Wicked!

ok ok... so I swore I would not gush all over my blog about summer movies .. cos, you know, they are summer movies... pure summertainment - not real movies, right? ... but a couple of summer movies I have watched this summer, have changed my mind and I don't mind saying that I've been pleasantly surprised...

*WARNING*: long post ... hear me out people...

the movies that changed my mind? Ironman and The Dark Knight... now, now, before you roll your eyes, let me lay it out for you - a) I am NOT a comic book fan and b) my stand on superheroes so far - meh.

So, the fact that I am here, writing about two superhero movies - well, even I am surprised...

For those of you who haven't seen these movies yet - please stop here - major spoiler alert - but take my word for it, go and watch them - these movies will leave you quite entertained and satisfied that you got your money's worth - and nowadays, that saying a lot...

And for those of you who think I must probably be a blind fan of the actors in these movies - well, you're wrong...

First - Ironman... I had zero info about what the character/comic book was about - only what I'd read in the summer previews that it was about a normal guy who Macgyver's together a suit and becomes Ironman...

That being said, I also knew Robert Downey Jr. was playing the lead... and I knew him from - don't roll your eyes - Only you and I've always thought of him as handsome, you know, easy on the eyes, great smile... Haven't really followed any of his other work, although I have heard of his drug problems and arrests...

So anyways, as the movie progressed, I realized I was quite won over by the intelligent script, not to mention top of the line action sequences (no, I am not going to squeee about the sexy Ironman suit) , Robert Downey Jr's deadpan delivery of some of the funniest lines in the movie and good old fashioned solid acting... and the movie made quite a statement about war too - it is all about who's got the biggest guns...

Yeah - predictable story - rich, I-don't-give-a-*** industrialist, weapons innovator (that pic of RDJ with Bill Gates had me in splits) gets kidnapped by his biggest customers - Middle-Eastern terrorists - builds himself a suit from scrap parts of his own weapons and escapes.... turns around 180 and goes back to save the villagers in the area he was kidnapped in... vows to stop building weapons... so what if it takes his own grenade that blows up on him and causes a million pieces of shrapnel racing towards his heart - to change it!

RDJ is absolutely charming and suave as Tony Stark - the industrialist-playboy-innovator-indifferent rich guy turned super hero...

Highlights of the movie for me - his scenes with Pepper, played by the beautiful Ms.Paltrow, his scenes in his lab while coming up with his suit, his test drives of them and most importantly - the fact that in spite of being an the industrialist-playboy-innovator-indifferent rich guy, he was still in touch with his craft - his ability to invent things, be it in his lab or in the caves - he was still hands-on with the thing that made him who he was ... not some - oh-I-am-so-rich-I-don't-even-care-about-how-I-got-here types....

Very intelligent - that too for a summer movie... screenplay was tight, acting was top notch, effects were so good, you wouldnt know that the suit he puts on is all effects and not a real suit...

I found a theme here that seems to be recurring nowadays - more about that later...

Onto The Dark Knight... ok so I havent really cared for Christian Bale's work... may have even seen a couple of movies of his I dont remember... and the man everyone's talking about - Heath Ledger - who I first saw in, wait for it, 10 Things I hate about you ... heard about him in movies I never saw - A Knight's Tale, The Patriot, Brokeback Mountain...

But yes, I do have a past with the Batman comics/movies/tv in the past - I grew up on the 60's Batman TV Show featuring Adam West - my 10 yr old self was so in love with him ... anyways, that show was more comedic than serious about crime-fighting and I rofl now thinking of the dialogues and the execution...

Annnnyways, yeah, so I did see a couple of Batman movies - the ones with Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney - oops, that's one more than a couple - so yeah, that's all I had on Batman so far and all I knew about Batman Begins was that it had Christian Bale in it along with, wait for it, (rolling my eyes) Katies Holmes - and after watching such suave, charming men play Batman, watching Christian Bale as the caped crusader in Batman Begins, was NOT a priority...

