So it’s Monday again, which in my Bizarro version of life means that it’s my weekend.
Sort of, at least. After all, tomorrow and Wednesday I’ll be heading to headquarters to take a class in HTML.
As I mentioned last week, I’ve been meaning to learn HTML for almost ten years, but, in large part due to laziness, but mostly to the fact that in the past ten years there have been all sorts of developments in HTML-authoring software that have made it unnecessary, for the most part, to know anything about HTML.
Blogger’s posting interface, for example, converts everything I enter into it to HTML automatically.
So why bother learning HTML? Well, if you know the language you can fine-tune and tweak the output in a way that the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get), drag and drop graphical style HTML editors don’t allow you to. For example, it’s very easy for me to put a link (come right back after you follow the link) into a Threshold entry using the automated system, but it’s only because I can go in and edit the HTML code manually (using what little knowledge of HTML I have) and set up the link so that it will open in a new window (and you can stay here while visiting the link).
Beyond that, while I’m not currently looking for a different job, it never hurts to add to the existing bag of tricks (which is why next month I’ll be taking a class in XML).
The past weekend at work was largely unremarkable and not really worth mentioning. I got up Friday, worked out, worked all day, slept, got up Saturday morning, worked out…well, you get the idea.
Today was a bit different from most Mondays, though. For one thing, I let myself sleep in (until 9:30), and when I got up I didn’t bother going for a walk. I just didn’t feel up to it.
Somewhere along the line Scott called to let me know that, if I wanted, we could go to a 4:00 show of “Batman Begins” rather than the 6:45 show we’d been planning, which sounded good to me.
Because it’s sort of a “midway point” for each of us as far as travel goes, we’d decided to go to the same theater we’d caught the midnight showing of “Revenge of the Sith.” In addition to the multiplex theater, that immediate area has several little shops and restaurants, and having nothing else to do, and, more importantly, no desire to do much of anything, I decided to “make a day of it,” and ended up heading for the theater at around 1:00, thinking that I could use the time to check out some of the little shops.
Beyond that, I knew that, under the best of circumstances, driving there would take at least a half an hour, and with traffic and all of the road construction along the way, another half an hour would be added to that.
My estimation turned out to be inaccurate, though, and I ended up arriving there a bit before 2:00, at which point I discovered that, pretty much like any plaza with shops in NoVA, where there’s altogether too much disposable income available to be wasted on useless crap, none of the shops were especially interesting.
Still, there were plenty of restaurants there, so I went to one and got a sandwich, which I ate al fresco, all the while being regaled with overheard tales of teenaged romantic angst from two girls sitting at the table next to mine.
I kept quiet, but I really wanted to chime in as one of the girls related her boyfriend woes to the other.
What would I have said to her, you ask? Well, I would have let her know that she was overthinking things (and if there’s one thing I know, it’s overthinking). After all, he’s a teenaged boy; he’s not likely to be that complicated.
And beyond that, if he’s really causing her that much anguish she should just dump him. After all, it’s not like he’d be difficult to replace. Just throw a rock in any direction, honey; you’re bound to hit another one just like him.
It’s not like the male of the species is some kind of rare commodity. My experience has taught me that the world is lousy with them.
And while it may (or may not) be true that a good one is hard to find, it’s not like the one you have now is all that great anyway, so what difference does it make?
And finally, I would have told her that none of it really matters; she’s way too young to be stressing about that kind of thing. Go out and have fun while you can and realize that you don’t have to commit yourself to anything or anyone just yet. Guys will come and go, and you’ve got plenty of time to find the right one. It’s not a race.
But of course being young, and therefore incapable of seeing just how small the small stuff really is, she wouldn’t have listened anyway, particularly if the advice was coming from some creepy old guy like me sitting outside alone eavesdropping on two pretty young girls…
After eating my lunch I still had a lot of time to kill, so I decided to drive over to the nearby mall, but instead ended up browsing in a nearby Barnes & Noble (if I’d thought ahead, I would have just brought a book with me in the first place and sat in the little plaza and read it), then at the CompUSA next to that.
