Wednesday 29 August 2012

New Name

Hello all!

I bet your wondering about the new name for this blog.
The name needed a change (can't elaborate, sorry!), and for Valentines Day last year my boyfriend bought be pieces of bamboo twisted into a heart that I am totally obsessed with so I thought it made sense. I've attached a photo, just so you all can see.

So welcome to Heart Shaped Bamboo!


Sunday 5 August 2012

Movie Review: The Dark Knight Rises

    What can I say about a Christopher Nolan movie? He first hit my radar after The Dark Knight, one of the best written movies I have seen in a very long time, and when I found out that David S Goyer of Blade fame was involved with his projects and vice versa I knew I wanted to see everything the man put his hands on. (As I have tried to do with Goyer, I am an enormous Blade fan!)

The thing about The Dark Knight rises is that it had one major thing in it that, depending on how it was handled, would sway me into either loving or hating the movie. That thing would be Catwoman.
I have been a huge Catwoman fan for as long as I can remember, even leading back to the Adam West Batman tv series, and Michelle Pfieffer in Batman Returns was incredible. To a 10 year old she was beyond incredible, but I have to say that watching that movie again recently it hasn't lost any of its magic.
So, when I heard that Catwoman was going to be in The Dark Knight Rises I knew that I wanted to see it, but I was concerned. I knew that she would be handled in regards to Nolan's writing, but in terms of the actress to play her I was not sure who could pull it off. But, I had also been unsure of Heath Ledger as the Joker and...well...I don't think I need to explain, if you've seen it you understand. That's why I didn't get bent out of shape when I heard it was going to be Anne Hathaway.

Now, let me get into talking about the movie.
In a lot of ways, it was what we had all come to expect from a Nolan Batman movie. Killer script, a villain to really get excited about (yes, Handsome Bob from Rocknrolla is Bane. Can you tell? They did a good job of making Tom Hardy not look like Tom Hardy), some interesting twists for Batman fans that I won't give away. (When I found out that Marion Cotillard was in the movie I was confused, why didn't she play Catwoman? But she's perfect where she is.) I don't know the Batman universe too well in terms of the comic storylines but I have been told that they didn't follow certain things, and my comment to that is - have you seen any of the Xmen movies?
And now we get to Catwoman. I was a bit disappointed because I did not feel that the script did as much with her character as it could've. There were some scenes, specifically the first scene that Hathaway and Bale are in together, where Hathaway is phenomenal but in other parts she feel short. I was not impressed with the costume at first, but when I saw how the weird ears were really glasses (you have to see the movie to understand what I mean) I really liked that, I thought it was an interesting touch. I did not hear her referred to as Catwoman once in the movie, it was only referenced when Bruce Wayne was looking at her police file.
Did I like Hathaway? She did the best she could. I'd be interested to hear what other Catwoman fans thought of her performance.

But the movie as a whole was pretty good. I think that anyone who liked the other movies will enjoy it, and may feel at the end that they should write some letters to Nolan to try to get him to do another. I would personally love to see David S Goyer pick up the reigns and see what he can do with it.
I would recommend this to fans, but I have to say to you now, its not The Dark Knight so don't walk into the movie expecting that. It is a great movie, but it's just not the same.