Tag Archives: dark knight
Who Won The Battle Of Summer Blockbusters?
I love comic books and I love movies so naturally, I’m a big fan of movies based on comic books. There is no doubt that this summer was enough to make many a geek wet themselves with delight.
Talk to the hand
The summer started off with a giant crimson and gold bang as Iron Man dominated theaters to the tune of $318,219,154. Not too bad for a movie about a dysfunctional millionaire with a really cool suit. Despite the fact that I think that Tony Stark is a giant douche bag in the comics, especially after Marvel’s Civil War, there’s no doubt that Robert Downey Jr. was flat out amazing. Throw in a nice cameo by Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury that set up the upcoming Avengers project, and this provided much geek glee.
Next up we had Speed Racer, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, and Indiana Jones and the Something About Aliens. I didn’t see Speed Racer because I fear having epileptic seizures. I don’t have epilepsy but the trailers were enough to keep me away. Plus, I’m not a big Speed Racer fan. Narnia was good, albeit a bit long and Indy was further proof that George Lucas is going insane. It should be noted though that I will be buying both Narnia and Indy because I am a geek and really enjoyed both movies.
Hulk contemplate the complexities of life.
Once the pre-summer blockbusters were out of the way, we were treated to Edward Norton getting all green and smashy in The Incredible Hulk which, surprisingly, did not suck. It even made a respectable $134,518,390 at the box office. I didn’t expect much from this film given the fact that Ang Lee’s The Hulk made me want to jump off of a bridge. That was a bad movie. The sequel, not so much. I may even end up buying it on DVD. Plus, there was a cameo by Robert Downey Jr. reprising his role as Tony Stark. In case you forgot, it set up the previously mentioned upcoming Avengers project. There is also some alleged footage that was cut at the last minute that showed Captain America. It’s purpose? To set up the upcoming Captain America movie.
Between The Incredible Hulk and The Dark Knight, which let’s face it, is probably one of the best movies in the history of movies, we saw the release of Wanted, Hancock, and Hellboy II: The Golden Army. I didn’t see Hancock but the other two were good movies. To be honest though, at this point in the summer, I was just waiting for Batman to beat the crap out of some bad guys.
"I've never felt this way towards a psychopath before"
July 18 will go down as the day that the best superhero movie of all time opened. Yes, I’m talking about The Dark Knight. I’ve already reviewed this so I won’t do it again here but this movie is two hours and thirty two minutes of pure awesome. When all was said and done, it brought in $521,890,027 making it one of the most successful movies in history. With a re-release planned for Oscar season, who knows how much this movie will end up making.
We were also treated to The X-Files 2: I Want to Believe and Star Wars: The Clone Wars. I didn’t see X-Files. Not because I don’t want to, but because I was too busy. I’m sure I’ll eventually watch it though. For my thoughts on The Clone Wars, read my review. Needless to say, with a box office take of only $34,477,361, I don’t think I was the only one mildly disappointed by it.
This all got me to thinking, who came out on top this summer? Obviously DC Comics did well with The Dark Knight but Marvel had two offerings that were really good. OK, one that was really good, one that was awesome. However, Marvel set up future projects and actually did what the comics do in showing that these characters don’t live in a vacuum. With Thor, Captain America, The Avengers, an Iron Man sequel, and two Spiderman sequels all in the works, I think that Marvel is going to prove to be the big winner in this summer’s box office battles. With the cameos and the upcoming movies that they were able to set up, every geek should be jumping for joy. Now if only DC could pull of the same thing with the much rumored Justice League movie…
Batman III Casting Rumors
It would seem to me as though everybody is reading a lot into a single comment made by Lucius Fox in The Dark Knight. When asked if the new batsuit will stop dogs, he replies that it will stop cats. That is apparently a huge indicator to the geek populace that Catwoman will be the next villian to encounter the Batman. I think that it was a comment made in passing but I could be wrong. Man, do I hope that I’m wrong. I love the stress that Selena Kyle brings to Batman’s life.
We all know that a movie that has made as much money as The Dark Knight will have a sequel; in this day and age, it’s a foregone conclusion. There’s no script, title, or villian, but that’s not stopping a certain well known actress and soon to be founder of the New U.N. from lobbying for the part of Catwoman.
Remember Julie Newmar? She was one of the actresses who played Catwoman in the Batman television series. Apparently she’s talking about how Angelina Jolie is jonesing to play the part of Catwoman in the next Batman.
Ms Newmar, 74, said: “Angelina would own the part. My industry friends tell me she has already made enquiries about the role. I can understand how it would pique her interest. Catwoman is Batman’s one true love.”
She added: “She’s tremendously popular with women because she’s both a heroine and a villainess.”
Personally, I don’t know any women who like Angelina Jolie. My wife despises her so if she’s in the next Batman movie, I’m going to have to come up with some Grade-A trickery to get her to go see it with me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure that there are some women out there that love her but I don’t know any. Come to think of it, I don’t know many women…
I don’t think that Angelina Jolie is a bad actress, she’s very talented in my opinion, I just don’t like her in the role. I would much rather see Kate Beckinsale play the part. She proved that she can pull off the leather/PVC thing in Underworld (not that Jolie can’t) and she’s actually a good actress. Plus, she’s not so big of a star that she’ll overshadow the production thus giving nerds a false sense of security that being a geek is cool. (If you doubt, just check out this article.)
I’ll go see the movie regardless of who is in it. I’m a fan so I really don’t care. I just want a good movie but if Catwoman is the villian, I hope that they don’t use the costume that’s been showing up in the comics over the past few years. The early 90′s version is much better.