That brought me much closer to showtime, so I headed back to the theater.
Once Scott arrived we went inside and found that in addition to being able to buy tickets at the little kiosks they have set up, you can also pay for and print out vouchers for your drinks and snacks. Very handy.
Most of the previews were lame, though the “Dukes of Hazzard” trailer was among them, featuring a few shots of Jessica Simpson in the bikini she wears while washing the General Lee in her video….*Sigh*
Even so, I have no interest in seeing the movie.
During the previews some comments that Scott and I made, or possibly just the fact that we were talking at all, made this older guy sitting in front of us get up and leave. Not sure what the deal was with that, but in any case that brings us, finally, to the feature presentation.
I liked it.
It wasn’t spectacular, but it was better than any of the other Batman movies. Of course, anyone who knows how I feel about the other Batman movies knows that really isn’t saying much, but even so, this was decent.
Sixteen years ago when the Tim Burton version came out, many comic fans in general, and Batman fans in particular, were, understandably, leery. After all, the only vision of the Dark Knight shared by the public at large was of the 60’s series, with its bad jokes and dialogue, cheesy on-screen graphics meant to mimic the look and feel of comic books, ridiculous bat-named items Batman and Robin’s utility belts contained (such as “Bat Shark Repellent”), and all the rest of the irritating nonsense, so it wasn’t unreasonable for us to expect to see a beloved character subjected to ridicule on the big screen.
That didn’t happen. As much as I didn’t (and don’t) like Burton’s vision of Batman, I will at least acknowledge that he treated the character with respect.
He just did a lousy job of casting and made a dead-boring movie.
However, the fact that he didn’t include biffs, bams, or pows in the movie was enough to melt the hearts of a lot of fans, leading them to overlook the movie’s many other shortcomings.
I could go on at length about how much I disliked the first two movies, and at even greater length about how much I hated the two that followed, but I’ll spare you that (at least for today), and focus instead on the current movie, which, as mentioned, I did actually like.
Unlike his predecessors, Christian Bale actually did well in both roles: that of Batman and that of Bruce Wayne. What helped him in particular was that his muscles didn’t disappear once the costume came off. Unlike Keaton, he fit the bill for the description of handsome Bruce Wayne, and he actually looked like someone who might have spent a good portion of his life honing his body to physical perfection, and who could actually hold his own in a fight.
Keaton’s Batman, minus the muscles built into the suit, looked like someone who had maybe visited a personal trainer once or twice and who could be overcome by a gang of vicious Girl Scouts.
The less said about Kilmer and Clooney the better.
In any case, it was nice to see a physically fit Batman, particularly as we got to see some of his training in advanced fighting techniques, which would have been totaly unbelievable with Keaton.
Overall, the costume looked good, though I didn’t like the way that the ears sort of pointed in.
One complaint I do have about the costume (and it’s one I’ve had about the costume in all of the movies) is the fact that you can see his eyes.
Originally it may have been a matter of expediency, and later it may have been a matter of artistic license, but typically Batman’s mask is presented as obscuring his eyes, leaving them a blank white.
I think this is an essential aspect of his appearance, adding to his overall fearsome appearance and making him appear to be something other than human. Also, eyes, being the window to the soul, can be a very distinguishing feature. Obscuring them can only add to his ability to conceal his true identity.
Beyond that, having some sort of lenses to cover his eyes adds functionality to the costume, as night-vision can be built-in.
From the perspective of filmmaking, I can understand why they would choose to show his eyes.
(Though I always wonder how the black make-up he puts on around them magically appears and disapppears)
After all, with significant portions of his face covered, it’s only through his eyes that an actor can really manage to emote.
It’s the reason, for example, that for an extended period of time Tobey Maguire went about maskless in “Spider-Man 2,” and his inability to act with his eyes was a major complaint James Marsden had about his role as Cyclops in the “X-Men” movies.
What filmmakers (and costume designers) fail to realize, though, is that in the case of Batman, emoting is what Bruce Wayne is for.
