| Thursday, 17 July 2008 |
| 'why so serious?' |
2 epic movies. If you don't catch either of them, you deserve to die!
I watched the movie '赤壁' with my family last night. It was a last minute thing, because I was really affected by whatever happened last night and desperately needed to do something completely unrelated to medicine and also desperate for a reason to get out of the house. I pitched the idea of watching the movie with my brother, who, being who he is, managed to get my parents to watch it with us as well. So the four of us went down to AMK hub, bought tickets for the earliest show possible (10.20 pm) and watched the movie. Thank god for the reason to stop thinking about stuff though.
'赤壁' is quite a good movie. I feel quite sad that I'm typing this review about it right after watching 'The Dark Knight' because, well, the latter is infinitely better so I don't think what I am going to type about the former right now is going to do justice to it either. While it isn't as perfect as 'The Dark Knight', '赤壁' is still a pretty good movie. It does have a few weakness, such as its overly long pacing, its many convoluted plots and subplots, and some really weird editing, but it soars in terms of its cinematography, its complexity, its breath taking battle scenes and its solid ensemble cast. The show boasts some of the finest stars in Asia, all of them playing characters who are legendary figures in Chinese literature. Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Chang Chen all of them were all pretty good in their respective roles. I was particularly surprised by Takeshi's ability to pull off his rather hippie portrayal of Zhuge Liang, I must say that its a very different take on the character and he makes him more eccentric and debonair than traditional portrayals of him. The movie is bloody, violent and epic in its making, but the ending really is a kill joy as it ends abruptly, forcing you to wake up to the reality that the conclusion of the whole story is only going to be shown on screen in January next year when the second part is released then.
While it is a fantastic show on its own right, '赤壁' cannot compare to the masterpiece that is 'The Dark Knight'.
This is arguably one of the best movies ever, and definitely the best sequel ever. One of the reasons why I found it so enjoyable was the fact that it is one of the darkest films in a long long time. Dark, sinister and psychotic, but all in an artful and intelligent way. The story was engaging, the pacing was exhilarating, the action jaw dropping and the acting... unbelievable. The cast of 'The Dark Knight' is one of the strongest ensemble cast ever and I'm so glad they replaced Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes. The cast is just... genius. Every single actor portrayed their character so realistically and stunningly human. Cristian Bale is once again superbly stoic and tormented as Batman; Michael Cain is endearing as Alfred; Morgan Freeman is all wise and witty as Lucius Fox; Maggie Gyllenhaal is so much stronger as Rachel; Gary Oldman is perfectly subtle as Commissioner Gordon and Aaron Eckhart superbly righteous then angsty as Harvey Dent/Two-face.
But the best praises and accolades should really be left for the late Heath Ledger who would surely be propel into the realms of legends with his amazing performance as the Joker. I found it very sad to watch the last scene with him in it... there was this scene where after the Batman managed to finally apprehend the Joker, the psychotic clown said something along the lines that the two of them would probably continue to battle each other for all eternity. It was a very ironic and haunting think to hear that line because we all know the reality of things and that this Joker will never be able to appear in any other Batman movie ever. There will never be a villain like Heath Ledger's Joker. He has brought the bar to an even higher level.
I'm sure we have all read reports on how great and amazing his performance was, how terrifying and sadistic and psychotic it was, and of course, all those talk about a posthumous Oscar. But you really have to watch it to witness first hand the genius of a performance the man had put it because no words can describe how he did it. He was terrifying, he was sadistic, he was psychotic, yes... he was all that, but he did it in a way that wasn't over the top. He did it in a way that was entirely realistic, and it made it startling clear that such crazy, evil, and monstrous men could really exist. There may one day be someone as maniacal as his Joker who would walk the streets of any great city in the world, terrifying and terrorizing the people into submission. Once again, this just strengthens my theory, that its so much more fun to be the villain than to be the hero. Which is the morality of the film really... how strong a person are you and how long can you keep your convictions without ever falling to the dark side?
"You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain."
Heath Ledger's performance is reason enough to warrant a re-watch of this movie. Its going to be the last full performance that he will ever give and its a real pity because you really want to see this iconic take of an iconic character live on in feature sequels to come, but of course, that simply can't happen anymore. There are reports that its going to be difficult for Christopher Nolan to ever top this film with a third film in the event that he wants to create a trilogy, and I agree with those reports. Whoever the new villain is, the actor has amazingly big shoes to fill. He or she would be trying to live up to a performance that would continue to terrify the hearts and inspire the minds of many in the long years to come.Labels: movie |
posted by voldemort33 @ 23:30  |
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