While I’m making casting suggestions, if the much-rumored Wonder Woman movie ever decides to get made, might I suggest Kate Beckinsale for that role as well?
I need to be a casting director…
The Dark Knight Reviewed
Ever since I saw the ending of Batman Begins where we are shown a playing card with a joker on it, I have been highly anticipating this sequel in the Batman franchise. I am a huge fan of the Batman comics and have always thought that the Joker was one of the best villains. Now we have a movie that pits the madness of the Joker against the madness of the Batman. What’s not to get excited about? (Yes, I know that Tim Burton did the Batman vs. Joker thing back in 1989. I was excited for it back then too.)
The Dark Knight is probably the best movie based on a comic book that I have ever seen. There was so much that was good about it that what was bad is inconsequential. Here are a few of my thoughts on the movie. Warning! Minor spoilers ahead!
- The thing that I love about Batman is that he’s just a regular guy. He doesn’t have any super powers; just a bunch of money and an affinity for technology. Plus, he’s an extremely adept detective. He’s not indestructible or infallible. He can be broken just like the next guy. He’s good at avoiding such occurrences though. I like that. He’s also got to have some serious mental illnesses to do what he does. That adds to his mystique in my mind. He’s not perfect, he’s just trying to do a job.
- I’m not a Heath Ledger fan. I have to say though that he did an amazing job as the Joker. When I first saw him in an early trailer, his performance scared the crap out of me. It’s mentioned in the movie that some people just want to see the world burn. Ledger’s Joker was one of those people. He was extremely disturbing yet very fascinating at the same time. This is how I want my Joker in the comics. This Joker made the Joker from The Killing Joke look like an pansy. I loved it!
- Aaron Eckhardt was amazing as Harvey Dent. I’m not familiar with any of his previous roles but he sure nailed this one. I thought that he was great as the crusading DA trying to clean up Gotham. I also thought it was completely tragic how the most evil man in Gotham turned one of the best men in Gotham into the evil Two-Face.
- Speaking of Two-Face, he looked awesome; just exactly as I would expect him to look if I met him on the street. He looked much more realistic than Tommy Lee Jones did in Batman Forever. This is the best Two-Face to ever be captured on film.
- I love Christian Bale as Batman. He is actually one of the few men to wear the suit that can fill it out. He is also a convincing Bruce Wayne. In past Batman movies, I have either liked the lead actor as one character or the other but never as both. Bale does a great job as both Batman and Bruce Wayne.
- Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon was brilliant casting in Batman Begins and it was brilliant casting in The Dark Knight. He is good in every role I’ve ever seen him in. I can’t wait to see how they treat his character in the inevitable third installment.
- What’s with casting Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel Dawes? Is it just me or does she look like Droopy? I guess she’s better than stroke victim lookalike Katie Holmes from Batman Begins but I would have cast a different actress. However, I was pleased to see what they did with the character.
Well, there are a few of my thoughts. My wife, didn’t like it as much as I did because it was a very dark, very disturbing movie. I felt that it was a great portrayal of Gotham’s denizens and would like to see the comics follow this direction for a few years. In fact, I have no doubt that they will.
This is an all-around great movie that you should go see. Even if you don’t like “comic book movies” you should go see this. Well, what are you doing? Go see it!
Get Ready To Be Excited
**DON’T READ THIS UNLESS YOU WANT TO SEE VERY COOL IMAGES OF THE NEW TWO-FACE**
I’m a huge Batman fan. I have always loved the comics and cartoons and I thought that the movies were great until Joel Schumacher got his grubby, Batman destroying fingers on them. I can’t express the relief that I felt when Christopher Nolan actually did a good job with Batman Begins.
Now it looks like there’s going be another success in the Batman universe with the upcoming movie, The Dark Knight. The trailers have been very impressive and the images that have come out have looked good. To be honest, Heath Ledger’s portrayal of The Joker scares the crap out of me. I can’t wait for this movie!
Where Have All The Special Features Gone?
Next Tuesday, the biggest blockbuster of the year will make it’s triumphant DVD debut. This film also happens to be a geek-friendly movie based on one of the coolest super heroes in history. If you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m talking about The Dark Knight. This is one DVD that will be making it’s way into my collection.
I have a major gripe over the way that movie studios have been screwing people that buy DVDs over the past few years. When DVDs first started hitting the market, they were advertised as having super cool bonus features including deleted scenes, commentaries, trailers, bloopers, featuretes, etc. DVDs were a gold mine for the movie lover that enjoys useless information in documentary form. Those days are now gone, and I don’t even blame the introduction of Blu-Ray discs. I blame greedy movie stuidos that know that movie geeks will pay extra for this stuff.
The Dark Knight DVD release is a perfect example of what I’m talking about. Warner Brothers decided that there will be single-DVD releases in both widescreen and full-screen. These will have the movie. Um… OK. It wasn’t that long ago that the single-disc version would be a veritable cornucopia of extras. If you want any of those, you’ll have to upgrade to the twice as expensive two-disc DVD. This will include:
That may seem like a lot but guess what? Regular DVD player owners are getting screwed. The Blu-Ray version comes with all of the above plus the following:
My question is this: what does everyone think of how movie studios enticed us into the DVD market by offering all manner of sweetness only to move said sweetness to multi-disc versions of the film? I can understand it but I hate it. And for those of us who hate Sony and refuse to buy their products, what about giving us über versions of regular DVDs a la The Lord of the Rings? Is that really too much to ask? We used to get these things for the price of a DVD and now we don’t and that just pisses me off.