Memorable wisecracking wouldn't really have fit with the mood, don't you think?
Precisely! And yet there were at least ten wisecracks.
I got the impression, after sitting through 4 previews for upcoming action movies, that many wise-cracks are made for trailers.
Would you prefer earnest action stars?
We don't say that word here.
Which suggests that the filmmakers are aware that wisecracks are de rigueur, but not that they're on the way out, unless action movies in the future become increasingly dour.
In fact even if action movies become bleaker and bleaker, the perfunctory wisecrack may remain as a holdover whose purpose is unclear but whose presence is widely understood to be necessary—an appendix one fears to remove for superstition's sake. Elaborate myths would spring up to explain their inclusion, when no one can tell what purpose they might once have served, in a brighter world beyond the future's conception.
Great, they're all here at once. Batman is a serious fellow. I wouldn't mind a serious action star. I wouldn't mind a goofy action star. But a serious action star with a goofy streak has outlived its novelty, wouldn't you say?
You think this Batman had a goofy streak?
If they had actually said, "well blahdy-boo", that would have been really funny. Batman, the Dark Knight of Infinite Hoopty-hoopty, vanquishes evil by virtue of the absurd.
Everywhere, humor is pro-formacating. Certain youngsters I know once famously responded to some televised laff-prompts by pointing to the screen, and saying, "funny!"
The proliferation of pro-formacating is depressing. Amateur formacation is actually much more arousing.
Let there be light—baby!
That Elohim dude cracks me up.
Amateur formacation is actually much more arousing.
You know they're not really amateurs, right?
I'm pretty sure no one's paying my neighbors.
This could turn into an essay: "The work of jest in the age of pro-formatical reproduction."
It also seemed like they were trying to be aphoristic at times but weren't quite sure what was an aphorism, seriously intended, and what was simply a wisecrack.
The final "awareness of your surroundings" remark seemed to be of the type: you were master and I was student, but now the roles have reversed/I have outgrown you.
Esp. in the beginning, Liam Neeson's character reproved Wayne with those very words when they were fighting on a frozen lake.
I'm pretty sure no one's paying my neighbors.
So when you sit there in the dark, peeping lascivious peeps through your window with the blinds cracked, what kind of rote behaviors do you find particularly pants-bulgeological?
The phrase also came up at the mansion. And "do what is necessary" came up more than once. And "why do we fall?" And some lines about fear, esp. in Batman's explanation for why he chose his name.
Regarding wise-cracks being written for trailers: I recall an episode of IFC's "Dinner for Five" where one of the guests mentioned that hollywood producers listening to a pitch want to hear about the project's so-called 5 Movie Moments, these being stuff like "Nice ride", {heroine gets hit in face by tennis ball}, "I promise I'll come back to you!", and other crap that forms the trailer. Without stuff like this explicitly in the script, the studios feel like they don't have a hook and are reluctant to make the movie.
Doing/allowing distinction, people! Since this was really the major theme of Spiderman 2, I think it's understandable that its presence in Batman has been a bit neglected. Still, I think the film portrayed it brilliantly -- as a bit of convenient sophistry that smart people use to get out of ethical jams. Just like in the real world! I also wonder about Batman's interrogation of Fleiss where he seemed to acquire information through torture-like methods that didn't really involve hurting the guy. Perhaps the CIA could buy a bunch of grappling hooks....
Flass.
Also, I didn't think of the killing not-saving in philosophical terms because, having read the Frank Miller Batman, it seems fairly clear that Bats has a terrific psychological impairment to killing. I assumed his not-saving was a means to Batman (and the director) to circumvent that prohibition.
Also, I suppose it hasn't bothered much anyone, because, like Darth Sidious, he was clearly too cheesy dangerous to live.
As regards the wisecracks, though I'm not certain that's a good term for them. The examples you cite are reused cracks, (Batman 1 and T2, right?) but they're famous enough lines that they've become common parlance. It's not so much that the movie doesn't notice them, it's that the audience doesn't notice them, neither in the movie nor in the street, I don't think. If you had asked me were there any wisecracks in BB, I would have said, "no, I don't think so." And I don't think this post will have changed my answer.
Don't you mean "I don't think so"?
you know, I shouldn't wake-and-comment.
"Wisecracks" and "catchphrases" are two separate things, studies reveal.
Well, they might.
