The Roundup

Nintendo mashups are cool.

The first look at Thor is, um, disconcertingly plastic. Maybe they plan to make it all shiny in post?

Letting a sick kid be a superhero for a day is heartwarming (and maybe, possibly, makes me a little bit misty-eyed).

Joss Whedon to Direct The Avengers?

That sound you hear is a million geeks’ heads simultaneously exploding. I won’t fully believe it until it’s official, but if this really happens, I might as well start camping out at a theater now.

For the non-geeks among us, allow me to translate. Joss Whedon is the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse, and the totally underrated Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. He’s also had successful stints writing comics for Marvel, most notably on Astonishing X-Men. (Why, yes, I am a fanboy. Why do you ask?) The Avengers is a superhero team made up of Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and a rotating cast of supporting players (sometimes including the Incredible Hulk). The solo movies for those characters (Iron Man 2 comes out in a few weeks, Thor and Cap next summer) are all building to an Avengers movie in 2012.

Graphic Information

In yet another victory for geek culture, comics have now become mainstream enough that the New York Times has added three different bestseller lists for “graphic books” — hardcover, softcover, and manga. I haven’t decided yet whether this is a good or a bad thing, or maybe just one more sign that America is always about 20 years behind Japan in everything pop culture.

Faithfully

OK, this is cool. Somebody took the “motion comics” version of Watchmen, made available online around the time all the hype started for the movie, and recreated, panel-by-panel, each shot from the Watchmen teaser trailer, making sure everybody who sees this realizes exactly how faithful Zack Snyder’s film is staying to the comic. Some of the early reviews I’ve read say too faithful, but as a devoted fan of the original work, I find that hard to believe. Besides, if you’re going to take on the task of adapting such a groundbreaking piece of graphic fiction, why mess with perfection?

Teaser Trailer:


Motion comics version:

Origin

The last X-Men movie was a disappointment for me, so I wasn’t sure what to think when I heard they were doing a solo Wolverine movie. Well, based on this trailer, I think I’m going to like it.

Stay Positive

Despite the title, this post has nothing to do with The Hold Steady’s excellent new album. It’s about a little movie you may have heard of called The Dark Knight that’s been breaking every possible box office record recently. I saw it two nights ago, and after a couple days to reflect, I’ve decided it’s in my top three all-time (alongside The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark). There’s a lot of reasons why, but the easiest explanation is that director Christopher Nolan took everything that was good about Batman Begins (gritty realism, almost total avoidance of CGI) and maintained or expanded on it, while also managing to improve everything that needed to be (Katie Holmes, camerawork during the fight scenes), all while getting fantastic performances from his actors.

Since I saw the movie, I’ve read several reviews which included a variety of complaints. I loved this movie, and I’m having trouble understanding all the negativity (hence, the title of this post). So, here’s my response to the most common gripes. [WARNING: SPOILERS]

At 2.5 hours, it was too long.
About two hours in, I thought, I wonder how long this movie is? Then I went right back to enjoying it. It didn’t feel long to me, it felt complete.

Heather Ledger’s death is the only reason so many people are seeing the movie.
OK, so the morbid curiosity aspect is legit, but those people are getting to see an incredible final performance from Ledger, and an incredibly high quality movie. Who cares why people come to the theater if they enjoy the movie? The Dark Knight certainly deserves this success much more than that piece of crap Spider-Man 3.

Ledger’s performance is way overhyped. I mean, Oscar buzz? Really?
Really. Almost all the actors gave incredibly high quality performances, but Ledger brought it on a whole new level. I really believed he just wanted to see the city explode simply because it amused him.

Batman was barely in this. Why didn’t they just call this movie The Joker?
I don’t get this one. Between Bruce Wayne and Batman, Christian Bale easily had more screen time than the Joker. I can see it being an issue in some of the older, campy Batman movies where guys like Ah-nuld and Jim Carrey stole the show, but I don’t see it here. I thought it was pretty well-balanced.

We didn’t get any back story about the Joker. Why didn’t they explain his origin?
OK, make up your minds, folks. Too much Joker, not enough Joker... Besides, aren’t villains more interesting and creepy when you don’t know their motives? Especially when you’re dealing with someone like the Joker, who’s only interested in panic and chaos. I agree with Stephen King: the scariest horror movies are always the ones where the killers just stalk their victims, and no reason is ever given why they’re doing it. Explaining the back story makes them more human, but also, less scary. The Dark Knight isn’t horror, but the Joker is a homicidal maniac, and if you’re doing a gritty take on him, he should have the ability to make your skin crawl. Plus, no definite back story gave the Joker the opportunity to keep changing his explanation about his scars, which I thought made him seem even more insane.

Two-Face’s story arc was too rushed. They should have kept him around for a third movie.
I really liked the fact that The Dark Knight felt complete in and of itself. If they never make another one (highly unlikely, given the way this film is raking in the cash), no one will feel like they were left hanging. I can’t stand it when a movie feels like it has no purpose other than setting up the sequel. Besides, I don’t know how much more they could have done with Two-Face. Aaron Eckhart’s performance was actually the biggest surprise in the movie for me—I thought he nailed Harvey Dent. But his purpose in the film was to be established as Gotham’s true hope—in a way, the anti-Batman, a normal citizen committed to cleaning up the city without needing a mask and fancy gadgets to do it. His arc ended once he was no longer the shining White Knight Gotham needed, and Dent’s fall forced Bruce Wayne to come to terms with the kind of sacrifices he would have to make to continue as Batman.

