I finally watched it last week, probably just before the screenings ended. I think it’s so good that I’m not going to bother with spoiler warnings; if you haven’t already watched it you suck :P.

The really impressive thing that put Wall-E above and beyond the previous Pixar films is how it intertwines two different stories seamlessly. On one hand there was the silent-movie romance between the two robots, and on the other was the tale of humans who had fallen to decadence but still redeem themselves in the end. It’s definitely Pixar’s best film, better than Nemo was, even.

The one thing that let me down though was the ending. At first I was mindblown - wow, what a daring move from Pixar to have Wall-E end on such a tragic note! What were the philosophical implications of showing Wall-E’s “memory” reset?! Could it be that even as we say that one is “only human”, here Wall-E is, in the end, but a robot? “This is epic“, I thought, as my heart welled up with emotion.

And then we cut into the Disneyfied ending. Man.

Still an excellent movie no doubt, but Dark Knight is firmly the best movie of the year for me. Maybe I’m just a sucker for tragedy…

Popularity: 19% [?]

Dark Knight Returns

Batman first came alive for me when I read Frank Miller’s landmark graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns (1986), which told the story of an aged Batman returning to fight crime. Its grim take on superheroes and mature themes remain an influence on comic books today (and who could forget the iconic panels of Batman showing Clark who’s boss?)

So The Dark Knight was a much awaited movie for me. Batman Begins was a decent film, but most of the time was spent on the origin story (no super powers, borrring..) and let’s face it you can’t remember the villain’s name, can you? TDK would feature two of Batman’s most famous opponents: the Joker and Two-Face.

Living up to Hype

Early reviews had nothing but praise for the late Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker, which half worried me, would I go in expecting too much? Superhero movies are a dime a dozen now; this summer alone has seen Hancock, Wanted, Iron Man, Hulk, and Hellboy all grace the screen. Is there space for a hero with no powers?

There is :). What I liked most about TDK was that yes, Ledger’s performance deserves all the accolades you can throw at it. But less mentioned is that the rest of the ensemble: Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman), and even Alfred (Michael Caine) all put in stellar performances (Morgan Freeman was good too, but at this point I go “WTF not YOU again” whenever I see him in a movie). In fact, given that I already knew Ledger would be awesome, Eckhart’s portrayal of Harvey Dent knocked me off my feet. He could easily have been overshadowed by the Joker, but his descent from being the “white knight” of Gotham into Harvey Two-Face was tragic and believable. Watch the movie in a different way, and The Dark Knight could just as easily been about Harvey Dent.

A Script Apart

I think that TDK is the film it is because it all meshes together; the acting, the costumes, the action the cinematography, all based on an amazing script. It’s easy to take a superhero movie and turn it into a blockbuster - just get the origin story right, maybe add a catchy theme, put in the fancy CGI, a DID (damsel in distress), a cheesy dialogue about how good triumphs over evil. And trust that the otakus will rush in anyway. Or if all else fails, just pull in Will Smith (god Hancock was bad). TDK has raised the bar, so much so that I look back now to Spiderman - which before this was generally regarded as the standard for superhero movies - and think “Cheer up emo kid!”.

Depicting morality outside of black and white is not just elusive to a hero movie. All movies - heck, games, books, music; every form of art has always struggled with putting forth a valid painting of gray. That is the real reason why The Dark Knight is not only the best superhero movie, but the best movie this year. Batman deals with getting the job done without feeding his darker side. Gordon struggles with having to deal with a corrupt force, his friends among them. Harvey has to balance himself on a pedestal, set up as the moral beacon of Gotham. The insane, anachronist Joker sets up impossible dilemmas for the Batman, one after another. Beneath the violence and choices lie moments that make you think: Now what would I have done?

Light spoiler ▼

It’s a whopping two and a half hours long, and scorns the typical “Intro-conflict-resolution”, but trust me it’s all worth it, all the way to Gordon’s closing monologue, which would have been cheesy in any other film, but in TDK it sums up perfectly; how the best of us can fail, and how it is in our nature to need a hero to project our hopes and fears to - which Batman paradoxically cannot be, and in the end, the people of Gotham get the hero they deserve.

The Dark Knight is required watching this year, or be prepared to be left out of many dinnertime conversations to come!

Postscript: Shattering records

TDK is on its way to breaking box-office records, and has shot to the top of IMDB’s highest rated movies, which is unprecendented:

Popularity: 52% [?]

Massive spoiler alert! Don’t read this if you haven’t seen the movie.
Read rest of post…

Popularity: 54% [?]

Indy 4 is almost here!! The early reviews are starting to trickle out already but I’ve been forcing myself not to read them - I gather it at least doesn’t suck though. Which at least says something given all the hype surrounding it.

To entertain myself (and you!) during the wait, I’ve been comparing what we know of Crystal Skull to the previous Indy movies. All pics of Crystal Skull here are from the trailer (and yes, the 130MB version ), so no danger of spoilers here!

Indy’s Sidekick

“Mutt” vs Short Round (Temple of Doom) vs Henry Jones, Sr. (Last Crusade).

