Mano a Mano

I'm on the fence regarding comic book movies, wasn't a comic nerd as a kid, and my memories of Speed Racer and Spiderman in their 1960s animated tv incarnations dwarf the Hollywood franchises that have arrived in recent years. Still, eye candy for its own sake is ok with me.

But it's hard to enjoy even the most dazzling movie images if they aren't held together with some storytelling. Yes, Heath Ledger was a talented young actor with much promise, and he managed to make us forget Jack Nicholson's Joker, no small feat. But, as The New York Times' David Carr wrote on the last day of 2008, "in an industry that seems unable to find a way to end a story, the Batman’s third act stands out as an amazing mess... Iron Man, on the other hand, may land somewhat prosaically — and the fight with Jeff Bridges is a bit cheesy — but there is a satisfying crunch to the end."

Today, for good measure, I was reminded how much I don't like Christian Bale. He was well-suited to the first role I saw him in, Patrick Bateman in Mary Harron's clever reworking of Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho [2000]. But after hearing Bale's on-set tirade at the cinematographer on the upcoming Terminator Salvation, I think the Bateman performance was a fluke, the actor was just a lot like the character. Robert Downey Jr. made his Batman look like a mannequin.