Batman: The Dark Knight

[ellen_datlow]

Finally saw it Friday afternoon. Wayyyyyy too long. Loved Ledger as the Joker, enjoyed a lot of it, but wayyyyy too long.

And then truly enjoyed three episodes of Deadwood (from season 2) that evening.

And great dinner party last night with old friends. Got stinkin drunk, gobbled lots of great cheese that I and another friend brougth. Much wine. So much wine that at one point I walked into the screen door spilling my glass of wine enroute to the patio and began laughing hysterically. The owner of said screendoor wasn't as happy but she fixed it.

Barbecue ribs, fresh corn on the cob, I made the salad, Claire (house owner) made the dressing, we all brought wine. John (only guy there) brought a yummy dessert. We ahem, then finished off Claire's cognacs...John and Donni stayed over, Carol and I trundled our ways back home by cab.

No hangover, thank you.

Comments

[scottedelman.livejournal.com]

What's a stinking drunk Datlow like? I don't think I've ever seen it.

One of the unfortunately ramifications of not drinking myself ...

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Ahem. You'd have to ask those who have seen me so. I think I'm a pleasant drunk, though.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

I had the feeling they'd run three episodes of Batman together, and I wnated to go hom after the first one. It ran way too long for me too.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

There were at least three places the movie could have ended but no....the joker had to have another go. Perhaps if they got into the Joker's "tricks" way earlier, they could have avoided all the false endings.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Exactly!

And no hangover!!

[planetalyx.livejournal.com]

Wow, you must really be living right!!

I would've been perfectly happy if Batman had been about 30 minutes shorter.

Re: And no hangover!!

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Heh! I don't do it too often. Maybe that's why--and I eat a lot with the drink...


Yup yup yup.

[charlesatan.livejournal.com]

Another Datlow superpower: immunity to hangover!

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

LOL. And long may it last.

[jenwrites.livejournal.com]

I also thought that Batman could have been a tighter film, but it really didn't bother me so much when I was watching it. However, the most exciting moment in the theater for me was the Watchmen trailer. I'm still quite worried that they'll fuck it up somehow, but it looks right, so that gives me a little bit of hope.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

It didn't exactly bother me while I was watching it, but I did notice it...I began to get impatient towards the end.

I read Watchmen a long time ago and don't remember it all that well, so when the trailer was on, I kept asking my viewing companion...what is this, The Silver Surfer? I didn't realize what it was for until it was announced at the trailer's end. Very much looking forward to the movie.

[vee-ecks.livejournal.com]

It's the bruises you don't remember getting you really have to worry about.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Oh those I get without drinking. I'm always bumping into pointed edges of furniture. Today I even hit my head on the edge of my wooden chest of drawers.

[vee-ecks.livejournal.com]

"Oh those I get without drinking."

Yeah, me too. Can't dance worth a crap, either.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

That I can do ;-)

[vee-ecks.livejournal.com]

Well, now you know never to ask me.

[drewshi.livejournal.com]

I agree about it being way too long. If they had cut out the ending with Harvey and saved it for another movie, I would have been happy. As it was, they cheated us out of having a Two-Face movie by killing him. Better editing on the car scenes (both the Batmobile and the lamborghini) would have made the movie shorter.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Well the weird thing is I kept thinking "two-face" "two-face"--wasn't he a villain in Batman? But then afterward was told that no, it was Dick Tracy who had Two-face as a character... But yeah they could have done that.

[(Anonymous)]

Sorry, I misremembered. "Two Face" was a Batman villain - a DA gone bad. "Haf 'n Haf" was the similarly afflicted Dick Tracy villain and is a case of Chester Gould stealing from Batman rather than the other way around which happened more often. I keep forgetting that it's only in the last decade or two that Batman has developed into a complicated and tortured hero. Back when I was a kid his world differed from Tracy's mainly in that the cop had a girl friend (Am I remembering correctly that her name was Tess Truelove?) and Batman ran around with a boy in tights.

Rick Bowes

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Aha! So I was right! Well, then the filmmakers had no excuse to not save Harvey Dent for the next episode--tsk tsk...

[drewshi.livejournal.com]

Two-Face is a Batman villain. He was featured in the God-awful Batman Forever with Val Kilmer as Batman and Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face.

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

It WAS long. My butt fell asleep, but I didn't, because it was also so good. :)

Man, I need to go to parties with you. Wine! Cheese! Yay!

Although I have some great dessert wine I bought after a wine tasting at Lake Anna that's just waaaiting to be opened. It's called, I kid you not, "Essensual" dessert wine. :) And it is DAMN GOOD. Now, for an excuse to drink it.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Oh I definitely stayed awake for it and DID want to see what would happen...no argument there ;-)

That sounds nice--I like dessert wines. I don't drink them that often though. It's not something that any of my friends think to bring --maybe next time--I'll bring one with me...good idea. Thank you.

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

This one is a nice white "ice wine." The thing I love about dessert wines is that they're rich and sweet. The thing that makes me sad is that they're less drink for the same money, usually. :) (Like my bottle is about 2/3 the size of a regular bottle of wine but cost the same as the regular white that I bought at the same place.) But man, are they good!

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

But you're supposed to sip them--unlike dinner wine :-)
We had several amazing bottles of reds. Two differnt syrahs one friend brought and the Australian Wynn's Koonawara Shiraz. Yum.

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

Hee! Oh, I know. I just looooove the sweet wines and even sipping, I am afraid I can consume quite a bit. Hah.

I'm not a huge fan of reds, but I have had a few I liked, and the shiraz-types seem to be among them.

awww...

[themadblonde]

sounds like fun, particularly cheese, wine, & cognac.

[(Anonymous)]

I suspect the problem w/ "The Dark Knight"'s length was because they'd intended it to be LONGER, and the studio said No, so it got chopped up and we got a pretty good movie w/ about three different endings and a terrific character like Two-Face stuffed into the last thirty minutes. Yes, they should have established him and used him in the next movie.

My favorite line(s):

Batman Wanna-be: What makes you so different from me?
Batman: I'm not wearing hockey pants...

Jeff P.

yep, too long (SPOILERS)

[patinagle.livejournal.com]

My thoughts on this were:

1. the chase scene with Dent in the armored van should have been cut by half, and

2. the whole people-on-the-boats subplot should have been cut. It was redundant - same plot device as wiring Dent and Rachel up to bombs in separate locations. Doing it twice weakens the impact.

I did enjoy the film nevertheless, especially Heath Ledger's incredible and disturbing performance.

Very sorry to hear about Morgan Freeman's accident. Hope he recovers.

Re: yep, too long (SPOILERS)

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Good cuts--I agree completely.

It sounds as if Freeman has broken some bones but is essentially ok. (although breaking bones at 72 is not such a great thing).