroes out there, he constantly makes the right ones. And that's actually a bold move. There are no real moral quandaries for Spider-Man. He just has to do the right thing. In an age where there's so much gray, it's nice to have a hero who is this true.
And while Tom Holland continues to craft a fantastic Peter Parker, Michael Keaton does an equally excellent job as Adrian Toomes, The Vulture. He is a bad guy, no doubt. But unlike, say Spider-Man 3's The Sandman, while he believes he's doing what's right for his family, he also has no illusions about how bad he actually is.
I could write about all the cool cameos, the twists that had the audience (and me) gasp in the theater, how Spider-Man's spider sense is essentially non-existent, or how the very last post-credits sequence is one of the funniest things ever. But, instead, I'll just say that I liked the movie a bunch. It swept me up pretty quickly. It finally gives me the hero vs. the villain straightforward fight that I have been waiting for. I just had a good time.
***1/2
Showing posts with label Michael Keaton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michael Keaton. Show all posts
Thursday, July 6, 2017
Friday, March 25, 2016
Day 1577 - Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
It was okay. Not as bad as some people are saying, but definitely not as good as some people are claiming. I don't really think I'm going to write about the story or plot all that much (Batman fights Superman because Lex Luthor tells them to, and Wonder Woman shows up). What I really want to talk about is why I have the reactions I did to the movie.
I was 17 years old when the Tim Burton/Michael Keaton Batman movie came out. I remember all the controversy that occurred when Michael Keaton was announced as Batman. I also remember that I thought he would do fine. I knew, even then, that comedians made for some of the best dramatic actors because a lot of them have some very dark, dark souls and that comes through their acting. (I also remember liking the casting of Billy Dee Williams as Harvey Dent mostly because who doesn't love Lando Calrissian? It makes me sad that the role was wasted on Tommy Lee Jones.) And when that Batman hit the theaters, I had to have seen it about three times (usually my benchmark for when I really like a film), I bought all the trading cards, and even the comic book adaptation. One of the first tapes I ever bought (and possibly the first one) was the Danny Elfman score to the film. That movie hit all the right notes for me... with one exception - Batman killed bad guys. His Batplane had guns and rockets which he used liberally. He dropped a bad guy down the cathedral staircase. And, really, he killed The Joker.
I've grown up reading comic books, and one of the absolutes are that the good guys don't kill the bad guys. Characters like Wolverine, The Punisher, and Deapool don't count, because that's been part of their character from the very beginning. And, yes, yes, I know Batman carried a gun and killed bad guys in his early appearances, but the creators were still finding their way with him. When he actually started gaining depth and focus in the late sixties, that was the Batman as he's really become defined. And when Frank Miller aged him and made him grim and gritty in The Dark Knight Returns, he (or the editor) made a concerted effort to call out the beatings he gave and the lengths he finally went to to actually NOT kill The Joker.
It was a real pleasure to me to watch Batman Begins and see that Christian Bale's Batman made it a concerted effort to not do any killing. Even with Ra's al Ghul at the end - while he made a conscious effort not to save him, I always abided by the comic book rule of no body = no death. I would not have been disappointed if he had shown up in either of the last two Christopher Nolan Batman movies.
And that brings us to Batman V Superman. Batffleck kills a lot of bad guys. His Batplane, like Keaton's before him, has a ton of ammunition. And he uses it. Bad guys are shot or blown up by the Dark Knight, and all I could think of was - "I don't like Batman being the Punisher." Maybe that's why there are no crazy villains in Gotham during the movie. He's killed them all already.
And I don't include the dream sequence in this discussion. It's a dream, Batman is fighting parademons, and the world is a completely different place. I have little problem giving that scene a pass. Although, the Flash looked pretty stupid. But hey, that's just me.
Maybe I'm just being the old guy yelling at the kids to get off his lawn. But I want being a superhero to mean something. For as many faults that Ang Lee's Hulk has (and it does have lots), it seems like he went out of his way to show that the Hulk didn't kill. Yes, you can make the arguments that any of the current crop of superhero movies out there have lots and lots of collateral damage. And none of the bad guys ever seem to be alive at the end of a movie to be put into prison. But Batman and also Superman, in their best stories, always found a way to be better than the villain.
And this is all before I could even write about the uncomfortably long scene of Amy Adams' Lois Lane having a conversation with Supes while taking a bath. That's where the conversation needed to take place? I know it's hard to prove that a character is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist in about 15 minutes of screen time, but having the character spend a whole scene in a bathtub doesn't help her cause in any way.
Again, I didn't hate the movie. Gal Gadot was almost as perfect a Wonder Woman we could have hoped for. I want to see a whole movie based off the picture that we're shown. And she was great in both her civilian identity as well as her superhero one. During the last battle, her smile was one of the highlights. She's back to doing what she should have been doing all along. But, even in a movie as stuffed as this one is, it could have used a lot more of her.