Of course, Two-Face is a comic book villain, and anyone who’s ever read comics knows that nobody stays dead forever.

Aside from the fact that they can’t ever bring the Joker back now (even if they wanted to re-cast, what actor would be crazy enough to take that role?), I don’t have any major complaints about The Dark Knight. A couple of casting quibbles, maybe (I’ve never been an Eric Roberts fan, and it’s hard for me to take Nestor Carbonell seriously since he played Bat-Manuel—unknowns in either of those roles would have been an improvement), but those were made up for by the dramatic upgrade of Maggie Gyllenhall over Katie Holmes. I’ll definitely see this one again in the theater, and apparently, I’m not the only one.

-------------------------------------------------------------

On a different note, I’m going to try to get back to blogging more regularly. I’ve been pretty overwhelmed this summer with work and my brother’s wedding, but I’d like to get back to writing about my leisure-time experiences on a more frequent basis. In a way, this post is a chance to shake off the rust. So aside from going all fanboy-gaga over The Dark Knight, here’s a few things I’ve been doing lately:

Hellboy 2. A bit of a disappointment, since I loved the first one so much. This one seemed less focused and more choppy, and intent on setting up a third movie. On the other hand, the creatures made me really excited to see what Guillermo del Toro is gonna do with The Hobbit.

Watchmen. I just finished re-reading Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ amazing graphic novel after seeing the trailer for next March’s movie adaptation. It really is an incredible story, and hard to imagine that comics weren’t always like this. I just hope the movie can do it justice, since that will be the majority of America’s first introduction to the tale.

Concerts #99 and 100. I’ve been keeping track of every show I’ve seen since I was old enough to go without my parents. My first concert of my independent era was The Stones and Living Colour back in 1988 at RFK Stadium, and last Friday, I saw my 99th (Lyle Lovett and Leo Kottke at Red Rocks), followed by #100 on Sunday (day two of The Mile High Music Festival, where I saw some or all of the sets by Rodrigo y Gabriela, Flobots, The Roots, John Mayer, The Black Crowes, and Dave Matthews Band). Even though I don’t know a lot of his music, Lyle Lovett was a great show on a fantastic night at Red Rocks. As for Sunday, I wasn’t blown away by anybody, but the Roots and Rodrigo were both enjoyable, and I’d see either of them again. I’d also probably go see DMB again, but only if I could get good seats. Standing 400 yards away and staring over the heads of 60,000 other people kind of sucks. I think I’m also suffering from a bit of concert fatigue. In looking back at my list of shows, 52 of them have been since 2000, and 21 of those were in the past two years. I think it’s time to take a break, unless there’s somebody I really want to see.

Batman vs. Batman vs... Batman?

I think I’ve mentioned it enough times now that you know I love well-done movie trailers. Well, even more than that, I love well-done fake movie trailers. And ahead of next month’s release of the Dark Knight, the folks over at Black 20 have got a freaking cool trailer that will settle once and for all who’s the best Batman. Who needs villains? The only disappointing part is, they didn't give Adam West his crack at the title. Nobody can overcome tilted cameras and animated sound effects the way he could.

Metalworking

I just got back from my second viewing of Iron Man, and I have to say, I'm not at all surprised that it was just as good the second time. It’s a great movie. Not a great “superhero” movie, or a great “summer blockbuster.” It’s an all-around great movie. Sure, it hits all the right beats for a comic book movie (especially an origin story) and there were plenty of geek references for the comix fans (Rhodey eyeing up the silver armor, and did anybody else pick up on the Star Wars references?), but it wasn’t campy, it wasn’t overdramatic, and it wasn’t a commercial for merchandise—just a well-cast, well-marketed movie with a solid story at its core. Unlike most (OK, all) superhero movies, this one left me with the feeling that, given another 10 years of technological advances, it’s probably not all that far-fetched. I give most of the credit to director Jon Favreau for not letting the effects and tie-ins overwhelm the movie (OK, except the Burger King thing—that was a little gratuitous), and also to Robert Downey Jr. for making Tony Stark a living, breathing character, not just the cardboard caricature he could have easily become. I’ve always been a fan of RDJ’s, but he crushed this role (not that he had to stretch very far to play a “bad-boy” celeb). The supporting cast was great as well, if a bit under-used. Gwyneth and RDJ had very believable chemistry, and Jeff Bridges was so far removed from The Dude as to almost be unrecognizable. Even though I’ve never read any Iron Man books and only know the very basic backstory, I cared about these characters, I got sucked into the story, and I wanted to know what happened next. Happily, I’ll get that chance again. Thanks to Iron Man’s gigantic opening weekend, not only has Marvel already greenlit Iron Man 2, but as anyone who sat through the credits knows, there’s an Avengers movie in the works as well, which will tie Iron Man in with this summer’s Hulk reboot, as well as upcoming Thor and Captain America movies. The nerds truly are running the gym these days.

So after all that, I realized it’s been years since I actually went back to see a movie a second time in the theater, so the bar is set pretty high for this summer’s lineup. Next up, Prince Caspian. Let’s see if Walden and Disney can improve on a decent, not stellar, Lion, The Witch & the Wardrobe.