What Was the Last Movie You Watched?

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Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham (2023)

Animated adaptation of Mike Mignola's comic from 2000. In the 1920s, Bruce Wayne returns home after travelling the world for 20 years following the murder of his parents. He soon becomes aware of mysterious events stretching back to the founding of Gotham, and a connected present-day plot to unleash an ancient evil. He also starts to find that those events shine a different light on some aspects of his past.

The movie opens with Bruce and others in the Antarctic. A journey across gorgeous snowscapes - which begins behind the opening titles - is really striking, eventually leading to the stark contrast of abandoned remains of an expedition and several frozen corpses (which look like they've been photo-referenced from perhaps the Franklin Expedition). Bruce catches sight of what may be a survivor, and we're off into HP Lovecraft territory...

Apparently there's some race/gender-swapping of supporting characters; I've never read the original so this didn't tick me off; the characters presented are still relevant to Batman's mythology (and there's some cool name-play). Voice acting is fine; David Giuntoli as Batman, John DiMaggio as Jim Gordon, Jason Marsden as Dick Grayson, Jeffrey Combs as Kirk Langstrom (I won't list more for fear of spoilers) all do well. Standout for me is Brian George (Raj's dad from The Big Bang Theory) as Alfred, sounding uncannily like Efrem Zimbalist Jr in BTAS!

The plot is fine up to the introduction of a certain pair of characters, when it starts to go downhill; this may be Elseworlds but I still want it to feel like Batman - this could have been a John Constantine story (nothing against JC, btw). And the climax feels a bit generic. Frustrating after such a promising start.

People seem either bowled over by this or find it pretty meh. Sad to say I'm nearer the latter. 6/10
 
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The second one is Shinjuku Incident.
 
The Empty Man (2020)
Well... Never saw that ending coming! :thud:

An ex-cop, haunted by the deaths of his wife and son, investigates the disappearance of a missing teenage girl. As he does so, twists and turns bring him to the urban legend of 'the Empty Man', and a ritual game played by local youngsters. And as far as the plot goes I can't say any more. This is a film where you really don't want to know, well, anything before going in. But I will say there's a superb central performance from James Badge Dale. This is his film, in every way.

It's based on a graphic novel, and was apparently the last film made by Fox before the Disney take-over. Disney, not having a clue what they had or how to market it, buried it. Limited release, virtually no publicity - criminal. It deserves to be far better known. Heck, the 20 minute prologue would make a great short in its own right (with an unexpected ending all of its own!).

After it finished I found myself thinking a few times, 'Hang on, what about...' Or 'That bit doesn't work...' But it does. It really does. Very, very clever, and very well executed. Huge congratulations to director David Prior.

8.5/10
 
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Sanctuary. Nice thriller and little erotic game of cat and mouse between Margaret Qualley and Christopher Abbott and it does keep you guessing what's the game and what's real. Qualley I knew from her work on The Leftovers on HBO, but less familiar with Abbott. Still, both did a great job.
 
This, That and the Other! (1969)
4 latas / 4L (2019)
Sur un arbre perché / Perched on a Tree (1971)
Charlie et ses deux nénettes / Charlie and His Two Chicks (1973)
Les routes du sud / Roads to the South (1978)
The Mother (2023)
 
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