Hi, its me again.
I am recovering from a severe bout of viral fever. Was away from office for almost a week. It was a welcome break ( anytime ) but it could have been spent in a better way!
After going through information posted on Tamal's blog I hunted down a link that would allow me to watch Batman Dead End. After the praise came the downfall.
The instant reaction to the film were memories of third rate Hollywood films, something like Terminator 8 or something. It is a movie which has absolutely no appeal, acting is no good (though I like the Joker bit) and as my good friend Rohan had mentioned only one scene is worth a mention, the one with the cape.
You must understand that I am not criticizing the low budget movie, I am admonishing the film. Being a low budget flick does not warrant a poetic charm or a soft review. Its like Batman is wearing cheap (pre-owned )latex. Blair witch did ok with shoe string budget.
In comparison to Batman, I could suggest another series of short films. BMW films. Short, classy, different and pulsating. I am sure producing them would have cost an A-bomb but it is worth it. Music is good, direction is awesome and the "hero" manages to create a fan out of me.
Tamal, I am sorry for you that superman will be featured in crimson. But face the fact, it is something that Superman is coming back in a movie. It would mean more money in the business, higher reach to people.
This is the same reason why I think Peter Jackson has done a good job. Not everyone will get down to read Tolkien, this way atleast some of his work is being made famous.
Cheers
9 comments:
Bravo Aditya, for pulling the intellectual equivalent of a Mallika Sherawat soundbyte... sensational.
First off, I can't believe you feel that Peter Jackson's films made LotR famous... LotR is by far the most read of any English book of the 20th century, read by more people than James Joyce's Ulysses, or the Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, or Catch 22. Batman or Harry Potter were NOT made famous by the films. In fact, you are the only person i know who still refuses to read LotR, whatever your reasons.
To compare Dead End to the BMW films is something only you could have done. The only thing in common I can possibly imagine is the short format. With directors such as Ang Lee, John Woo, Frankenheimer, Guy Ritchie, & Innaritu... what do you expect?
Dead End is a FAN FILM. It was made with no objective other than to voice personal beliefs on the Bat. The budget of $30k must have gone almost entirely into the cost of the film... Batman's spandex IS probably preowned. Where does a fan manage to find actors of a high enough calibre to suit your refined tastes? Hint: he can't. That by itself shouldn't be reason enough to diss the film.
Dead End is NOT a hollywood film, its a fan film. Bat fans have long standing grudges that their hero has never been faithfully reproduced on screen... in that sense, Dead End does seek to satisfy Bat fans.
I personally thought it was a delightful film, and presumes to be nothing more than a fan film. As I remarked myself, this film is unabashedly a fan film, and as such, appeals only to them. Nothing wrong in that. That is what it is. I had said in my post that this sort of film would appeal only to bat freaks. That was not a comment, it was an observation. I base this on the fact that a quick poll of my class showed that not one person had seen the latest Batman movie... or any of them, for that matter. A fan film would be out of the question.
I see your point. I am wrong in comparing these directors against fan movies. Also it seems that I have hurt a couple of fans with my post. I am sorry for that too.
Rohan, I still harbor my line of thought about popularity of movies. There is a huge section of people who have seen LOTR and would have probably never read the books. No doubt the film has left a lot of fans fuming, but there is also a section of the crowd who are glad the movie was made. Not every body has the good habit of reading books.
Would Tolkien have appreciated this rendition of his work?
i forgot to add, by saying famous I didnt mean that it was not famous already. I know it is the biggest and the best work of fiction to have descended on Earth.
The ignorant people who were not aware of its heavenly existence got to have a taste of it via the movie.
And Rohan the reason why I have not read LOTR yet is that I was pushed a tad too far to read it. I had got down to buy the book also, but I had heard so much of it between you and Tamal that I didnt feel like opening it at all.
For your sake, I hope you can look past all that and read the book.
I know what you mean. Every likes to be the one who discovers it... nobody wants to be the follower. If someone raves about a book, I'd want to read it. But if someone goes on and on about it, and if everybody's reading it, it's kinda chic not to read it. This is what happened with me and the God of Small Things. I refused to read it because everybody else was. But when i finally got off my high-horse (though it is debated if i ever did!) and read GoST, I thought it was brilliant. I felt utterly stupid for rejecting it initially, thinking it was too bourgeois... and in thinking that, I pulled a bourgeois stunt.