I always say that when an actor portray a superhero (especially a masked one), then it doesn't matter how they play the superhero (because most of the time it's a stunt man in there anyway), but how they portray the civilian identity. Ben Affleck does a fine job portraying Bruce Wayne.
Finally, I didn't mind Jesse Eisenberg's Luthor. That being said, I don't mind Jesse Eisenberg. If you're one of those people who don't like him, this movie is not going to change your mind. He's definitely not a Luthir we've ever seen before. But his villainy is in full display. And you believe that he's capable of all the bad things that he does.
It would have been nice to have at least one laugh during the movie, but what are you gonna do? And what's with that title? Is 'V' the new 'vs'? Adding that 's' was too much for people? The two main characters are fighting - don't hide it.
**1/2
I was 17 years old when the Tim Burton/Michael Keaton Batman movie came out. I remember all the controversy that occurred when Michael Keaton was announced as Batman. I also remember that I thought he would do fine. I knew, even then, that comedians made for some of the best dramatic actors because a lot of them have some very dark, dark souls and that comes through their acting. (I also remember liking the casting of Billy Dee Williams as Harvey Dent mostly because who doesn't love Lando Calrissian? It makes me sad that the role was wasted on Tommy Lee Jones.) And when that Batman hit the theaters, I had to have seen it about three times (usually my benchmark for when I really like a film), I bought all the trading cards, and even the comic book adaptation. One of the first tapes I ever bought (and possibly the first one) was the Danny Elfman score to the film. That movie hit all the right notes for me... with one exception - Batman killed bad guys. His Batplane had guns and rockets which he used liberally. He dropped a bad guy down the cathedral staircase. And, really, he killed The Joker.
I've grown up reading comic books, and one of the absolutes are that the good guys don't kill the bad guys. Characters like Wolverine, The Punisher, and Deapool don't count, because that's been part of their character from the very beginning. And, yes, yes, I know Batman carried a gun and killed bad guys in his early appearances, but the creators were still finding their way with him. When he actually started gaining depth and focus in the late sixties, that was the Batman as he's really become defined. And when Frank Miller aged him and made him grim and gritty in The Dark Knight Returns, he (or the editor) made a concerted effort to call out the beatings he gave and the lengths he finally went to to actually NOT kill The Joker.
It was a real pleasure to me to watch Batman Begins and see that Christian Bale's Batman made it a concerted effort to not do any killing. Even with Ra's al Ghul at the end - while he made a conscious effort not to save him, I always abided by the comic book rule of no body = no death. I would not have been disappointed if he had shown up in either of the last two Christopher Nolan Batman movies.
And that brings us to Batman V Superman. Batffleck kills a lot of bad guys. His Batplane, like Keaton's before him, has a ton of ammunition. And he uses it. Bad guys are shot or blown up by the Dark Knight, and all I could think of was - "I don't like Batman being the Punisher." Maybe that's why there are no crazy villains in Gotham during the movie. He's killed them all already.
And I don't include the dream sequence in this discussion. It's a dream, Batman is fighting parademons, and the world is a completely different place. I have little problem giving that scene a pass. Although, the Flash looked pretty stupid. But hey, that's just me.
Maybe I'm just being the old guy yelling at the kids to get off his lawn. But I want being a superhero to mean something. For as many faults that Ang Lee's Hulk has (and it does have lots), it seems like he went out of his way to show that the Hulk didn't kill. Yes, you can make the arguments that any of the current crop of superhero movies out there have lots and lots of collateral damage. And none of the bad guys ever seem to be alive at the end of a movie to be put into prison. But Batman and also Superman, in their best stories, always found a way to be better than the villain.
And this is all before I could even write about the uncomfortably long scene of Amy Adams' Lois Lane having a conversation with Supes while taking a bath. That's where the conversation needed to take place? I know it's hard to prove that a character is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist in about 15 minutes of screen time, but having the character spend a whole scene in a bathtub doesn't help her cause in any way.
Again, I didn't hate the movie. Gal Gadot was almost as perfect a Wonder Woman we could have hoped for. I want to see a whole movie based off the picture that we're shown. And she was great in both her civilian identity as well as her superhero one. During the last battle, her smile was one of the highlights. She's back to doing what she should have been doing all along. But, even in a movie as stuffed as this one is, it could have used a lot more of her.
I always say that when an actor portray a superhero (especially a masked one), then it doesn't matter how they play the superhero (because most of the time it's a stunt man in there anyway), but how they portray the civilian identity. Ben Affleck does a fine job portraying Bruce Wayne.
Finally, I didn't mind Jesse Eisenberg's Luthor. That being said, I don't mind Jesse Eisenberg. If you're one of those people who don't like him, this movie is not going to change your mind. He's definitely not a Luthir we've ever seen before. But his villainy is in full display. And you believe that he's capable of all the bad things that he does.
It would have been nice to have at least one laugh during the movie, but what are you gonna do? And what's with that title? Is 'V' the new 'vs'? Adding that 's' was too much for people? The two main characters are fighting - don't hide it.
**1/2
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