Finding Neverland?

Kyle and I saw Batman Begins yesterday. Believe the hype! It's up there with the Spider-Man movies for putting comic books onscreen with the minimum of embarrassment. It's ones like this that make being a fanboy a little less reprehensible in the eyes of the rest of the world. It's not even a super-hero movie, really. Batman has never had super-powers, just martial arts training and a lot of expensive gadgets. But EVERYTHING here is justified in real world terms: why the Joker is so theatrical, how the Scarecrow inspires fear in his victims, how Ra's Al Ghul is immortal, etc. It's great to see everything taken so seriously, and the end result is a gripping journey in fear, psychology and morality.

Katie Holmes ain't great but neither does she spoil everything in her last performance before going mad. (Her final scene made me want to lend her my sweater, the poor thing.) The rest of the cast is unbelievably good: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Tom Wilkinson, Linus Roache, Liam Neeson... have there ever been more Brits in a major U.S. motion picture? I have a habit of remarking on cool Brits when they show up in my American life, and I think Kyle was deaf in his right ear by the end of the movie. Let's not forget the Dutchman (Rutger Hauer) and Irishman (Cillian Murphy) either. Thank you, America, for funding this European film!

By the way, if anyone can identify the actor playing the Wayne Enterprises board member who said "the apple has fallen far from the tree" in the party scene, please let me know. I swore it was John Hurt (British!) but can't find him on any cast lists.



This was my first trip to the movies since Serenity, so I saw a lot of new previews. First up, the Serenity trailer! It's weird to see an ad for a movie you saw already in previews, but it looked good. It showed enough action to get major bums-on-seats on release. A franchise here would be nice, though a TV show with more time for character moments would be even nicer.

Fantastic Four looked like it had four times the lameness, but we've known that for a long time.

Then came Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory. You can always trust Johnny Cheekbones to give a memorable performance, but something tells me this one won't be for all the right reasons. He has a squeaky voice, a powdery white complexion and he invites children to his secret lair where the normal rules of society don't apply. With That Trial in the news for most of the year, he really creeped me out and I would not want my kids going to the Chocolate Factory. Oh god... is "chocolate factory" some horrible euphemism like "Jesus juice"? I'm disturbing myself now so I'm out.