dark knight

The Usual Suspects

The Usual Suspects: Who's Next In The Bat-Parade?

So, most of us (if not all of us) have by now seen The Dark Knight. If you haven't, please do so. Go on. I'll wait. Done? Good. Now that we've all seen it, I'm sure that we've already been wondering which of Batman's colorful rogue's gallery will be the featured villian in the next in Christopher Nolan's series. Now, remember, while Batman has a lot of different villians, the Nolanverse seems to stress a commitment to the believable (that is, if you can accept the premise of Batman existing). And while it may be a stretch to think that a tortured rich man swings from roof to roof dressed in a Bat outfit every night, there are some villians which break even this thin standard. So, while Batman has a lot of enemies, some are much more likely to be featured than others.

Batman: The Dark Knight Review (SPOILERS)

Tuesday afteroon I saw the latest Batman movie, The Dark Knight, at a local theater. Pre-movie, I scoped out the trailer to Christian Bale's next no-doubt-blockbuster, the fourth Terminator movie (which means now there'll be two too many). I also sat awkwardly through the trailer for the upcoming movie adaptation of Alan Moore's Watchmen, directed by Zack Synder, who also directed the adaptation of Frank Miller's 300. While it does seem like it might make interesting watching, I still think some comic stories are best left on page. Watchmen deconstructed the superhero comic genre, the movie isn't going to do anything so bold. I can see it going over people's heads, that is, even if they do it justice. But hell, who am I kidding? I'll go see it. Sorry, Mr. Moore. Really, I am.

Jokers are Wild!

Can everyone please stop attacking Nicholson's Joker just because there's a new Joker in town? I know that Nicholson gets this reputation for "Jack playing Jack", but anyone who's ever picked up a Batman comic with the Joker in it in the past decade or so and has seen Nicholson's performance should see that he was pretty dead on: a psychotic, sadistic, egotistical mass murderer with a flair for the theatrical. Will the late Heath Ledger's performance in The Dark Knight surpass this? Maybe. Probably. I have a feeling that The Dark Knight is going to be the best Batman movie ever made, even better than the animated Mask of the Phantasm. Still, let's not deny how good Burton's original Batman movie was, and it's not just out of nostalgia. It was a great movie. Not perfect, but great. I like it more than Begins, even, if just a little.

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