Written on 8:19 PM by Jack B.
As someone who loves Joan of Arc and believes, much like that legendary cynic Mark Twain, that she was "by far the most extraordinary person the human race has ever produced" I find the film nauseating and disrespectful and don't want to waste time explaining it. But it is a foremost example of what NOT to do if you are planning on making a film on a historical person.
When you have to begin your movie about one of the most chronicled people in pre-modern history (we know more about Joan through her trials and re-trials than virtually any other person in medieval history) with a gigantic lie - that of her sister (who DID exist and was NOT murdered) being murdered and raped all because the filmmakers could not imagine Joan actually being motivated by anything so "silly" as patriotism or religious sentiment then you know the movie is not worth it. And it doesn't help when you pretend your main characters is Joan of Arc when it's really someone you made up - the thing about Joan was (and this struck people at the time) is that all the while she said God had sent her she was very normal, plain-spoken, even keeled, she was even very witty, smart and sharp (read some of her testimony and see what I mean). Milla Jovovich portrayed her a screwed-up manic religious fanatic - not the kind of person that could have scared the English or inspired the French.
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Written on 8:37 PM by Jack B.
I know this is long after the fact, but I just sat down this week and read (in one sitting) DC’s mega-crossover “Final Crisis”. As long as it was fresh in my mind, I had to write down what I thought (just a reminder to myself perhaps not to buy any more crossovers). I started with a paragraph and pretty much ended with an essay.
As a whole, while Final Crisis did not appeal to me, one thing in it just APPALLED me - the treatment of one the heretofore sweetest, nicest, most innocent characters in all superhero comic history - Mary Marvel. Not since Emerald Twilight (which for all its faults was to build up Kyle more than tear down Hal) has DC been so determined to completely undo a long-standing character’s core persona so drastically and apologetically - for no purpose seemingly than shock value - what’s more “edgy” and “cool” than to corrupt than the purest and most innocent hero in your company’s pantheon? Right?
To start with, and I think it be being kept in mind in going over what was done to her is that is Mary Batson/Marvel was one of the youngest Superheroes in the whole DCU. Depending on if she's Billy Batson's twin or younger sister she would be 15-16 years old, making her younger than most of the "Teen" Titans and younger than the new Supergirl. Maybe the writers and DC forgot this but the reader can't (and certainly the characters within the comic shouldn't have).
Considering that she's that age the fetishization and sexualization of an innocent 15-ish girl by (largely) middle-aged male comic writers was distasteful at best, just sick at worst.
From the the many "Dark Mary" preview shots highlighting her bust or the numerous panty shots within Countdown, the "Darkseid Mary" outfit in Final Crisis which was as revealing as possible (even it looked nothing like Mary Batson), Keith Giffen jokingly stating how he wanted Mary to lose her virginity to Ambush Bug, Kurt Busiek calling the new Mary "a tramp" at the Baltimore Con in 2007 (I don't know if he said in disgust or just another joke, it may have been a bit of both), to the female models dressed as "Black Mary" that DC had set up at Con Presentations, all served to sexualize a teenage character whose ethos had been opposed to that since her creation in 1942.
Going back to the words of those who engineered this change In an FC interview, Grant Morrison in a an interview about FC said: "Supergirl and Mary Marvel are in it. They have a big climatic battle to decide how femininity should be portrayed in superhero comics!" and I guess we know who's side we're supposed to be on - the new midriff baring Kara, Morrison also said "Mary Marvel…we’re going to take what’s been happening to Mary Marvel beyond all acceptable limits. I think fanboys should enjoy that one. There’s going to be a big definitive battle between Supergirl and Mary Marvel. Some seriously badass super-animals." Beyond all acceptable limits. Super-animals. Talking about two 15-16 year old girls. OK. Can anyone tell me what “fanboys” enjoyed that?
