Man, does time fly or what! I remember saying I would post a review of the last two movies I saw, and never did. Well, even if late, here's a quick commentary.
First off, the good one, Batman Begins. Directed by Christopher Nolan, it showcases a superb cast: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy, Tom Wilkinson, Rutger Hauer, Ken Watanabe, Linus Roache, and, last but not least, Morgan Freeman.
Every actor gives a very good interpretation, the directing is awesome, the screenplay flawless, the score powerful, and the cinematography impeccable. The best thing about this particular chapter of the Batman movies is that it tells you how things got to be the way they are for Bruce Wayne. How and why he became disillusioned with society and how he decided to become Batman. It also does a nice job of showing how all those Batman gadgets we see in the other movies came into existence.
The plot is simple enough and believable enough that it flows nicely beginning to end. Spoiler alert here (skip this paragraph if you haven't seen it yet): the final scene, where he's shown a card of the joker, sets up a sequel with the Joker as the bad guy, which could turn out pretty weird, since we've already had a Batman movie with the Joker. In fact, it was the first Batman and the Joker was none other than the legendary Jack Nicholson, who stole the movie in each and every scene. It's gonna be tough to cast another Joker (who wants to be compared with Nicholson!!) and it's gonna be impossible not to draw parallels between the two performances. I sure don't envy the actor who gets the part. I don't really know the Batman comic strip, but don't they have plenty other baddies to pick from? Or is Nolan (who I assume is bound by contract to direct the next one) trying to stretch and challenge himself to do better than Tim Burton, the director of the first two Batman movies (and the best together with this one?)
...
And now, for the other one, War of the Worlds: I have to say, I was pretty disappointed. For a movie directed by arguably the greatest director of our generation, Steven Spielberg, and starring the greatest movie star of the last 20 years, Tom Cruise (I didn't say the greatest actor, mind you,) it kind of... sucked.
I haven't seen the original movie, and this one might have tried to pay homage to it, but the visual effects looked a little stale and the story heavily borrowed from other movies (The Abyss, The X-Files, Independence Day, and Spielberg's own Minority Report come to mind.)
The screenplay was definitely the weakest link of this overblown, reheated meatloaf. Some of the things the actors were required to do were so ridiculous and absurd, they immediately jolted you out of the fantasy world the director was trying to create (i.e., if you see the pavement in front of you crack and swell, do you stay there and wait to see what's coming out of it, or do you run for your life?)
But the worst thing, and this is the only real spoiler here (skip this paragraph if you haven't seen it yet,) was having Cruise's son come out of his mother's house at the end of the movie. Com' on. The kid was so stupid (who knows why, since it's never explained to us and it just plain doesn't make sense) to absolutely wanting to go over a hilltop to take a look at the total destruction that was going on beyond it (we weren't shown it, but the innuendo was enough.) As soon as he's on the other side, a huge cloud of fire (from multiple explosions) engulfs everything in sight, making it quite clear that nothing and nobody could have survived it. And since he wasn't one of the main characters, but rather a supporting player for Dakota Fanning's, we quickly made peace with the fact the he was gone. Why the need to bring him back at the end? It really looks like this is the human counterpart of the family from The Incredibles. Nothing can stop or kill them. Totally ridiculous.
Too bad. Let's just hope Spielberg will do a better job on the upcoming Munich, although I read its production was getting a little rushed, so who knows if the time crunch will take its toll on the final product.
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