DC Films Marathon

Fell asleep last night.

Watching Batman Forever now. I never realized how kind of douchey Val Kilmer’s Bruce Wayne is. I also never noticed that this was a Tim Burton Production. I wish he had directed with Keaton in the role. And I don’t mind Chris O’Donnell but he just seems way too old to be Robin. I think he was like 25 when he made this and it shows. He damn sure doesn’t seem like someone who needs to be adopted. Jim Carrey is perfect though. Tommy Lee Jones is fine but I would’ve preferred to see Billy Dee Williams. Wow their names are kind of similar lol. Also, none of these explore the Batman/Jim Gordon relationship in any significant way.

Oh wow I completely forgot about this. I watched Batman Begins and The Dark Knight afterwards but then I fell asleep and the next day was the beginning of a loooonnnnggg week of holiday shenanigans.

Batman Begins: I think this is the best Batman movie of all time. Cillian Murphy as Scarecrow is underrated, imo. Katie Holmes surprisingly doesn't feel out of place and Gary Oldman is perfect as Gordon. I like Michael Caine but I actually prefer Jeremy Irons. He's got more of an edge to him. There are just so many enjoyable low key scenes, like Bruce Wayne coming back "from the dead", Morgan Freeman taking over Wayne Enterprises, Bruce's obvious lies to Lucius Fox about what he's doing with all this equipment, and of course the situations Bruce puts himself in all over the world just to become the Bat. It's truly the greatest origin story.

The Dark Knight: I explain it like this.. BB is the best Batman movie, but TDK is the best comic book film of all time, and just a great film in general. But I always felt like the quality of the film had very little to do with Batman. This was a Ledger/Joker movie through and through, even managing to overshadow a solid performance by Aaron Eckhardt as Two-Face. I don't know how I felt about Maggie Gyllenhaal replacing Holmes. She's a much better actress but she seemed too good for that particular role. I love the way the Joker keeps changing the story of how he got his scars. I've always felt the Joker didn't need an origin story. The point of the Joker is that anybody could become him given the right circumstances. Surprisingly though, I am excited about the Joaquin Phoenix film.

The Dark Knight Rises: I can't even get through this movie. I don't deny that this is a well-directed, visually stunning film, but I felt like Nolan got further and further away from Batman with each film. BB was a solid comic book film, The Dark Knight was a straight up crime thriller, and this is just a full on Nolan film, but one where I didn't feel like his heart was in it as much. You could barely tell it was Tom Hardy playing Bane, Anne Hathaway is a huge step-down from what we got with Michelle Pfeiffer, and Marion Cotillard was completely wasted as Talia al Ghul. That character didn't even seem necessary. I would've preferred they remove Talia altogether and cast Cotillard as Catwoman. Also, Joseph. Gordon. Levitt. What a complete waste of time. That thing about him "seeing it in Bruce Wayne's eyes" that he was Batman was one of the most ridiculously lazy things I've ever seen in a film, ESPECIALLY a Nolan film. And what the HELL was this about Batman being inactive for 8 years?! Lame. That means Gotham City BARELY had Batman protecting them. He must have done it for like 3-4 years TOPS. He can't recover from the end of TDK in 8 years but Bane breaks his back and he figures that out? Stupid. That Lazarus Pit though. I couldn't think of a more genius way to have interpreted that realistically. I absolutely love that aspect of the film.

Now that I've decided to restart this I realize that I don't have access to Superman/Superman II/Superman Returns. I really need to pick those up. I could download them but I don't normally like to do that.

Maybe I could free trial DC Universe? I'll have to figure this out. Any suggestions?