TransMonk

Finally saw this tonight. I gave it 4 bats...and I've never been a big Batman fan. Every other Batman movie has bored me, including Batman Begins. But this movie was highly entertaining and Ledger's performance was brilliant.

Vic Sage wrote: i did mention it, in the post above discussing "fictional" superhero tv shows. But its not an adaptation of an existing comic book character. You did...completely missed it, my bad.

What, no Greatest American Hero?

I miss the formula of late 70s early 80s hour long adventure shows. Every week would be a new story that was usually unrelated to last week or next week. These days, if you miss an episode of an hour long TV series, you might as well stop watching for the season and rent the DVD for a weekend 6 months later. Way too much of a commitment for me. Give me The Hulk, Dukes of Hazard, The A Team and The Fall Guy.

The family gave me a choice of what movie I wanted them to take me to for Father's Day and this one beat out Indy IV and The Happening. I have to say I was pleaseantly surprised. As I've noted in a couple of the Comic Movie threads, I don't know much about comic book characters, so I'm usually pretty disappointed when going to see these types of films. But, I was a fan of the TV show in the early 80's so I figured I could follow along. I thought the cast and crew did a really good job with the story and effects. They didn't reference the 2003 movie much, if at all (I know I've seen it, but I'm pretty sure I fell asleep about 30 minutes in). They did, however, pay alot of respect to the TV show. Cameos are made by Lou Ferigno and Bill Bixby (via TV images of The Courtship of Eddie's Father) and from what I've read on the internet, Lou even provides the Hulk's dialouge for the 3 or 4 words that he bellows. The piano theme used for the TV show was even reused. The love scenes are a bit strained, as they often are in these movies, and of course, the last 5 minutes scream "SEQUEL" as well as involvement in other Marvel projects...but these predictable moments didn't ruin what was an exciting and enjoyable experience.

If you've seen Castaway, Dawn of the Dead and the 2 minutes of Vanilla Sky where Tom Cruise speeds through a deserted Manhattan, then this movie doesn't offer anything new other than mashing it all together. In retrospect, the most interesting part of my experience was the 6 minute preview for the new Batman movie...only because I thought it was the beginning of I Am Legend. I kept thinking, "Where are they going to go with this?"

I saw it on New Year's Eve at an IMAX theatre. It was a decent passage of time for 100 minutes, but not a terribly memorable film for me. I thought Smith did a better than average job in this movie. His performances in "Ali" and "The Pursuit of Happiness" are slowly changing my opinion of his acting ability after the crap he had been putting out for the previous 15 years.