*exhausted*

[annwfyn]

I just woke up at 10.30 am. I went to bed around 1 am. I have normally been waking up at 7 am, no matter what. Not today!

I think I needed that sleep.

So, how is Sally? How is the new job going?

(OK, so no one actually asked that question, but I'm going to tell you all anyway).

The job appears to be going well. I have an desk of my own, in a shared office. I have a 2009 staff diary, I have keys to the museum so I can let myself in and out, and I've got a contract which lasts until September when I begin as a proper and permanent member of staff.

I wear dresses into work every day, have a boss who calls me 'sweetie' and have been feeling so much better for feeling like my future is that bit more secure.

For any who are interested, I shall be working Tuesday - Friday, 10-5, with some overtime (mostly the occasional weekend, and fairly regularly working past 5 if it's needed). I also have no internet access at the museum at all right now, but am available via my mobile phone if I'm needed.

And gods, I'm tired.

I shouldn't be. I know I shouldn't be, but the combo of this heat, starting a new job, and assorted ZG related commitments has left me shattered. I hate this weather so damn much!

Let it rain! Please, let it rain!

Oh, in other news, we went to see the Dark Knight last night. I don't think I had the geek orgasm that is widely being reported as the only possible response to the film. I thought Gary Oldman was outstanding as Jim Gordon. I loved Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent, and Heath Ledger did make an incredible joker. Christian Bale, however, played Batman as a bit of a large lump of wood and I do rather agree with troubleinchina about the misogyny of the film. The female characters were there to be weak, to be compromised, to not really matter. And whilst I love Maggie Gyllenhaal, Rachel Dawes was the weakest of her characters by a long way.

I was also very bitter about Jim Gordon developing a son, who got a load of screen time whilst his daughter was left unnamed and off screen. HELLO? That's ORACLE! Do you people know NOTHING?

Bah. And humbug.

But there were some lovely moments, and I'm glad I saw it.

Comments

[adze.livejournal.com]

Jim Gordon has had a son for ages, but he's not a big part of the world.

I was quietly amused by what they did with Barbara Gordon. Minimal screen time, but frequently mentioned, and only shown in shadowed glimpses, with no real way to tell how old she is. Thus leaving it open for her to play a much bigger part in a future movie, either as Batgirl, or ideally as Oracle...

Overall, I liked the movie, although I hated the end. I don't think it was as awesome as other people seem to think, and I'd agree totally with you on the acting.

[pmp.livejournal.com]

How does the movie rate for someone who'se not a huge comic book fan and doesn't know massive amounts of the back story? Does it follow on well from Batman Begins?

[becky-spence.livejournal.com]

Who's Oracle?

Bale was okay. Heath was amazing :)

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

~stares in blank horror~

~refuses to believe that a civilized person does not know who Oracle is~

~assumes Becky does not read DC Comics~

Oracle is Barbara Gordon, Jim Gordon's daughter. Was Batgirl, was then shot and paralyzed by the Joker. Now lives in a wheelchair, and runs the Birds of Prey, who are a mostly girl superhero team, who rock big time. Hangs out with Black Canary a lot. Is the subject of a LOT of Black Canary slashfic. Big love of Dick Grayson's life.

One of the very few disabled superheroes out there. Super clever.

She rocks.

[becky-spence.livejournal.com]

Aaahh. No, I don't read DC :) This would explain not knowing :)

I suspect they'll not have a batgirl in it, if Bale has refused to be in a film with a robin in it on sidekick grounds.

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

As Batgirl she wasn't that interesting. As Oracle she is incredible. And I don't need her to be Batgirl. I just object to her not even being named as Jim Gordon's daughter. I'd be quite happy with 'small girl with red hair, who actually has a face'.

It's a whole 'proper continuity thing'.

Marvel do it really well. The current Batman franchise is...odd. Good films, but a long way from the comics, which I think is a shame as Marvel have proved it is possible to do good dark films whilst utilizing the really in depth and richly nuanced world that the comics have created.

Tis sad. Comic wise, I prefer DC. For films, I'll watch the Marvel films any day. And much as I liked Dark Knight, I preferred both Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk.

[melsner.livejournal.com]

I think that the current Bat films are a reaction because of how incredibly bad the other Batman movies were. "Batman and Robin" was the pinnacle of campy, cheezy badness.

