I “went” three very different places this weekend. First, I visited Gotham by watching the Dark Knight. Then I took a little jaunt to Belgium through In Bruges. And finally, I attended the wedding of Bella and Edward in Forks, WA by reading Breaking Dawn. Three very different stories, but each one really good in its own way.

I’m a Batman fan. Always have been, always will be, so you might wonder if I am biased in favor of the Dark Knight. Not necessarily. I didn’t like Batman Begins all that much. I thought it was way too long, and very slow paced. As I recall, I fell asleep for a bit in the middle, and I can’t even remember exactly how it ended. Wayne Manor blew up or something, which I recall mostly because they reference it in the Dark Knight.

Well, the Dark Knight is much, much better. It’s still too long, but the actors are great and the story works. I definitely prefer Maggie Gyllenhal in the Rachel Dawes role. Gary Oldman is fabulous as per usual, it’s always nice to see Michael Caine and Heath Ledger…he’s the perfect Joker. His portrayal got it just right. The Joker doesn’t really care about anything. Not the money he steals, not the people he terrorizes, nothing. He just likes to stir up trouble and he does plenty of that in the Dark Knight.

Christian Bale is fine, but the movie isn’t really about Batman. The Joker is the star of the story, along with D.A. Harvey Dent. Batman is just the catalyst. In fact, it is the Batman-centric piece of the story where he goes to Hong Kong and does some fancy techno-bat stuff while snatching up a crimelord who has to be returned to Gotham that I thought could have been cut to move the story along faster. I guess it gave them the chance to do a Mission Impossible type action scene, but I felt it was unnecessary. Overall, it was a highly satisfying movie, and it gets the Penguin seal of approval.

In Bruges was a complete change of pace. I owe thanks to the guy I heard review it on the radio a couple of months ago, because I hadn’t heard a peep about it. The studio really fell down on the job promoting it, which is a shame, because it may be my favorite movie I’ve seen this year. Even with the review I was expecting a slightly different story than what I got. I thought it was a British gangster/caper movie. It is a movie about British gangsters, but there is no caper.

It is a movie about consequences and responsibility. Two hit men get sent to Bruges at Christmastime to hide out after a hit gone wrong. Their boss books them in a hotel for two weeks and tells them to wait for his call. Half the cast of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is in this movie, making me wonder if they all got together on set or something, and said wow, look at this kick-ass script. Ralph Fiennes is the gangster boss. Brendan Gleeson (Mad Eye Moody) is one of the hit men, and my former pretend celebrity boyfriend Colin Farrell plays the other hit man. Keep doing movies like this one, Colin, and our non-existent fake romance could be back on. Clemence Poesy (Fleur Delacour) plays Chloe, a local girl Colin’s character hooks up with.

The movie is beautifully shot – moments of quiet and stillness mingling with dreaminess and terror. Seriously, John and I are ready to schedule a stop in Bruges on our next trip to Europe, and I’ve never had any intention of going to Belgium before. It’s a sad story, but also surprisingly funny, and it has just the right ending. Not happy, but right. I cannot recommend this movie highly enough.

And then there was Breaking Dawn. I am not quite so far fallen as to have gone to the midnight release party at Barnes & Noble, but I did pick up a copy of the book on Saturday morning. Not that there's anything wrong with the people who did go! The book got off to a great start, diving right in to Bella and Edward’s wedding, which sounded lovely. The honeymoon sounded awfully spectacular too. Who wouldn’t want to go to a private island off the coast of South America?

And then, well, then I was really worried the story had gone off track. I don’t want to give away details because I hate spoilers, but I was actually pretty disappointed in the direction I thought she was taking there for a while. That probably has something to do with me being a 37 year old at a place in my life that is completely different than where 99.5% of the target audience for these books is.

Then we got to the section narrated by Jacob, and I started feeling better. Edward is romantic and lovely, but Jacob is one of my favorite characters. Anyway, I should have had more faith in Stephenie Meyer, because in the end, it all came together in a way that left me quite happy. If you liked the first three books, I think you’ll like this one too. Edward fans will be happy and Jacob fans will be happy. I read somewhere that this is supposed to be the last book in the series, but a whole bunch of new and interesting characters got introduced, leaving the door open for more, at least in my mind. I’ll remain hopeful, anyway. If you write more, Stephenie, I’ll read ‘em!

Posted by Bad Penguin at August 3, 2008 10:07 PM

Comments

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