What’s a hero without a trusty sidekick? Crystal Skull sees Shia LeBeouf (Transformers) in the role. Seriously though, what kind of name is “Mutt”? There’d better be an explanation.

I’d say most of us didn’t find Short Round as cute as we could have if we weren’t Asian ourselves. He does get a good one liner “You call him Dr. Jones!” and his own jingle that overlays with the main Raiders theme nicely though. I liked him and he’s a fan favourite, but I think that Sean Connery’s performance is just too hard to top :).

Femme Fatale

Irina Spalko vs Elsa Schneider (Last Crusade)

S: How dare you kiss me!
*kiss*
I: Leave me alone - I don’t like fast women.
*kiss*
S: And I hate arrogant men!
*kiss*

The love scenes in an Indy movie are always hilarious. It’s hard to top Alison Doody’s performance as the sexy Nazi from the Last Crusade, but if there’s anyone who can it’d be Cate Blanchett! As if to make the point, her bobbed ‘do is the total opposite of Schneider’s blonde bombshell look. Will Spalko pull a double with Mutt too I wonder…

Archeological thingamajig

Crystal Skulls vs The Ark of the Covenant (Raiders) vs Sankara Stones (Temple of Doom) vs The Holy Grail (Last Crusade)

(No pic of crystal skulls in the trailer :( )Ah what is Indiana Jones if not for treasure hunts? Unlike some other movies (*ahem*National Treasure*ahem*Tomb Raider), the story leading up to them is usually the right balance between an afterthought and being too convulted. I personally liked the Holy Grail’s plotline best.

Scary tribes

Scary tribe vs scary tribe from Raiders vs scary tribe from Temple of Doom

Many movies have Nazis, but savages never go out of vogue in Indiana Jones. Kali worshippers from ToD were the scariest hands down… they freaking tore out human hearts, roasted their victims as human sacrifices, poked a voodoo doll of you full of needles if you got too annoying, and converted you by forcing you to drink blood!

Life-threatening Trap

Revolving column vs Gigantic Boulder (Raiders) vs Crushing Ceiling (Temple of Doom) vs Tomb filled with burning petrol (Last Crusade)

Another Indiana Jones staple, served with copious amounts of creepy crawlies. I’d say the crushing ceiling from Tod was the most entertaining since it looked his closest to death.

And that’s it! I can’t wait! See you next week with a review!

Popularity: 54% [?]

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Indiana Jones is one of the best movie franchises ever! It’s a rare blend of action and humour and doesn’t miss any opportunity to poke fun at itself. It has one of the best, most recognizable theme songs of all time. And it stars Harrison Ford!

My introduction to Indy wasn’t actually the movies though; it was 1992’s Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, an adventure game by the magnificent but now-defunct LucasArts games division. It’s a rare, very rare example of a successful game-movie crossover that retained the qualities of its original, along with a magnificent storyline and memorable characters. It still stands up to any adventure game you’d find on the market today.

If you have been deprived all these years or are in need of nostalgia, here’s the introduction sequence :) :-

I’ve played all the Indiana Jones games and watched the movies more times than I can remember, and I’ve been looking forward to Indy IV for months!Detractors say that Harrison Ford is now too old to play Indy, or that Lucas is just milking an old franchise for money. Well the latter might be true, but Ford will always be Indy like how he will always be Han Solo and the president of the United States. He already has the fedora, the whip, and the Scowl down pat:

Now here’s waiting for May 22, 2008 to see if he has the rest of it still! :).
[Link to 720p Trailer torrent]

Fallout III

Fallout (1997) and its sequel Fallout II are universally considered among the best computer RPGs of all time (I preferred Arcanum, but it was less polished ). In the retro-futuristic Fallout universe, a nuclear war has laid waste to the earth, with the only survivors being the people who took refuge in government-built Vaults. In the original, you are sent out to scour the wasteland and your sister Vaults for a replacement “water chip” for your Vault. Interplay ( I’m so sorry I couldn’t afford non-pirated games back then  :(( ) did a phenomenal job in fleshing out a world of humans dealing with the fallout of nuclear war, as well as implementing a solid game system and an open-ended storyline. The ending of the first game is especially memorable:
If you want to know what it is ▼

The concern everyone is having is that Bethesda Softworks, who bought over the rights to the series, are well-known for focusing more on eye-candy than a solid story ( *ahem* Oblivion ). I’m actually a bit worried for them because there are a large number of scary Fallout fanbois out there!

Whatever the case, we’ll know soon - they are apparently on track (shock) for release in fall 2008.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

My Pottermania has pretty much died down by now, but I’m still looking forward to the sixth movie - the main reason being that I’m very curious how they are going to handle the romance that Harry is supposed to have with Ginny. With all the focus on the big Three, she’s been little more than a wallflower in the movies. Not exactly the spunky, vivacious Ginny from the books.

Context for this still:

[Returning from the village after the DA meets for the first time]

Hermionie: Anyway, at least we know one positive thing that came from today…
Harry: What’s that?
Hermionie: Cho couldn’t take her eyes off you, could she?
Harry: *smirk*
Ginny: *emo*

Popularity: 73% [?]