The Thomas Chronicles

I’d rather not see the latest in the Batman movies. I’ve been a fan of the Batman movies ever since the first Tim Burton movie back in 1989. I’ve even checked into the comicbooks from time to time despite (or because of) Frank Miller’s psychotic rendition.

But this is one Batman movie is not what I had in mind as a good time for one overwhelming reason. The death of Heath Ledger.

I believe this role ultimately killed him and I don’t see how anyone can rationalize it. He said the role got under his skin. The sociopathic madman in the Joker got inside him when he played that role, haunted him, refused to let him sleep, as though the evil he portrayed latched onto him.

Heath Ledger described his sleepless nights and mental exhaustion as he wrestled with his role as the “psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic” Joker in the new Batman film.

He died overdosing on sleeping pills.

I know there are some who say they’re going to see this movie in honor of Ledger, but I think it’s darn close to morbid.

… to be entertained by the movie that killed Heath Ledger— kind of like laughing over a man’s grave, there’s just something not right about it…

I went to go see a curious movie yesterday called, “Invasion”. It was pretty good as far as it goes. The plot was decent, the story progression comprehensible. But I don’t have foggiest why they chose to strobe the last thirty minutes of the movie into a schizophrenic frenzy. The chase sequence was so fevered and non-linear that it jarred my mind.

Afterward, my friend said that the movie (and lots of movies in general nowadays) reminded him of this incident that occurred in Great Britain recently. One of the most popular shows in Britain— I don’t know which— was strobing the action so violently that it initiated seizures from London to Glasgow. I don’t know of anyone is aware that doctors strobe light at patients to test whether or not they have seizure disorders. Apparently, the strobing in our television and media has become so disorienting that they’re inducing seizures in Britain! … and our movies and tv shows are not far behind.

Case in point, older movies back during the supposed “Golden Age” of Hollywood contained about 25 to 50 cuts over the course of one hour-and-a-half movie. Contrast that to todays manic, steroid pumping madness of 600 to 800 cuts per one hour-and-a-half movie. How can you possibly tell a story with all these cuts? You’d be reducing movies to split second images and fleeting impressions.

There is no story in that. How can there be?

Regardless of this gripe I have against the devolution of storytelling in the movies, I thought the basic thrust of the movie “Invasion” fascinating. Of course, it is yet another half-hearted remake of the classic “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”, but this updated version posed some interesting questions that couldn’t be explored previously.

But enough about this movie. I’ve got some house cleaning to do.