Then we have Paul Dini (who was the credited head writer on Countdown) saying "A character who stays cute, charismatic and funny isn’t very interesting. So, it’s better to put that character through some tests and see if they come out the way they came in, or if they undergo some changes that ultimately make them a stronger, more interesting character.". WTF? So a cute, funny character isn't interesting? This from the man who brought us the DCAU character of Kara Kent/Supergirl, the animated Barbara Gordon/Batgirl and Harley Quinn? Exactly how did Countdown or FC make her stronger? She came out as de-powered as she went in and is now dealt with differently (based on Zatanna and Supergirl's reaction) by the other characters in the DCU.
I think it's telling that DC never did character destruction this to either of the male Marvels, in fact Freddie had his own mini-series where he did indeed become a "hero" and will be a member of DC's flagship book, JLA. One would think DC wouldn’t do this so soon after the Batgirl backlash where they ruined another character (one who had spent her entire comic series run being horrified of the idea of killing) into a stone cold killer so the male Robin would have an antagonist. The hurried ret-con that she was brainwashed by Deathstroke (and made no sense) was basically DC admitting they screwed up...yet here they do it to another female teenage hero right away? Was there anyone who asked for a darker, edgier Mary Marvel? Anyone? I can't find a single reader who liked the Countdown or Final Crisis Mary Marvel storyline.
Dini also said Mary would go through a "Hero's Journey" kind of story in Countdown but what did we get - at the end of Countdown she is redeemed by the Gods only to suddenly accept Darkseid's offer of power. What? Mary was always presented as naive but she was never stupid.
Then in FC, she is basically made into an unrecognizable character to make Supergirl look good, and saved by Freddy (who abandoned her in the first place). So now she was back to Mary Batson, but no, in JSA she's back to Black Mary (and yet is still drawn as Darkseid Mary) in a story we know to be set after FC because she mentions her corruption by Darkseid. Then she is saved by the JSA. She basically ends the whole process where she began, accept now she is looked on differently and with suspicion by everybody in the DCU (if present continuity remains intact). This sounds like no version of the "Hero's Journey" (see the writings of Joseph Campbell for details) I've heard of . In the time span Countdown and FC supposedly take place (either days or weeks DCU time) Mary wakes from a coma, is abandoned for no reason by her loved ones, is kicked out by Zatanna when she goes to help, corrupted by Black Adam, by Eclipso, by Darkseid, falls into the ocean, is made a quasi-slave by the Amazons, taken over completely by DeSaad, de-powered, re-powered, de-powered again, beaten up by Donna Troy, Wonder Woman, Black Adam and Supergirl. Mary is corrupted no less than 4 times, if you count her JSA appearance (by Eclipso, Black Adam, Darkseid and Black Adam again) and saved by others, never by herself. There is nothing “heroic” about this story.
Also, in order to destroy Mary Marvel and make her "dark", they also had to have several other characters behave out of character as well. Let's look at the sequence of events, Mary falls into the sea the minute she is de-powered and is in the hospital in a coma. She is abandoned by the brother who has not only loved and protected her but looked for her for years - would Billy really do this? She is then told basically to "get lost" (was paying her hospital bill a consolation prize?) by her oldest and best friend, Freddy, so he can do his own hero-ing. Would Freddy really do this? Despite being a minor with parents (unlike Billy she was not an orphan but adopted by Nick and Nora Bromfield), she comes out a coma and no one is there (!) and she leaves the hospital alone. Would her parents really do this? She travels to Gotham alone and seeks help from Zatanna. Now Zatanna has been established as one of the nicest and soft-hearted people in the DCU, the friend to all, even post the ret-conned Identity Crisis mind-wipes. Since then we’ve seen Zee guilt-ridden, ashamed and apologetic (particularly to Batman and Catwoman). Yet in Countdown we have a Bizarro Zatanna (written in part by Paul Dini of all people!). Zatanna takes Mary in to her “secret home” and starts teaching her in magic. Mary, influenced by Eclipso, goes nuts on Zee and she is tossed out of Zatanna’s house and not allowed back in - ever. Zatanna, one of the Sentinels of Magic, one of the few people in the DCU who (presumably) know who Billy Batson and Mary Batson really are, tosses a troubled 15 year old out without finding out what’s up with her. Yeah, OK. Then we have a bizarre scene where at a super-hero shindig Zatanna is talking trash about that ungrateful “brat” Mary Marvel, and