Superheroes!

[trinityvixen]

Because the real news is too depressing!

-While I realize there's a lot of ghoulish fascination at work here, it's also pretty fucking cool: Blu-Ray covers for The Dark Knight. The cynic in me sees the prominent Joker cover as a means of milking more money by wringing it from Heath Ledger's premature corpse. The realist in me recognizes that he was the star of the film and putting him on the cover makes sense in that light. (You can argue that Harvey Dent was the equal twin-star--heh, funny--but no one is saying that Batman was the focal point of the film.) I also love the editing on the back cover. :)

-Kenneth Branaugh directing Thor!? Well, he's in talks, anyway. I...honestly have nothing to say about that. So long as he doesn't then cast himself as the lead the way he did with almost every Shakespeare film adaptation he did, that's fine. (Don't get me wrong, he was good as the leads, but it got old.) Anyone knows more about Branaugh's directorial skill than I do wants to weigh in?

-Iron Man design art! The DVD is out tomorrow, probably with all these on there, but still, FYI. I love how very many of these drawings are pretty much realized exactly in the film. Except--and this is endlessly meta-fascinating--the one of the Mark II armor with the mini shoulder cannon. Because the only way Iron Man works as a sop to Tony Stark's I'm-not-making-weapons-any-more (except I totally am) newfound conscience is if you can't see the weapons. Yes, armor is a recognizeable part of warfare, but it's not a weapon out-and-out to most people. (It's more of a tool.) You have to hide the guns and the energy weapons (inside the wrist plates and as part of the flight stabilizers, respectively) if you want to swallow that fiction.

Comments

[umeyard.livejournal.com]

*puts on my I love Kenneth Branaugh t-shirt with I love Emma Thompson on the back*

Okay so yes, he does have a tendency to cast himself in roles, however as a director I happen to find him brilliant and insightful. He does adapt alot of the classics by Shakespeare as well as things such as "The Magic Flute" by Mozart to Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. My personal favorite is Dead Again. Not that famous of a movie but the cast is fantastic (His then wife Emma Thompson, Derek Jacobi, Robin Williams, Andy Garcia). Fell in love with that movie in Junior High, still one of my favorites to date.

I like that he takes classic stories and makes them more approachable for the younger generations without taking too many liberties regarding content (please compare Much Ado about Nothing to Baz Lehrmans Romeo and Juliet). So it brings things down to a level the average person can understand. He makes classics that alot of people find hard to read easy to watch.

Still hoping he does "Great Expectations" by Dickens one day.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I dunno, his update of what's it, um, that one with Rosalind and Orlando, was pretty goddamned dreadful. But maybe the secret there is that he wasn't in that one.

Perhaps that was too much of an update, not to mention borderline racist, with the setting in Japan but a cast full of white people. (Oh, and the token black guy. Who sumo wrestled at one point, I believe.)

[umeyard.livejournal.com]

I think I am happy I missed that one lol.

But I will say this, alot of actors/directors when their relationships end, you never see them work together anymore due to personal differences. Him and Emma Thompson are still going strong working together (See Harry Potter movies) and they divorced back in 1995.

So what does this have to do with his directing ability? Maybe nothing? But I like that it shows he is not as petty as most of Hollywood, that he does not let emotions control his actions. That he can say "You! look you would be perfect for this, so what we just got a divorce, I say we do it!"

And of course I totally adore Emma Thompson, think she is overlooked as one of the best actresses currently.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

No one doubts Emma Thompson. They should all know better than to do that, Branaugh included.

[umeyard.livejournal.com]

And he does, they still work Brilliantly together (you might not see alot together in IMDB, but they did work closely in live theater during this time) It's one thing that always impressed me about him.

Also he not afraid to avoid "type casting" alot of times. Dead Again came out at the same time as Awakenings, Hook, Dead Poets, and a few other warm fuzzy movies by Robin Williams. And smack dab in the middle you have him in Dead Again playing a former Psych Dr. working in grocery store mopping floors since he lost his liscense for sleeping with patients...and lets made Andy Garcia riding on The Godfather to play a slimey reporter...

I like people who take chances and don't always follow whats popular and type cast

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

I'd like to think those covers are a tribute to Ledger...

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

That just proves you're not, despite the occasional argument to the contrary, as cynical as me.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

It does seem a crying shame that Batman would have been the least important of those three in his own movie, but what can you do? With or without Ledger's death, he walked away with the picture in a role that few could really pull off. Amazing.

Eckhardt was fabulous as well, though for my money, I'm a Jim Gordon girl, now and forever. Stay fabulous, Gary Oldman!

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Ha! Air Force One! I'd forgotten. Thankfully, I can still enjoy him in the Harry Potter films. Especially that bit in Order of the Phoenix where he cheerfully sat around in the pimp coat otherwise naked while he chatted with his underage-but-rapidly-maturing godson. Ooh, dirty-wrong-bad good guy for the win!

[sols-light.livejournal.com]

I have yet to see a Branagh film I liked, the man is an unmitigated pompous arse with as much respect for Shakespeare as Americans have for the Queen. He sets a historical play (Richard III) in early 20th Century Austria (I think) with no rational explanation, no obvious subtext for cultural comparison and the main quotable line delivered in a completely absurd context. "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse" from the top of a WWI tank implying that Richard simply wants to get out, rather than get his banner flying above his troops to inspire confidence in them in the hope of turning around the rout that was the final battle.

I'm barely going to touch on Macbeth, honestly, I think Mel Gibson did a better version, which is saying something. Yes, Branagh did delive the entire 4 hours of text, but to put the final scene on the order of Indiana Jones with the chandelier swinging and the sword to the heart across an entire ballroom... just no.

Thankfully this does mean his ham-fisted over-the-top actionalisation of thought-provoking is possibly good for a Comic Book conversion movie. At least it means he can understand subtext and present it with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Honestly, as long as he's not going to be Thor himself, it'll probably work out reasonably well, I just think he should not be allowed to butcher Shakespearean classics with twisted adaptations.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I liked Much Ado About Nothing, but that's the only one I can say I loved to pieces. As You Like It was a disaster (set in 18-19-20mumble bumble century Japan). Hamlet would have been better if he'd not cast himself as the lead. He'd have been a better Claudius.

I like Branaugh, the actor, the person, well enough. (Certainly, he out-Guilderoy'd Lockheart as no one ever will.) I'm just not sure about all his directorial choices.

[sols-light.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen Much Ado About Nothing and I'm willing to concede I may just have seen some of his more pompous monstrousities. I'm intrigued to see what kind of Thor we get out of this too. Ultimates Thor with the Pacifist Tree-huggyness was great, but the madness would find it hard to hold up the whole origin story with the walking stick that turns into Mjolnir, so they'll have to pick one.