I never saw Titanic in the theaters. I took it personally that such tripe dared to overtake my beloved Star Wars. I've actually never sat down and watched it from the beginning. I have seen enough of it to know the story, and I wasn't impressed with it enough to sit down and watch the whole thing. So I'm also (sort-of) in the minority of people who haven't seen Titanic. Anyway, whatever. As to Batman's voice, it makes sense to me: disguise your looks; disguise your voice. It fits with the graphic novel persona as well as Conroy's voice on the Animated Series. As for Maggie, I wouldn't call her hot, but she sure isn't ugly, either. I went yesterday to the IMAX with the family (mom, aunts, an uncle, and a cousin). None of them had seen it, none of them are particularly into the super hero thing, and they were all completely blown away by the movie, Bale's performance, Eckharts (sp?) performance, and especially Heath Ledger. They feel that the Oscar hype for Ledger is entirely valid, and I agree 100%.
Article regarding Bale's voice... http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/ap/20080803/121779624000.html EDIT: Just noticed mlwoo posted the CNN version of the same article...
This will probably be taken sensitively by some or viewed as politically incorrect, but whatever, I don't care: Can someone please explain to me the motivation behind casting a woman as homely as Maggie Gyllenhaal as the lead female role in the biggest action film of the summer? It mean seriously, what goes into making a decision to cast Bruce freaking Wayne's love interest as Maggie Gyllenhaal? I certainly don't think Nolan was blind enough to actually consider her attractive. It reeks of a desperation toward nonconformity - "we're going to cast this ugly chick as Rachel Dawes because we actually think she's a good actor. Screw the archetype of hot female lead in action thriller." Her acting wasn't anything to write home about either - atleast not enough to take attention away from her lack of beauty. You could easily find some B-rate hottie with better acting skills for the role. I've read, I think in this thread, that they chose her because she bore somewhat of a resemblance to Katie Holmes due to her droopy eyes....lol, are you kidding me? That's like saying Rosie O'Donnell resembles Angelina Jolie because they both have pouty lips. So someone please enlighten me on this.
I think Maggie Gyllenhaal was believable as a lawyer more than Katie H Cruise. Maybe they should have had Nicole Kidman. She was awesome in that other Batman movie.
Perhaps as a lawyer, but definitely not as the girlfriend of one of the most powerful men in Gotham and love interest of Batman. And if we're setting the bar for believability at Katie Holmes, it doesn't take much to surpass that...
Titanic is actually an entertaining movie. I think someone said it was one of the first to hit 200 mill budget? If so, for the time, it shows. Some of the scenes as the thing is going down are very, very impressive. That said, I never understood why it was something that folks would watch over and over and over again in the theater. Just not that big of a draw for me. Still, it did what movies often strive to do; hit multiple viewing audiences all at once. To draw such a wide range of an audience usually means big money. Particularly when one of those audience types is the teenage girl.
I wasn't too impressed by her performance either, but I think it at least fits the established storyline that they grew up together and have known each other for a long time.
Here are a few suggestions for who I would cast in Gyllenhaal's place... Jennifer Connelly (my ideal choice) Carrie-Anne Moss (may look a little old for the part) Rachel McAdams (not sure if she's play a believable lawyer though)
^^^ I mentioned it a few posts above but I think McAdams would have been perfect. Of those three you mentioned she looks the closest in age to Christian Bale and has the best look of a young, hungry DA.
Rutger Hauer as the disgruntled wayne employee comes back as Riddler I was just watching Batman Begins and wondered what happened to his character. I guess just disappeared after Wayne took over again.
He was fired. Didn't you get the memo?? But yeah, having him or Reese come back as a disgruntled and angry type ex-employee(even if just for a minor arc as filler for the main villain) seems possible.
made it over $400M today (just barely). got there in 18 days, narrowly edging out the 43 days it took Shrek 2.
I don't think she's ugly. Maybe you hang around supermodels in your everyday life, but I think her looks are above average. Unfortunately, for her profession they have to be. And I see no value in retaining the "archetype of hot female lead". I don't care about the character any more just because she's extremely attractive physically. And this notion that Nolan's Batman or his Harvey Dent could only love a woman who's drop dead gorgeous is nonsense. They would be attracted to intelligent women of high character.
durvasa, I've got quite a bit of respect for you as a poster, but I have some issues with what you're saying in this thread... Why do people insist on saying that every time someone thinks a famous girl/woman is unattractive? Personally I think she's a dog, and no I don't hang out with supermodels all day. However, it would probably only take me about 3 minutes on myspace or facebook to present at least a dozen "real" girls that I'm actual friends with that are much more attractive. It's not that hard, considering you could fit the freakin' moon in the gap between Maggie Gyllenhaal and a supermodel. When Bruce goes to dinner with Dent early in the movie he has a smoking hot girl with him and she comes off as very intelligent. Now for me to buy the fact that he would fawn over Maggie Gyllanhaal when he obviously had no problem attracting hot and intelligent women...well, that's tough. To me it would be like having LeBron James on your team but trying to convince everyone that you would rather have Shane Battier because of his intelligence and high character. Fair enough, but I care about characters more when they are believable and when they don't distract me. In other words, it helps if their face doesn't look like a Salvatore Dahli clock.
I agree with this. Just because you find somebody attractive does not mean everybody must follow suit and agree. This is where you lose me. How do we know what Bruce Wayne/Batman is attracted to? Maybe he has the same feelings as you or maybe he has those of durvasa. Different strokes. Again, many fans of the movie have expressed their liking of the character and many have stated the opposite. Where were they supposed to go with this, really?
Well, find me a 30-something billionaire who is dating a girl that roughly 50% of the male population thinks his unattractive. Not likely. Now, obviously attractive is a subjective term, and it's especially hard to pin down when you're talking about a fictional character, but judging by the kind of women Bruce usually has around him (the dinner date and the yacht full of ballerinas in Dark Knight, the chicks he went "swimming" with at the restaurant in Batman Begins) I would venture a guess that he's attracted to the typically "hot" type of woman. There's usually not a (roughly) 50/50 split when discussing how attractive a leading lady in an action movie is. Personally, I think that says something. Now, maybe Maggie Gyllenhaal is more "realistic" choice as an attorney, but why is that necessary? It's a super hero movie. If they want to inject realism, I wish they would do it elsewhere in the movie. It's not like her acting was great either, which may have appeased me a little more. That's all I'm saying.