at the same time magics away some alcohol the underage Supergirl and Wonder Girl had sneaked into her glasses. We are expected to believe that Zatanna of all people cares more about the drinking habits of Supergirl and Wonder Girl (both older than Mary) more than she does the "bratty Mary" - a lost 15 year old girl who just got out of the hospital, who was once one of the most powerful beings on Earth, who is (in Zatanna's words) a magical savant in how fast she learns and who is being influenced by the Spectre's opposite number, Eclipso (how else would the supposedly powerless Mary have the power to overwhelm Zatanna?). Would Zatanna really do this? We also have Donna Troy (who knows something about confused identities) calling Mary "evil" and trying to beat her down (rather than reason with her). Once Mary overcomes Eclipso (and how many heroes could do that?) she is washed up on Themyscira and is basically turned into some kind of drudge to be ordered about by Catwoman's former sidekick, Holly, and the Joker's former moll, Harley Quinn
Then, we have Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons clucking her tongue at Mary's "decision" to go back to the darkside but we had nothing more than a single panel of Hippolyta and Mary together in all of Countdown, despite the fact that Mary once (as Hippolyta herself) had the "strength of Hippolyta" as one of her powers. No, except for that one panel, the Queen ignores someone who had such a close connection to her - until after the fact. Would the Queen of the Amazons really do this? We have Jimmy Olsen (no stranger to superheroes and monsters) calling Mary a "monster". We have Wonder Woman (the least offender) saying she had heard about some of Mary's problems (before cracking her arm). So the word about Mary is out, other heroes (including Freddy) have heard a teenager who is as strong as Supergirl is out there and troubled and no one, NO ONE, tries to talk to her - until she become possessed by Darkseid. This point is highlighted in one scene in FC where Supergirl tells Mary "it's not too late to talk" at the exact same time as she's blasting Mary with her heat vision. Why would anyone getting blasted in the face by heat vision want to talk - even if they weren't possessed by one of Darkseid's minions? This is followed by Supergirl (a character who spent much of her own book running from her cousin because her mind is pre-programmed controlled to want to kill him and she's disgusted with herself because of it) saying that she IS going to “break” Mary’s neck (even though she supposedly knows its not Mary). Would Supergirl as written in her own book do this? Black Adam, yes. In FC, Freddy stops him from trying to kill Mary but BA knows it's not Mary, he's the first one to say "she's possessed" and that DeSaad is controlling her. It's entirely in BA's character to kill Mary rather than let her be controlled. But it's not in Supergirl's. Nor is in Supergirl’s character - one that wears a somewhat revealing costume and makes jokes about being jailbait in her book - to say the line “You? Calling ME a slut?”, meaning “How dare Slutty Mary say anything about me?” But why would Supergirl say this, she knows this is not Mary, she knows Mary was not a slut, who is she talking about - who does she think she is talking to?
Then, all of a sudden, we have Freddy save Mary. She's returned to normal, crying she'd never say the word again .... only to have Black Mary/Darkseid Mary (it's tough to know which) be all "dark" again in JSA, as if Mary had learned nothing. And now she has to be saved by outside forces again. At least this time we have Stargirl say out loud that she knows Mary is not in control - to be offset by the opening narration in JSA #25 where Atom Smasher wonders at the fact that afterwards Billy would not criticize or say anything bad about his sister - why should he? She was possessed! Is this the new DC status quo - Mary, as a creature to be judged by other characters?
So how, lacking DC not even acknowledging the damage, can the character of Mary Marvel salvaged? I’m sure a good writer could do but I don’t think one will be given that great an opportunity. Something tells me sooner rather than later that Billy Batson will return to his place as “Captain Marvel” and we know that Freddy seems to have high-enough fans that he’s getting used more in books than Billy is. But Mary? Based on her recent treatment I don’t think DC cares enough. Sure, this may be one of those story lines like Evil Hal Jordan, Assassin Batgirl and the slaughter of the JSA in Zero Hour (for the crime of being too old) which DC slowly starts to back away from and where the people responsible start to say they had been fans of the character “all the time” and it had just been X (some recently fired editor) who made them do it. But unlike Hal or Cassandra or even the JSA, Mary is not part of a franchise DC cares enough about to make any ret-con change.
