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Smitty22
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- Review count3
- Helpfulness votes0
- First reviewMay 30, 2008
- Last reviewJanuary 11, 2010
- Featured reviews0
- Average rating2.7
Smitty22's Reviews
Overall rating
4
/
5
PostedJanuary 11, 2010
Smitty22
from San Diego, CA
pretty good flick. new take on an old story made it appealing.
Yes, I recommend this movie.
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Overall rating
3
/
5
Not bad
PostedJuly 25, 2008
Smitty22
from San Diego, CA
I wasn't blown away by this movie like so many other people apparently were. It was good and probably the best of the series. I found the first hour to hour and half of the film to be pretty good as far as feeling like a true crime story (subtracting the whole caped hero deal). I think after that, it kinda lost its spunk and turned into another DC/Marvel hero movie.
Ledger did amazing and in my mind carried the film. He made you want to see him on screen and understand or watch how crazy he was as the joker. I wasn't super impressed with Bale's acting. In fact, I didn't think the film made you feel anything towards batman and he turned out to be a dull protagonist in general. I found myself more interested in the joker and batman was just filler because the movie needed a hero.
Maybe my biggest beef was with the editing. There were alot of quick cuts where batman would be in one situation and then cut 1, cut 2, cut 3, cut 4, he's in an entirely different place (all within the span less of than a minute). There were several times in the movie where all these cuts just simply threw me off and caused problems with the story flow. There were quite a few bad edits where one cut would show characters in a different position than others. Just these little things I can notice as I'm watching even though I wasn't actively looking for them.
Some of the dialog I thought was a trying to be deeper than the movie itself. Because the only character the movie made me interested in was the Joker, some of the "deeper" social commentary that batman and Dent used didn't really spark my interest. The movie didn't make me care about their characters either. Maybe I am being Joker-centric but Dent and Batman just felt like filler characters with no deeper meaning other than to be in the film.
Anyhow, its a pretty decent film, worth seeing. I wouldn't hold it up there among cinema's greatest though because it lost its true crime feel half way through. If anything, see the film because Ledger did an excellent job.
Ledger did amazing and in my mind carried the film. He made you want to see him on screen and understand or watch how crazy he was as the joker. I wasn't super impressed with Bale's acting. In fact, I didn't think the film made you feel anything towards batman and he turned out to be a dull protagonist in general. I found myself more interested in the joker and batman was just filler because the movie needed a hero.
Maybe my biggest beef was with the editing. There were alot of quick cuts where batman would be in one situation and then cut 1, cut 2, cut 3, cut 4, he's in an entirely different place (all within the span less of than a minute). There were several times in the movie where all these cuts just simply threw me off and caused problems with the story flow. There were quite a few bad edits where one cut would show characters in a different position than others. Just these little things I can notice as I'm watching even though I wasn't actively looking for them.
Some of the dialog I thought was a trying to be deeper than the movie itself. Because the only character the movie made me interested in was the Joker, some of the "deeper" social commentary that batman and Dent used didn't really spark my interest. The movie didn't make me care about their characters either. Maybe I am being Joker-centric but Dent and Batman just felt like filler characters with no deeper meaning other than to be in the film.
Anyhow, its a pretty decent film, worth seeing. I wouldn't hold it up there among cinema's greatest though because it lost its true crime feel half way through. If anything, see the film because Ledger did an excellent job.
Yes, I recommend this movie.
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Overall rating
1
/
5
Seriously?
PostedMay 30, 2008
Smitty22
from San Diego, CA
This movie was terrible! I watched all the previous films over the course of a week before going to see this one (I have been a fan since I was a kid) and this one was a huge disappointment from the others.
First off, theres always been some cheesiness to the series, but this movie took it to the extreme. The amount of horrible 'one liners' that Indy uses makes his character seem cheap and shallow. Did I mention Shia LaBeouf swings around like Tarzan in one of the scenes? Seriously, Tarzan style on the vines to catch up to the car chase? The monkeys attack the commies for some reason too? Unbelievable.
Whats the deal with the story? Lucas must've thought throwing in as many recognizable historical references as possible would make a good story. No George, the story has to have some substance and flow… and be creative. This movie did not flow and left many events in the film unexplained. There was quite a few times where the characters would say something and you wouldn't know why exactly they said it. Maybe they edited some key parts out? Jeez. They also kept using Indy’s name over and over in the film… I think it was a self affirming plug method… maybe to convince the audience its Indiana Jones and that makes the film worth while.
Cate Blanchett as the villian? I was willing to roll with it... then she has this sword which is completely laughable and I can’t understand why shes wearing a Commie jump suit (the jump suit has the "CCP" and sickle and hammer on the back just to remind the audience shes a Commie). Really? Costume design person, was that necessary? We already know shes a Communist spy for the Soviets. This irritated me… it was like they were trying too hard.
Indy turned father figure? Who didn’t see that one coming? Big surprise there, great unoriginal twist there Lucas. Then you cheese him out trying to make him act like a father when he realizes it? I’ve seen the same idea play out before in other movies and its just as unentertaining here.
Hollywood, STOP with the CGI. The greatest thing about the old films is the actual props that were used. This entire movie felt like a green screen fest. I don’t care how clever these CGI people think they are, CGI can not mimic the real world yet. Spend the money and take the time to build the props because your never going to get a real world feel from a computer.
Through all the muck though, the only scene I enjoyed was when the greasers fight the preps in the café. That was fun… for the 15 seconds the scene lasted.
All and all, I think this movie was just a way to make money for everyone involved. They tried to cram in a story and didn’t let it play out and flow like in the previous films. A very weak story (sorry Lucas, your time is over) followed by bad direction (Spielberg, what happened? Your camera shots in this film were boring) lead to what I would consider one of the worst films I’ve ever seen.
I’m going to consider the ‘Last Crusade’ as the last film in the series because this one simply doesn’t do the others justice.
No, I do not recommend this movie.
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