Shouldn't work but with the correct director and involvement of real talent it most certainly does!

It would be interesting to know if Nolan had to use some careful editing to obtain the PG-13 rating or if what is on the screen was as far as he was willing to go.

Funny thing - I wasn't expecting your TDK review to be mingled with your take on HELLBOY II. So, I kind of had to bob n' weave through your write-up to first follow your thoughts on TDK. No offense to HELLBOY II which I do plan to see. It's just personal cinematic priorities, man!

Thanks!

1) in BB, gordon's 'i gotta get me one of those'. also the whole driving the batmobile schtick, as well as 'can you drive stick?', and the black guy coming up and saying 'nice ride' or whatever.

1.5)the 'nice coat' stuff with the hobo. pointless. could have been a better way to show bruce being in touch with the poor. hell, he was trying to get rid of the coat because he thought he was going to be killed. so he could have gotten that bum killed!

2) in BB- batman wantonly running over police cars. not all the gotham police are dirty and punishable by tank death. luckily no one was hurt but we got some more cringeworthy shit one-liners from every cop involved in the chase.

3)assumedly several ton batmobile on old tiled roofs of rickety buildings.yup.

4) from TDK- the children in the car who witness batman blowing shit up in the alley. maybe this goes along with moiriarty and others talking about -split decisions by characters that jeopardize others, but this shows that batman could have easily blown up those children in the car without ever knowing as he was trying to take a shortcut. more thoughtless vehicular violence on his part, which i could have seen coming since his batpod had guns on it. i guess cardboard boxes and empty barrels just explode when hit by bullets too? i also though gotham had a poverty problem. no hobos sleeping in those alleys batman blew apart?

and this are blatant stupidities by a guy who like this version, so....

It's purely a taste thing, but I like Tim Burton's gothic fairytale approach, I love the visual aesthetic of the film, the score is wonderful, and it's a mainstream summer film about freaks, weirdos and misfits, which just appeals to me.

I'm still curious about this new Batman film, however. Nolan's take on the comic book genre is not totally my cup of tea, but he can be relied relied on to deliver some above average stuff. Nothing yet that quite lives up to the promise of Memento, but I suppose you can't expect the man to be that good every time.

i think the things that make those cheap lines or cheap 'funny' moments so terrible is that the rest of the film is so good, they become even more painful. i may re-edit BB on my mac and reburn a DVD just to forget them.

Go see The Dark Knight, my little bastard children.

Carla from Cheers gotta eat!

tiny: I like puppies.

mori: who is this?

it's Tiny, man, y'know, the president from fifth element? you said we could talk sometime about life and shit.

m: oh yeah man- hey, it's just that..

T: yeah i like the way they smell, man. puppies.

M:yeah, yeah it's okay, I-

T:yeah man, and the bellies are are warm and fat and shit. sometimes i cry man, 'cause of puppies.

M:okay.

T:man, putting down my dog was like the hardest thing i ever had to do, more than that time i chose to die on the ferry when the joker was gonna blow the other boat up.

M: tiny, that, um, you're talking about acting in the movie, right? your part?

T:movie?

M: (click)

only i don't think he'll BE robin, i just think that was nolan's nod to the possibility of robin later on, but i don't think he'll do it. it was a way to show batman has a soft spot for kids, although they mention that kid's parents are missing (dead?) after the narrows fear attacks.

Pacing was off, felt slow and un-plotted, the (SPOILER, but not really since you find out about 5 minutes in) whole Liz pregancy subplot and her fighting with Hellboy has absolutely no poignancy whatsoever either.

Really felt all style no substance. It did aim high, but missed the mark.

Hope the Hobbit brings out more of Pans Guillermo than Hellboy Guillermo or else we're in trouble.

I kind of liked when Batman took out the thugs on the wharf. It conveyed a sense of Batman being an unstoppable physical force. I was content to let my imagination fill in the punches and kicks for me.

Folks complaining about that always struck me as being the same people who would say Alien sucks because "you can hardly see the monster cuz it's like all dark n stuff."

liz=fire

abe=water

new guy in suit=air

hellboy=earth.

you'd be tempted to say hellboy is fire, but his hand is made out of stone, after all

Nevertheless, I'll be there for both of these cinematic treats and your comments on TDK in Imax has convinced me to give the format another go (after feeling mightily short-changed by Beowulf - pretty, but dull). Cheers, Drew!

At least for me.