I know what some people would say: "You're lucky she's appearing any where at all". But I don't feel that way. I would rather she never appeared, or was moved out of the DCU or was killed to become a "Black Lantern" than for a character who has represented goodness and light, a role model for teenage girls for over half a century (pre-dating almost all of DC's other female superheroes) turned into some kind of "edgy and dark" male fantasy. It's ironic that in light of Infinite Crisis, which was kind of a promise by the superheroes to the dying Superman, that the kind of hero that he believed in still existed, that DC would do this to a heroine I think we can all agree Kal-L would have admired. Mary’s not even my favorite character (that would go to Hal Jordan and Supergirl), but I always liked the idea that a character with the personality and sweetness of Mary could co-exist in a world with the Batman and the Joker. And now that's gone.. and for what ...character-wise she's right back where she started before the first issue of Countdown shipped, except now she's been tarnished - in the eyes of the other members of the DCU at least. Most readers, however, smarter than DC Editorial, will probably just pretend the Mary Marvel in Final Crisis never happened.
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Written on 8:11 PM by Jack B.
I went to an 11am showing today - the theater was 3/4 packed on a Friday Morning (and it was the second show of the day) so that says something about how big this is going to be. All those glowing reviews for this movie are right on, this is one movie that's actually much BETTER than the trailers for it. So here's my review, complete with spoilers (complete with one big twist at the end that I didn't see coming but in retrospect was completely obvious). If you hate that kind of thing turn away when you come to that part...
First of all let me begin by saying that in my opinion
Batman Begins is now the
best movie adaption of a comic book
EVER (and I'm counting
Spiderman I and
Superman I). Warner Brothers should sign Chris Nolan and David Goyer to an eight picture deal because they more perfectly get Batman than any "Hollywood" type I've ever seen. The script was tight and fluid with no unnecessary exposition and no glaring plotholes.
I loved how things fans nitpicked like the cowl (which turned out to be too stiff and defective) and the Batmobile (which needed to be Tank-like to get out of those jams) were directly addressed. Now on the that big twist, turn away if you don't want to be spoiled...Okay, everybody else still there?....Well then let's just say that even those fans who thought Liam Neeson would have made a better Ra's than Ken Watanabe got their noses tweaked (and that's all I'm going to say about that). The killing of the DA opens the way for Harvey Dent in the second film (and Two-Face in a third). The Joe Chill reference automatically places the film out of the Burton/Schumacher universe (and it makes even Burton's films look like cartoons by comparison). Its as if Nolan and Goyer knew exactly what complaints people would have and got them out of the way.
The absolute best thing about this movie though is that its about Bruce Wayne and not "Batman". In the first 4 films we had 3 different actors play Batman and didn't matter because all that mattered was if he had a square chin. Bruce Wayne the man didn't matter. Here the opposite is true, we see Bruce more than Batman. We understand what drives him and the script's focus on the twin forces of "fear" and "justice" drove it home, as does Bruce's discovered love for being a Wayne and what that represents (in the end he decides to rebuild the burnt down Wayne Manor exactly the way it was after spending most of the movie not caring about his Wayne legacy) and as what Falcone jeeringly called "the Prince of Gotham" - we see this is
his city and what he'll do to protect it. Also, the stressing of Bruce's parents especially Thomas Wayne, of their example and the imprint on Bruce and on Gotham was better done then even in the comics. We can see why he spends every waking minute trying to prevent other people from losing what he had.