Beyond just being scary and mean, Batman doesn’t emote; that’s part of what makes him scary.
Speaking of scary, there is a great interrogation scene in the movie. Bats was nice and scary in it. There is definitely something to be said for dangling people upside-down from a great height...
Though not always doing so directly, much of the story drew from Frank Miller’s “Year One,” which detailed the events of Batman’s first year in action.
That’s hardly surprising, considering that this movie had a very similar focus, but beyond that, Miller’s work on Batman is pretty much definitive. I would say that, arguably, what Miller did with Batman has been more significant and definitive than the work of Bob Kane (Batman’s creator), or anyone who came after. Miller’s stamp on Batman is indelible.
That being said, very little is lifted directly from “Year One,” beyond a particular device that Batman uses, though I will say that Gary Oldman’s Jim Gordon looked as though he walked directly off the pages of “Year One.”
As for the rest of the cast, I liked Liam Neeson in his role as he took on Bruce Wayne as his young padewan….err, student, and helped him complete his training.
The guy who played the Scarecrow, which, given the thematic elements of the movie, was a good choice for villain, filled the role quite nicely (I don’t remember his name, and don’t feel like looking it up. It’s something Irish, I think.).
Katie Holmes was okay as the love-interest, though basically she was just there. Her best scene came towards the end, when she was braless in a silk blouse on what appeared to be a chilly day…
I liked Michael Caine as Alfred, though I suspect that has more to do with the fact that I like Michael Caine. Alfred’s humor should be a little bit more wry, I think, and Caine wasn’t quite so stiff as he ought to have been, but even so, I thought he did fine.
Morgan Freeman’s Lucius Fox was very entertaining as well, though I did note that he seemed to be, in some ways, an amalgam of two characters from the comics, filling the role not only of Fox, but also of Dr. Leslie Thompkins.
In the comics (and on the animated series), Dr. Thompkins was a friend of Bruce’s father, and, to what extent she could, tried to help Alfred raise young Bruce after his parents’ deaths.
She’s also, in later years, privy to his secrets. Fox didn’t serve as a surrogate mother to young Bruce, obviously, but he does serve as something of a confidant in a way that the Fox of the comics never has.
There was another amalgam character in the form of Gordon’s corrupt partner Detective Flass.
In “Year One,” Flass was a big bruiser (a former Green Beret) who Gordon eventually took down. In the movie, he was basically just a big slob, which gave him a lot more in common with the supporting Batman character Harvey Bullock than with his actual namesake.
The action in the movie was often so fast-paced as to be a bit confusing, but overall it was satisfying, and the advantage of having a more physically fit Batman was that he didn’t spend most of his time just sitting in the Batmobile pushing buttons (or worse, flying in the Batwing and shooting [!] people).
In summary, “Batman Begins” has definite possibilities as the start of a new franchise, and seeing it was an okay way to spend an afternoon.
In other comic book movie news, I found an interesting article about the filming of the upcoming “V for Vendetta” movie (If you don’t have a login for the NY Times, go to http://www.bugmenot.com/ to grab one). “V” writer Alan Moore (whose talent and brilliance, in my estimation, make him like unto a god, though he looks more like someone who should be living in a shack somewhere writing manifestoes while engaged in a standoff with the ATF rather than writing comic books), has no involvement with this movie (or any movie based on his works), not even from a financial aspect, also created a seminal Batman work several years ago, which the people involved with the ’89 movie claimed to have drawn a lot of inspiration from.
What elements they drew from it were extremely limited and poorly executed but…well, I said I wouldn’t go on at length about my antipathy towards those movies.
In any case, for more info on the new movie, go here and read an article about the new Batmobile (which I didn’t initially like, but warmed to after seeing it in action).
There’s also a link in there about how the suit works. It’s all pretty interesting and entertaining.
In any case, I should turn in soon, as I have to be bright-eyed and bushy – ah, who am I kidding? I’ve never been either of those things in my life. Still, I should probably try to be reasonably well-rested for my class tomorrow.
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