I also seem to recall mention that the fire f/x in LotR was supposed to be noteworthy.

I thought the Balrog was excellent, the Eye not so much.

It did crack me up at the end when its tower was collapsing and it started shifting around everywhere. "Whuh-oh! Who pushed the down button?"

I didn't like the design of the eye enough that the execution was lost on me.

Also, in any other situation, everybody would be talking about how Gary Oldman's performance was so amazing, and he was just fully absolutely Jim Gordon. But Ledger overshadowed everything else.

I remember being blown away by Gary Oldman in Batman Begins, particularly because, when I first heard the casting, I was appalled. But he's so totally Jim Gordon that it's a little freaky. (Like J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson in the Spider-Man movies.)

I've said before that I think that Batman Begins is as much Jim Gordon's movie as it is Bruce Wayne's movie.

As for TDK, I'm one of the few viewers who thought that Ledger was *good,* certainly, and really made the role his own, but I didn't think he overshadowed the rest of the movie/actors. I don't know why.

Unrelatedly, we have to go see Bride Wars Sunday. (The Boy is on a kick of taking his [many] nieces and nephews to the movies, and Sunday's outing involves the oldest of the bunch, his 24-year-old and 18-year-old nieces. So they picked Bride Wars.)

I had never heard of it, and we spent about half an hour last night speculating on whether it would involve kickboxing, krav maga, a Darth Vader bride, exploding bouquets, and (my favorite) a Veil of Death.

Then I looked up a synopsis. No Veil of Death. I'm very sad.

t edit Oh Lord. It has a 12% on Rotten Tomatoes. It's going to make me go all fist of death, isn't it?

well it's got Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson in it so at least there will be pretty.

Yeah, with them in it I imagine it's a very well-acted insipidly clichéd storyline.

I remember being blown away by Gary Oldman in Batman Begins, particularly because, when I first heard the casting, I was appalled. But he's so totally Jim Gordon that it's a little freaky. (Like J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson in the Spider-Man movies.)

I finally realized why I had doubts about Oldman. I knew he could play an American no problem. But I'd never seen him play anyone who wasn't in some way morally conflicted or suspect, and Jim Gordon, despite some faults due to the system, is humbly righteous. I didn't know if Oldman had THAT in him, but he did, in spades. Sirius Black is a whole other type of righteous (i.e. aggrieved and vengeful and, of course, initially suspect) that I never thought for a moment he'd have a problem with, though he did bring a sense of fun to Order of the Phoenix that I that was lacking in the book, where Sirius was mostly broodingly whiny.

I've said before that I think that Batman Begins is as much Jim Gordon's movie as it is Bruce Wayne's movie.

I wish it had been just a little bit more his. I know why it wasn't, and there was already too much going on in the move (as with TDK). But his Batmobile ride was so...sublime? Perfect? In any case, I wanted a little more of that.

Yes, the assistant did, Matt.

And yes Frank, the slash was intentional, but I sort of felt the symbol was a little flippant in this instance.

John Noble has a wonderfully distinctive voice, I think. As does Sean Bean. I remember when FOtR first came out I hated Viggo's voice so much--thin, whiny, no authority, no solidity. I felt Bean would have made a much better Aragorn on voice alone. Viggo did a lot of work on his voice, and by RotK, he had a more commanding voice worthy of following, I thought.

Brendan Fraser has a definitely recognizable voice, as does McKellan. And if we're going for impressiveness plus recognition factor--Bob Newhart, Richard Boone, a second vote for Roscoe Lee Browne, Brock Peters, Alec Guinness, Harrison Ford, Denholm Elliot, Anthony Quayle, Streep, Christine Lahti, Linda Hunt, Lawrence Fishburne, Jerry Orbach, Gina Torres, James Spader, to name a few.

ETA: I think TDK is called "Ledger's movie" because the Joker overshadows everyone else in it and everything. Ledger did a wonderful job with the role, but it's the role itself that took over the movie.