Friday, July 18, 2008

Ambivalence - n. - The coexistence of opposing attitudes or feelings, such as love and hate, toward a person, object, or idea

I'm trying to decide if I'm going to see the new Batman movie. Not this weekend, for sure. It's just going to be too crazed. But once the madness has died down. The decision matrix on this one is tough, though. First on the plus side, Heath Ledger's performance is supposed to be magnetic. Which I was hearing even before he died, so I don't think it's just a speak-no-ill-of-the-dead thing. And given his track record, I can believe the hype.

On the neg side, it's comic book. And those don't usually connect for me. I liked the original Tim Burton Batman, but that was more or less the last one I liked until Iron Man. I know other people way dig them, but for some reason they just come off flat (ha ha) to me.

On the plus side, Christian Bale is hot.

On the neg side, Christian Bale is hot. And I looked at him when he was 13 years old in Empire of the Sun and thought "That kid is going to grow up to be hot." And even though he's all growed up now (and oh-so well), I still feel kind of pervy looking at him. Sort of retroactive dirty old ladyism. Illogical yet true.

On the plus side, I really like the director, Christopher Nolan's aesthetic.

On the neg side, the Joker apparently engages in a lot of random acts of violence, which I don't handle so well.

Plus, I find it very confusing when Gary Oldman plays a good guy. I'm just too used to hating him. That man has just been typecast into the ground. And when he does play a good guy, I keep expecting him to suddenly go psycho and kill somebody for no reason.

See? Summer movie viewing should not be this complicated. I probably will go see it. I think for a geek girl, it's going to be more or less mandatory. At this point, I probably just need to tell myself not to expect anything, and let it be whatever it will be.

2 comments:

WashingtonGardener said...

Did you not see the first CHristian Bale Batman? If not, rent it. You'll warm up to good-but-quirky Oldman right way -- plus you got Morgan Freeman and Michael Cine -- just ignore the scenes with Mrs Scientologist - they are pain-ain-ful.

Like all categories - comic book movies have their hits and misses - I really like Xmen but hated Fantastic 4. Spiderman was pretty good for me - Hulk, not so much.

FirePhrase said...

I've tried the first Christian Bale Batman (once on Netflix once on cable). It just didn't penetrate for me. Visually stunning, but ultimately cold and unreachable for me. But I'm not unwilling to give the franchise another try. And if Christian Bale does another shirtless workout scene, maybe I can watch it with one eye closed and not feel so pervy.

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