Well, I think I said it all in the title. Batman is moving from the IMAX theatre at the National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, VA (Dulles Airport) to the IMAX theatre at the National Museum of Natural History starting August 8th.
Tickets are $12.50 and are available at the IMAX theatre box office, and online at si.edu for a small convenience charge. Get your tickets early! Shows in Chantilly have been selling out 3 days in advance!
Join the Smithsonian today and support the museums. You get a monthly magazine and discounts in gift shops, cafeterias, and IMAX theatres!
Batman was my first choice last weekend and there was no time to see 2 movies, so Mama Mia! got pushed off to this weekend though I was really wanting to see it the first weekend. I tend to have a weakness for musicals and even better then they become movies to save some money. Don’t get me wrong, I do like live shows, but if done well, movies inspired from theatrical presentations can bring the show to your home, just make sure you have a big screen and great surround sound 🙂 I enjoy watching good movies many times, and seeing Mama Mia! 10 times on Broadway may cost me a bit more than a $20 DVD 🙂
On to the movie….I was moving in my seat, and admittedly sang along for a bit as I knew most of the songs. It was understanding that the actors and actresses were required to sing and dance without any doubles. Most of the singing was great, but Pierce Bronson…..wow, I don’t think he should sing again! If you see the movie, let me know what you think about his singing.
The movie starts with the soon to be married daughter mailing letters to 3 guys in her mother’s diary which were “…” 9 month before her birth. Apparently “…” refers to baby making. While her mother denied being with hundreds of men, she was not able to identify her father among them.
The bride does her best to keep the presence of the 3 potential dads a secret from her mother and groom, but she discovers them early on and tries to figure out how and why they are on the island. Eventually the guys figure out that they were invited in order for the bride to find out who is her father and to ask them to give her way at the wedding. One would think that her mother should be the one to do this since she has been raised by her mom for 20 years.
After countless ABBA hits, we get to the wedding ceremony. A lot goes on at the alter and the bride and groom turn out to be one of the dads and the brides mother! The original bride and groom decide to go off traveling and postpone their marriage. One of the dads is gay and finds a lover on the island, and the other one is stalked by a friend of the brides mom who I believe is a judge on that David Hasselhoff talent show.
Julie Walters and Christine Baranski are amazing! They make you laugh through the entire movie.
So take a friend and go see this great movie musical! It is based on ABBA hits, so if you don’t like ABBA, I would not recommend going to see this movie.
779 and counting….. I have way too many movies, but cannot seem to give them up, but am offering free rentals to those who work with me at Georgetown University, World Market, National Air and Space Museum, National Zoo, and/or a friend of mine.
No Late Fees
No Rental Fees
No Membership
No Hassles
Visit my movie site today. I exported using the new export function built into Delicious Library and now have been able to separate movies. There are shelves for the following:
Combo HD (One side HD DVD, other side Standard DVD)
Educational (Mostly Discovery and BBC DVDs here)
Favorites (Self explanatory, maybe we have some in common)
HD DVD (HD DVD format, only playable in HD DVD players)
New (My most recently acquired DVDs) Blockbuster 3 for $20 🙂
TV Series (Complete MacGyver, Episodes, and other programmes aired on TV.)
Some background first…… I think I saw the original Batman on TV at some point, but currently own and saw in the theatre, Batman Begins. It is one of my favorite movies. Batman fans will probably agree that I was foolish to buy the original 4 movies having really enjoyed Batman Begins. I tend to like more believable movies and not really into cartoons or animation.
After seeing Indiana Jones at a sold out Saturday showing at the AMC Uptown in Cleveland Park, I knew that Batman, if it came to the Uptown, being a single screen theatre decisions by management are necessary, would be another one to see on the huge screen. In fact, the IMAX theatre at the National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, VA is and has been sold out since opening with only 11 PM showings available this week. There is a sold out showing at 5:30 PM on Sunday! Perhaps that is because tickets are only $12.50, or that the 5 story movie screen is a little bigger than the screen at the local Regal Cinema.
Oh, but best part about the Uptown…..people are actually courteous? WOW, no cell phone conversations or rude patrons talking throughout the show. I was totally amazed and happy. The Uptown is definitely the movie theatre to go to!
Here come the spoilers……
Apparently Wayne mansion is not completed yet and Wayne tower seems to have a new look. Gotham has been cleaned up with no graffiti to be found. The new base for Batman is lacking bats, but the new toys are cool. The coolest was probably a cell phone sonar device which allows them to listen in on calls and actually see through walls to locate people.
Most of the main characters exist in the movie with their original actors and actresses. I thought that Rachael Dawes had packed on a few pounds in her face, but it was actually a different actress, Maggie Gyllenhaal instead of Katie Holmes. Heath Ledger did a great job as the Joker. I have seen him in a few movies, and he is an amazing actor. I had no idea he had a dark side to him. Jack Nicholson on the other hand, I could see as the Joker. He definitely as a mean streak as I saw in A Few Good Men.
I was a little surprised to see that Rachael had a boyfriend and was not holding out for Bruce. She probably thought that Bruce would always be needed as Batman and that would keep them apart. Hmm…sounds like Spiderman, Superman. Why cannot people be superheros and have wives? LOL.
When it came down to splitting up and saving Rachael and the new Commissioner, I was a little shocked that Batman chose to save the Commissioner. This was probably because the Commissioner was the good guy that Gotham needed to replace Batman so that Bruce could live a normal life and get the girl 🙂 I am glad that Alfred burned up the note which was to be given to Bruce that she had decided to stay with the Commissioner and was hurtful by stating that Bruce would always need Batman. Ouch. I think that was just way to say that she liked Aaron Eckhart more than Christian Bale.
Amazing CGI
Did I mention that the CGI was amazing?! Unlike the Mummy where the “being’ is regenerating as he is eating up those who woke him which I actually could stomach to look at, the CGI on Two Face was almost sickening! Getting his face half burned while being rescued by Batman while Rachael dies in the other building, he refused skin grafts and basically you see his eyeball and teeth and inside his closed mouth. The liquid spilling out. I am glad that was brief!
The Sequel
Just when you think Batman is ready to hang up the towel, by burning any and all evidence in the wall furnace…hmm..a little odd to have one of those in there along with all the modern technology I would have suspected a quadruple pass diamond cut shredder or some kind of particle demoleculizer since charred paper is still readable. Guess the effect would not be the same.
With the Batmobile destroyed…what will be next? Perhaps a flying vehicle? For now the motorcycle should suffice, but seems to be a little more dangerous and less armored than his previous mode of transport.
With Two Face dead, I was half suspecting him to be the villain in the next movie, and the Joker potentially in custody, what is next? Hmm…guess we will just have to wait for a copy of the script to leak out.
Impression
While I do think that Batman Begins is still my favorite of the 2, this movie was excellent. I did think the movie was over before it was which means my ADHD attention span was exhausted, but Titanic still has me for that. Checking my watch every few minutes to see if it was over yet! At 2.5 hours, it was long, but was very engaging the entire time and did not give me a chance to get that beverage refill or go to the boys room for fear I would miss an integral part in the movie.
Waiting inline for 2 hours in front of the smelly dumpster was worth it. After the first few breezes past the dumpster, either the smell went away, or my nose got used to it. I am hoping it was the first. Mind you, my nose is usually plugged from allergies, so my ability to smell the dumpster meant it was really a BAD smell.
