Three Really, REALLY Different Movies

I've seen three movies in the theater over the last month or so, each of which is much different than the others and was seen under different circumstances. So here we go:

Wall-e.

I saw this on a Monday afternoon at Gallery Place in Chinatown while I was wandering around DC taking pictures of things I didn't have on digital camera yet. It's well done and kind of funny, and I could see some people maybe getting a catch in their throat watching the parts meant to be emotional. But overall I just didn't see the big point of the movie. If it was just to show off what Pixar can do, then good job. But Pixar's reputation is already established, so it wasn't really necessary to prove anything. Was it to tell me that pollution is bad and that we should take better care of the planet? I already knew that, and seeing Wall-e didn't pound it home.

I also think that Wall-e is for really, really obese people what 300 was for Persians, just not in the really mean way.

Best thing is getting to experience the work of Ben Burtt, who did so many sounds and voices for the Star Wars movies.

The Dark Knight.

I saw this one at Tyson's Corner with my friends Kathy and Adam on a Saturday morning. It is currently on its way to smashing the box office into tiny bits (in thy mercy). You can make the argument that it's too long, but it's not like the extra 15-20 (or 35-40) minutes were that bad.

A lot of attention was paid to Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker, and I'd say it was richly deserved. I'm sure somebody out there has talked about him exploring the dark recesses of his soul to come up with this version of the bad guy, which was so much different than Jack Nicholson's. I'd resist comparing them simply because each guy was asked to do such different things with the character.

While watching it I was thinking about some of the "ideas" of Batman. I thought about Gordon, and how Commissioner Gordon is one of the reliable characters. I really like what Gary Oldman has done with him in the last two movies. He's played some really crazy/creepy/whacked out characters (none more so than Beethoven, who seemed even stranger than Dracula), so it's a little odd to see him as someone relatively normal. By the way, Immortal Beloved came out in 1994, the same year as Leon, called The Professional in the US. Good movie.

I thought about one of the things that people forget about Batman: Batman doesn't kill, and he doesn't use guns. It's been that way for almost 70 years. The Joker references this once or twice, but I don't know if people understood what he was getting at. Batman could have run over the Joker or let him fall to his death or blown him to smithereens, but he doesn't. Among other things I think it helps keep the plot interesting.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Ugh.

I saw this on a Wednesday afternoon at the Parkway Cinema in Natchitoches. The "ugh" is not for the venue, though it's certainly not comparable to the other two. It's not even for the loud commenter sitting in the row behind me or the walrus making and taking phone calls in the row in front of me. The "ugh" is for the movie expecting me to suspend disbelief enough to allow for Brendan Fraser holding his own against Jet Li in a fight. It's not a good enough movie for that to happen. I wish Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh would stop making movies for American audiences. Their straight Chinese stuff is so much better.

On the other hand, I did get to see Maria Bello. I love me some Maria Bello, even if her British accent was just atrocious. I see from her IMDB bio that there's now a director's cut of Payback, a movie I really, really enjoy watching. I'll have to look into that.