But then again, it goes both ways. Tamal, for instance, was quite resistant to read LotR. It took me forever to convince him to read the Dune books...
You are only guilty of an unfortunately too common human condition...
I am not doing this coz i am riding a pony. In fact, you do remember I have read a lot of books suggested by both you and Tamal, and I appreciate when I get to know of some book from you people. 100 years of Solitude, Genome, Chronicles of a Death Foretold - to name a few. I am looking forward to read The Blind Watchmaker. The fact is that the contents of LOTR were so painstakingly discussed between you two, I feel there would be no mystery left, no charm. As a matter of fact the movie too didnt help in this direction.
Well aditya i just finished reading your post.I dont begrudge the fact that you dont like dead end.I didnt expect anyone to like it at all.You see the fact the batman wears spandex instead of nipple suits(see the batman films which didnt star michael keaton) was a huge bonus.You know what a comics freak i am.For me seeing my favourite hero being reduced to a joke with each passing film was for lack of better words extremely painfull.About the sfx,you already know the cheap budget it performed in.As for seeing the 2 famous aliens battling-there was a whole series in the comics where batman did actually bring down a few predators.anyway,i am aware of the bmw shorts.But again its a company backed project-so wholly different scenario.See you make a good arguement that if books are adapted to films then it reaches to a broader audience.Statistically you are absolutely right.But i ask you,at what price??You have read memoirs of a geisha??Or Life of Pi??i dont know about you but i loved both those books.And both of them are on their way to being Hollywood-ised.Another example-Johnny Bravo??the cartoon serial??its being made into a film-starring the Rock.I am not kidding.You can check this out.And how about Tintin??Spielberg decided he can do just about anything so he now he plans to make a tintin film.Not a cartoon one but with live actors.I dont know about you but this makes me very sad.If this would make tintin more famous- then he is better off without it.I am not even going into other books that are being destroyed daily by hollywood.Dont get me wrong-hollywood also does some amazing work.But more often than not it screws good things over.Bigger is not allways better.I dont know about tolkien,but for me Middle Earth was an amazing place.I took that journey with frodo.But peter jackson turned it into a swashbuckling adventure.I just dont have words to say for things like this.For reference see the trailer of King Kong-(Tell me if you see ONE new idea in that trailer.that is peter jackson for you.rehashed.regurgitated.)One thing though-most of peter jacksons so called credit actually goes to the people who actually did research for the films and designing the stuff used in it.
Now for one question-think about your all time favourite book.then imagine it with extra bright colors and special effects an d big bangs and sweeping music.Will that actually increase your love for the book??Maybe imagine shah rukh or Vin diesel in the title role.Things like this do not and cannot do justice to a book.your thoughts??
P.S.- i totally understand what u said abt not getting the desire to read LOTR.Postpone it.But do read it believe me the film isnt even 0.0001% of what the book is.
I loved Life of Pi because of the simplistic style. Must admit I dont see how such a movie could be made.
I dont remember if I have read Memoirs of a Geisha. I am forgetting a name of the novel which i read once, about 4 chinese daughthers and their mothers. It just slips my name....This again is one book recommended by both rohan and tamal.
I had hopes that Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy would be a good movie, but it didnt do well and as a result it didnt make it to India and I could not see it.
But tamal i applaud you for restraining yourself even though i have managed a crass and impudent review. I again acknowledge that I didnt do the rite thing by really comparing the BMW films with this one...
Cheers..
the book that you cant remember the name of is joy luck club.by the way,hitchhikers had one advantage-douglas adams himself had written the script just before he died.Even i havnt been able to see it but the trailer didtn do anything for me.oh and you know who is writing the script for PI??M.Night Shyamalan.
yes now i remember Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan....good book... i didnt know that PI was being made into a movie, so couldnt as much know that M night shyamalan was involved. I read a book recently - Five Point Some one- Chetan Bhagat...it is about what not to do at IIT...light reading...try and read it if you can...
Cheers
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