Now on to the acting - Bale was great. All those who wanted him for Batman were exactly right. The brown hair threw me off at first but it was easy to see him as Bruce Wayne, playboy (and even the younger Bruce since he still has a boyish face) but I knew,
I KNEW, he was Batman in the scene when the crooked cop (Gordon's partner) is bunjeed up to the rooftop and the angry sinister voice that Batman makes wanting answers (so unlike Bale's Bruce) is
EXACTLY what I think Batman would sound like if he was speaking to the criminals of Gotham. Gary Oldman has once again proven why he is one of the best movie actors in the world today - the man who has made a career out of playing nuts, criminals and homicidal maniacs was pitch perfect as the most honest cop in Gotham, the world-weary blue collar middle-aged family man Jim Gordon. Michael Caine's perfomance was also proof of what is great this about this film. Caine is a big name legendary actor - in the old Batman films he would have been cast as a colorful villain (like Chris Walken) or supporting character (like Jack Palance) that would have allowed him to chew the scenery. But no, despite not looking at all like comic book Alfred, he perfectly captured the character's twin roles of both servant and surrogate father, reminding Bruce of his duty to his family and his duty to himself (and Alfred got the best lines too). Morgan Freeman and Rutger Hauer are always good in my book and Cillian Murphy, despite not looking like my idea of Dr. Crane, was suitably creepy. Tom Wilkinson tries a little too hard to disguise his Britishness by playing Falcone as Gotham's version of the stereotypical Italian crime boss and doesn't totally succeed. Katie Holmes was a kind of weak link, not because her acting was that bad (although it wasn't great either, she was just
BLAH), but because the role was so dull that any talented starlet her age could have pulled it off.It didn't help that although Holmes is in her mid-20s, she still looks like a teenager and thus hard to buy as an experienced assistant DA.
Art design was wonderful. No more faux-art deco New York version of Gotham but a totally realized modern city with its own look and feel (with Wayne Tower and the Wayne family at its center) A city with both its rich and poor areas, a perfectly done urban jungle. The score by Hans Zimmer was not as melodic or rhythmic or super-heroish than Danny Elfman's Batman theme but I think it suited perfectly to the darkness and oppressiveness of Gotham before Batman brings a little light to the city.
Biggest pops from the audience I was sitting with - the double slap out of nowhere by Rachel to Bruce in the car, first appearance by Batman in Falcone's warehouse, Lucius's line to Earle at the end "What, you didn't get the memo?" and of course the Joker card which had people going "Wo!". Almost everyone applauded when the end credits started. My favorite line though had to be exchange between Gordon and Batman "There's only one of you" and Batman replies "Now there are two of us". That perfectly exemplified what these two men, so different and yet so similar, have in the comics but which is left out in the earlier Batman films as unimportant.
The only cons are the character of Rachel which seemed like just another excuse to have a love interest (which I don't think a Batman movie neccessarily needs) and shoe-horning her into both Bruce's childhood, the DA's office prosecuting Falcone, needing protection from Crane etc. just smacked out damsel-in-distress syndrome. Bruce revealing who he was (although never actually saying it) was a tad unbelievable to me as well. I also noticed the same (
shiny) green car she drove Bruce off in the beginning is the same (
STILL shiny) green car she's driving seven whole years later. That must be some car!10. All in all I dearly hope WB had Nolan, Goyer, Bale, Oldman and Caine tied down to more than just 3 picture deals. Given Bale's young age, they can keep this particular Batman franchise going for more just 4 pictures and I would look forward to one of these coming out every 2-3 years or so. Nolan's a smart cookie too, unlike the mistakes in the past with killing the villains, the Scarecrow is alive at the end, Arkham is emptied (thus explaining why Gotham is home to the crazy villains) and Ra's probably survived. I would love to see Talia (Ra's devoted daughter and, besides Catwoman, the only woman in the comics to have Bruce's heart - as opposed to Batman's - for more than just a couple of issues) in one of the next 2 films.
The film has it all, action, drama and a good one-liner every now and then. The directing is fluid and the script is tight. The supporting cast actually
support instead of focusing the attention on themselves and Bale is definitely now a top-tier star who has more than shown himself capable of not only being a fine actor (which he's been since he was a child) but one capable of carrying a blockbuster film by himself. Chris Nolan has grown from the relatively small-budget of Memento to now doing justice to a hundred-million dollar budget and creating a work of art. A comic book film that stands on its own as an action drama even if you've never heard of Batman before (if such people exist). Nolan has just catapulted himself to A-List director with this film, just as Peter Jackson did with the
Lord of the Rings films.
Its a terrific film that more than meets the hype. If I was into rating films by stars (which I absolutely refuse to do) I would give it four stars of out four.
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