Anyways, so I heard all about the Dark Knight and how Heath Ledger is so darn amazing in it - and yes, I am one of the people who went into it having heard all the hype about a posthumous Oscar for Ledger (what with his recent death and all)... I had this line in my head from some review I read - "people may just watch it for the fact that they are seeing Heath Ledger's ghost on screen" - I was all, wow this is so cool, this has never happened to me and all that jazz...

But you know what, that lasted for like 2 seconds - Ledger is that darned good - you forget all about the real him and get lost in the madness that is the Joker... And yes, I am an ardent Jack Nicholson fan - I think he is one of the finest actors of my time - my fave movie of his so far, As good as it gets - till date, his performance as the Joker is the one I've measured quite a few villians upto...

But Ledger, my god... his performance was all it was cracked up to be and so much more... only adjectives come to mind - chilling, riveting, brilliant... the singularity of the character's purpose - to watch Gotham city burn ( no no, definitely not for money - he *gasp* burned a room-high pile of greenbacks) and two memorable lines - "Why so serious?" and "If you are good at something, never do it for free" - now that's what I am talkin about!

yeah, so I did sit there cringing through most of the havoc that the Joker unleashed on the city... but you just have to give the guy credit - this line comes to mind - If you wanna be bad, yeah, you gotta be good ...

And yes, I'm gonna say it - his performance as the Joker was more chilling than Mr. Nicholson's... his scenes with Batman - where he so clearly points out that he has brought Batman to the point where he cannot do anything even with all his strength and has absolutely nothing to threaten the Joker with - sheer genius ... and towards the end, where he talks about how incorruptible Batman is, how noble he is in not killing the Joker out of self-righteousness and how they may be destined to do this good guy-bad guy dance forever... some of the best lines ever... right up there with Casablanca quotes...

Why am I not talking about Bale, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman (another fave of mine) and Michael Caine? The story and screenplay + Ledger = little reason to talk about these other elements... fine performances, yes - esp. Eckhart & Freeman... but the overall wow-ness is the story and Ledger more than anything else... I'll take an intelligent villain over a mildly-interesting superhero any day...

Both these movies left me thinking - which not very many movies have made me do ... that was a pleasant surprise... thinking about what makes us human and more importantly, good, bad or somewhere inbetween ... As the Joker says, people are only as good as they are allowed to be by society and don't even get me started about his rant about plans - man, the stuff really hit home ... here's the link for quotes from the movie - go on and read a few, you won't regret it and I'll wait right here for you...

And yet, this is a Batman movie, so it still is about him and why he is the Dark Knight as opposed to Eckhart's white (D.A) knight... A tad bit long - honestly, I was ready to pack up and leave at the 2 hr mark - I really did think the movie was over, but noooo, there was more to be seen & heard... brilliant...

Other Dark Knight links:

http://www.themovieblog.com/2008/06/the-dark-knight-review
http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/08/04/mondaymoviebuzz.darkknight.ap/index.html?eref=rss_latest
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_dark_knight/

And here's the theme I was talking about - deconstructing the classic hero - he is not indestructible, he is not all powerful and he is certainly not a one man army...

I mean look at Tony Stark & Bruce Wayne - the "heroes" - the bleed, they burn , they hurt and *gasp* have real emotions... and yeah, they are flawed and they're not afraid to show it - but that's what makes them all the more relatable.... right? I don't mean that in a 'now I think I can also be Ironman' sort of way... I'm just saying - they've made it ok for heroes to be as human as any of us...

This is also a theme I ave noticed in two of my (don't yawn) fave TV shows - Bones & Heroes - yes, Booth is a knight-in-shining-FBI-standard-issue-body-armour but he is also a normal guy who loves his kid to death and loves his beer & apple pie and doesn't want to hurt his shoulder breaking down a door (Season 3, last ep. Pain in the heart) ... and in Heroes - all of 'em - Bob, Peter, Noah, *gasp* Elle, Nathan, Peter, Hiro and yes, even Adam - all with superpowers but driven purely by their own humanity...

Wicked awesome these movies... loved them... And so comes an end to a weekend I managed to pack in 7 movies into (including the latest Mummy movie) ... probably won't be back here for a while though ... till the next post then... ta!