Batman (1966) DVD

Rating:  3 out of 5 needlessly complex but easily solved riddles

Plot Synopsis: The rouges gallery gathers together in the ultimate attack against the masked Cossack.

Prometheus (2012) theatrical release

  Few movies in 2012 were as anticipated as Prometheus, a scifi/action/thriller that proposed to explore the origins of humanity and why, as always, we should have just stayed home. I had high hopes going into the theater- after all, this was a Ridley Scott film, the director of Blade Runner, Gladiator and of course Alien (from which Prometheus takes its universe). But instead of another classic I was treated to a two hour struggle between the characters and plot. Neither survived.

New Author

We have a new author joining the site.  It is The Number Of Man with a review of Prometheus.  Will we see more of The Number Of Man?  I don't know.  Just to let you know, I have no control over what he says, reviews or says in his reviews.  He's also expressed no desire to answer mail.  It remains to be seen if he'll reply to comments but he mostly just wants to post reviews.  So enjoy, his first review is quite nice, I'm jealous.  It's a different voice and a different tone which I think is good.  Just don't like him better than me.

Friday's with Blinky: Joker

  This week we take a look at the final Joker short film. Next week we'll round up the miscellaneous Blinky Joker stuff to continue with the Endless Knight theme. Then we might start with the Catwoman stuff.

  Made in 2006, before Dark Knight introduced a different kind of Joker this short brings us Bryan Bockbrader as Joker.  And let me tell you he is a hell of a Joker.  He's a little Ceasar Romero, a little Jim Carey and a little Jack Nicholson.  He's got a great laugh, delivers his lines with a pitch perfect craziness and has presence in his character.  I love the wardrobe on this as well, the Joker in his untucked dress shirt and loosened tie.  Anytime I look at a Joker character I looked for influences from comedians so when I see something I instantly associate it with a comic.  The look of this Joker is very 'late night comedian'.  He looks like he just finished a set at the Chuckle Hut, maybe he bombed, maybe he didn't, maybe he bombed but didn't think he did, anyway that's what he looks like.  Like a deformed psycho who just did 15 minutes on a mic in front of a brick wall.  Perfect.  It's hard to chose a favorite between Bryan and Chris' Joker performances, they're both very different so there isn't a lot of comparison.  It depends on what you like but there's time and room enough for both.

  Joker's the star so he's really the only character who get's time enough to shine.  Deanna Miller is there as Harley.  She's good, what few lines she has she delivers well.  The voice is really good, very close to the source material, which is nice.  She doesn't really get much screen time but she's not a distraction or a detriment, she does her part to carry the short.  Her costume could have been made a little more real however, Joker looks part of the real world but Harley's costume is straight from the animated series so she looks a little out of place.

  You can kind of tell this is early on.  The things Chris would get really really good at in the later short movies are present in this but just a little rough.  The soundtrack dates it a little but fits in with the tone and is thematically appropriate.  The camera work is good with it's low angle shots up at Joker, occasionally at a slight angle to make Joker both intimidating as well as depicting him as twisted.  It's well done and worth checking out.

Cosplay Wednesday

This week we have a Miss Martian, a Miss Martian Manhunter and my favorite duo Blue and Gold (for those of you who don't know that would be Blue Beetle and Booster Gold)

I suppose it depends on which is nobler in the mind.

see more Very Demotivational

Go on, I'm listening...

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Batman: Gotham Knight (2008) DVD

Rating:  2 out of 5 boring segments in an endless series of vignettes.

Plot Synopsis:  There are a million naked stories in the city of Gotham.  Fortunately (or not as the case may be) that is the only thing naked in this series of vignettes that are a shameless rip off of the failed franchise cash in Animatrix.

Batman: Year One (2011) Blu-Ray

Rating:  3 out of 5 pimps who sound like Spike beaten to a pulp.

Plot Synopsis:  It’s Bruce Wayne’s first year as Batman and Jim Gordon’s first year on the GCPD.  Along for the ride is a Catwoman short.

Batman: Dark Knight Rises (2012) Theatrical Release

Rating: 5 out of 5 billionaire playboy orphaned vigilantes

Review:  First off I want to say that this totally lived up to the hype for me and was a great conclusion to the trilogy.  It's sad, with how the movie ended, that it is the conclusion because there would be some awesome future movies coming from this franchise if it were to continue.

  That being said this is definitely now my second favorite of the trilogy.  Better than Begins but not as good as Dark Knight.  Begins will always sort of be the red headed step child of the franchise to me.  It's sort of necessary to see it to get a feeling for the series, to be introduced to the characters in order to give those characters more weight going into Dark Knight.  But you could almost skip Begins entirely and go directly to Dark Knight, seeing Begins accentuates Dark Knight but Dark Knight just has something these other movies don't.  And it's more than just Joker.

  Dark Knight Rises manages to deliver to us something totally different than the previous two movies while still using the movies and building blocks and somehow managing to be in tone with the other films while also being something totally its own.  The plot is intriguing with several twists, some of them I saw coming, some of them I didn't and one that I thought I saw coming early but the the payoff was so long I thought for sure I was wrong until I was proven right, which just made it more awesome when it happened.  It's a great movie about people, the crime and the crime fighting are sort of secondary.  The characters are all just so great, the returning characters get deepened and the new characters really get established well.  No one feels wooden or phoned in.  Michael Caine put's in such a fantastic performance, when he get's emotional about Bruce you really feel it, he is the stand out.  Commissioner Gordon continues to be awesome and well played by Gary Oldman and new comer (to the series) Anne Hathaway is hypnotic as Catwoman.  She plays the character with a lot of depth and you can see that she feels trapped and empathize with her desire for redemption.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Policeman Blake is great as well in the role of frustrated but passionate cop.  Christian Bale, as always, does great and bring passion to every role he's in.  As Bruce he can still look amusingly dumbfounded in his playboy persona but is still intimidating as hell as Batman.  He's toned down the Bat Voice quite a bit for this last performance and it's probably at its least distracting here.  Finally Bane is well done by Tom Hardy.  He plays him as a cold blooded, brutal terrorist.  This comes through in everything he does, his actions, his words, his body language, he looks incredibly intimidating in just the way he stands and walks.  My only problem is with the voice.  I eventually got used to it but it sort of sounds like Sean Connery with a cold talking through a tin can and string which can lead to a problem understanding every word of his dialog.  I lost some of it, especially in the fight with Batman (spoiler: Batman fights Bane).  It was weird at first but I was on board by the end of the movie.

  Dark Knight Rises is a great movie and well worth seeing but it's just missing something that Dark Knight had.  In my opinion Dark Knight had the more intriguing characters in Harvey Dent and Joker, had better action and a better plot.  It was just a more interesting movie and despite its, at times, heavy handed messages it was a perfect Batman movie.  This is close, this is really close but just something in me can't give it more than 4.  I will definitely be buying this when it's released on Blu-Ray and I'll probably watch it several more times but it won't replace Dark Knight as my go to movie.