New Obsessions
Posted on | June 16, 2005 at 11:09 pm | 3 Comments
I have a new addiction. My local newspaper just added Sudoku to it’s puzzle page. I had never run across it before. It’s like a crossword puzzle, but with numbers instead of words. Just the thing for a logical engineering geek like myself. Easy to play but hard (so far) to master. I’m not much for puzzles these days, but this one has really captured my interest. It’s a good time-waster while waiting for programs to compile or whatever.
Speaking of crossword puzzles, I notice that those still appear in the paper every day and still appear to be popular. But I just can’t understand why anyone would want to solve one in these days of the Internet. Seems like it would be too easy/tempting to just Google the answers. You’d have to have a lot will power to avoid doing the research, and would have to really like doing them, I guess.
The more I think about Batman Begins, the more I can’t stop thinking about it. I was just so surprised that they got it right – I never truly believed the advance buzz. The dialog just crackles. No “Hold me like you did by the lake on Naboo” crap. The story was actually interesting and I couldn’t wait to see what would happen next. Christian Bale did a great, believable job with all three sides of the character, and for once I didn’t mind that the hero spent so much time out of costume, since it allowed us to really get to know him. I especially liked how Batman was vulnerable and not some kind of James Bond Superman – that at times you really feared for him but not in a silly “How is he going to get out of this stupid death trap?” type way. His first encounter with Scarecrow was genuinely horrifying and surprising, and I really got the sense that Hey, this guy just might be out of his depth. The facade of control doesn’t always hold up.
Which brings me to the villains. Sure, they had wildly grandiose and impossible schemes, but that’s what villains do. At least this time they played it pretty straight though. I can’t say much more without ruining some surprises. I was just really glad that for a Batman movie that focused on the hero (for once), the villains were not regulated to an afterthought. In the original run of Batman movies, the villains were just these insane guys who were there to chew up the scenery. Remember how Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face was basically channeling Jack Nicholson’s Joker, even though the two villains have very different personalities in the comics? Or how Jim Carrey was just doing Jim Carrey instead of the Riddler? None of that here. The villains have real personalities and motivations, and it’s a kick to watch them interact with the hero. Every good origin story (heck, every good hero/villain story period) has to have a real connection between the hero and villain, to the point that you get the sense there’s only a thin line separating them. This movie does not disappoint in that regard. The arcs of hero and villain come together in very satisfying ways. A bit contrived maybe, but still fun and necessary.
Ah well, enough for now. But this is probably not going to be the last time I talk about it. I guess this summer at the movies isn’t going to be as dull as I thought it would be.
Latre.
Comments
3 Responses to “New Obsessions”
June 17th, 2005 @ 11:09 am
I LOVE doing crossword puzzles and do the NYT crossword almost every day. I usually skip Mondays because they are too easy. The puzzle gets progressively harder as the week goes on, with Friday and Saturday being the most difficult ones. I will admit that if I get really, really stuck, and Joe can’t help me, I will occasionally resort to Google, but a lot of times that won’t help. For example, in yesterday’s puzzle a clue read “Goes for the gold?” The answer was PANS.
OK, you have convinced me, I’ll go see BATMAN.
June 18th, 2005 @ 8:24 am
I stand corrected on the crossword puzzles. I admire your restraint on not going for the easy answers.
As for BB, I was worried about talking it up so much, because I don’t want anyone to go in based on my pushing it and be disappointed. But I do think it’s really that good and so do other people I trust. Sue, see Dave Walker’s comment under the previous post.
June 27th, 2005 @ 5:41 pm
I discovered Sudoku a while back, I’m good at it and I do them frequently but I don’t feel compelled to do them daily. I prefer cryptogram, logic, and math puzzles to crossword puzzles, but occasionally do the online “Crickler” puzzle on the RMN site. One of my favorites is the figure logic puzzle, which is crossword style but the clues are math. If you are interested try one at http://www.dellmagazines.com/samplepuzzles/FigureLogic.pdf