Summertime

Back from a full Sunday. I marched with my church in the parade and then, not wanting to squeeze onto a BART train and wind up at home, went to see Star Wars. You'll remember that the first time I went to see Star Wars, I was a week early. This time I was a couple hours late, and it wouldn't start again for three more hours.

So I wound up at Batman Begins. Notes:

• The first 40 minutes, a chronologically confusing mishmash of how-he-got-his-ninja-training, was silly and dull, I thought. Take some really dull version of a Tibetan monastery and stage the karate-training scene of The Matrix there, then extend it to 40 minutes with some really stupid dialogue.
• But I enjoyed the middle of the movie, especially the degree to which Gotham City resembled the city in Blade Runner.
• Nevertheless, the whole economic situation of the city, in which a large part of the population seems to be an underclass in rags, was not explained very well.
• I thought the elevated transit system which Bruce Wayne's father was responsible for, and which ends up playing a major role a la Speed, was ugly and not credible.
• Morgan Freeman played the role that he always seems to play (cf. Chain Reaction) -- a brilliant, wry scientist whom the audience is supposed to look up to.
• I didn't believe Katie Holmes for a minute.
• Christian Bale, in the title role, did just enough not to seem totally generic, but not enough that anyone will remember who starred in this movie.

But back to the parade. I actually had fun. I don't know why I was so crabby last year, but this year I really enjoyed myself. I even marched in time to the disco float in front of us (though no one else did so). Advice to anyone visiting San Francisco: walking down the middle of Market St. in a parade is a great way to see the city. Or at least it's a great way to see Market St.