So these have compensated by going as realistic and serious as possible. It gets a lot of the feel from Frank Miller's Batman: Year One, but isn't a faithful adaptation of that either... So Batman Begins isn't like the current comics, but is way better than the Bat Nipple movies. And it has the added value of non comic fans taking it seriously.

[melsner.livejournal.com]

I could see them pulling something where the skip they "batgirl" phase entirely and just have young Barbara Gordon as a computer hacker who helps Batman...

[adze.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I thought that, too.

Would be an interesting way to bring her in without doing the whole costumed vigilante thing.

[melsner.livejournal.com]

I suppose they could have her try to be batgirl, get paralyzed and become oracle, but I think that would kind of fall flat for the movie...

might be best for her to go straight to computer genius mode.

[quisalan.livejournal.com]

I didn't know who she was either!

The Gordons

[melsner.livejournal.com]

Actually, in Frank Miller's Batman: Year One, it establishes that Jim Gordon does have a son (also named James, I think). Weirdly enough, his wife is also named Barbara...

Barbara Gordon (Batgirl), in current continuity, is actually his niece who he's adopted. Her parents died in a car wreck, so he's raised her as his daughter. However, there was an issue where it turns out he slept with his brother's wife, so she may actually be his biological daughter.

His first wife divorced him and took their son back to Chicago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Gordon_(comics)

While watching Dark Knight, I figured that they intentionally made a point of not showing young Barbara, so that they could recast the role if they ever wanted to do something with Batgirl / Oracle. Mind you, I'm not really sure how they can make teenage sidekicks like Batgirl and Robin work in the current movie franchise...

[ginasketch.livejournal.com]

Misogyny in a modern hollywood film? NEVER. :p

/sarcasm.

I'm getting so fed up with hollywood. I do still want to see Dark Knight though.

[miss-electra.livejournal.com]

I also agree with the above posters about the Barbara Gordon thing, and add this caveat.

I think that Jim's son is meant to represent the "young" Bruce Wayne. Bruce has a metaphoric connection with him because he keeps saving the child's father (and vice verse). I think it's meant to be one of those framing devices by which we see that Batman really is Bruce, trying to make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else.

[alasdair.livejournal.com]

>>>his daughter was left unnamed and off screen. HELLO? That's ORACLE! Do you people know NOTHING?<<<

Yeah, but Oracle's license is sold seperately to the rest of the Bat-franchise, since she's part of Birds of Prey, so the odds are they contractually *couldn't* name her.

[chrisvenus]

Yeah, I actually liked the TV series of Birds of Prey. A bit cheesy but good fun none-the-less. Partly because Mia Sara was great as Dr Harleen Quinzel... But yeah, its uqite possible the rights to the character are still out because of that.

[commlal.livejournal.com]

I couldnt get comics as a kid, and never got around to read them later :( But thats what Wikipedia is for. Perhaps it was intentional so they could bring her in later, but given how hard the testosterone flows in these movies (I'm looking at you, Spidy3) I doubt there will ever be a good strong female character.

I saw it this afternoon, I loved the Joker. Fantastically dark movie :D

[unifex.livejournal.com]

I assumesd thet Barbara Gordon was just referenced/semi shot so they could decide what to do with her later - writee her as a character, or just skip over her entirely in the future.

Randomly, I note that they have introduced a lot of characters who can 'Come back' - Scarecrow, the Joker, and the Italian Mob moss are defintely 'out there', along with a few others I remember watching and thinking had the potentila.

Random point - the two ships scene, with the bombs? I though thte prisoners response was both classically Batman, and I was pondering whether (In Joker sense) he was actually telling the truth about having the ignition for each others bombs - or whether whoever turned the key would have killed themselves.

Can o' Worms

[twicedead.livejournal.com]

This may be a dangerous subject - but is having a movie with male action leads neccessarily mysogynistic? Only Gordon and Batman are capable of doing anything in the face of the Joker - everyone else is brought low.

Rachel Dawes did not strike me as weak. She stood up to the mob bosses, stood up to the Joker (but was actually scared of him) and held it together better than Harvey did when placed in extreme jeopardy. Sure, she didn't get to Taser anyone this movie - but neither did anyone else, really.