Want the funny video or the badass video first?
Funny - Why The Death of Superman Ruined Comics Forever
Badass - Dirty Laundry
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Videos to Watch - NERD Edition
So with Dark Knight Rises out, I've been in a bit of a nerdy mood recently. So I've come across a couple nerd-awesome videos. Please note that these are both rated R videos. Violence and profanity!
Friday, July 20, 2012
The Dark Knight Rises
It should go without saying that, if you haven't seen the movie, you shouldn't read this.
Batman is my favorite superhero. He may be my favorite character. He's a man with childhood trauma who decides to bottle up all the rage and insanity that goes with it into something good. It changed him into a monster, but he uses the monster to help people. He's the anti-Dexter because he shows everyone his true face, and he doesn't kill. His dark passenger has a billionaire funding him, and his "code" doesn't allow him to cross the line.
And what I love about Batman is that he works as a character no matter what situation you put him in. As a one-man crusader against a city that was too lost to be helped by anyone ordinary, he's fascinating. Throw in Robin or Batgirl or Nightwing or whoever, and he's a man who understands that bad things happen to children. And that it takes a man who understands the pain of a child to help them. He's the father he assumed he could never be. And if you throw him into a Justice League situation, he has the (emotional/human) strength to stand toe-to-toe with ridiculous heroes like Superman.
No matter what situation Batman is is. No matter what iteration of Batman you're experiencing, he makes sense. He's a scared little boy who faces his fear (the truth, the unknown, and himself) and does what he can.
So when Nolan did Batman Begins correctly, I was shocked. I didn't believe I could see Batman in the way I saw him on screen. I don't even remember being all that excited to see it. I watched trailers and it looked good. But I think I saw it a few weeks after it came out, in a theater that was mostly empty. But it was awesome. Someone did a superhero movie right, and it was about the GD Batman.
Dark Knight is incredible. We watched it the other night, and it's almost the perfect movie. Probably too perfect...just because it set up unreal expectations for the follow up. I want to do an entire post on the Nolanverse....maybe one movie at a time...so I don't want to spend any time on the second movie.
The Dark Knight Rises can be summed up with two items.
- It's not as good as the Dark Knight. And, in fact, I'd say it went out of it's way to try and not be a follow-up to the Dark Knight. The tone is amazingly different, the feel of the movie is completely different, and the story is much more linked to Batman Begins. In fact, if you somehow tack the ending of Dark Knight (Batman's sacrifice and Dent's arc) to Batman Begins, the Dark Knight Rises completely ignores the Dark Knight.
- It's not a movie about Bruce Wayne.
The thing that made Dark Knight great is that it gives everyone a chance to shine. People said the Joker hi-jacked the movie, but I don't think that's true. I think Heath Ledger was amazing, but he doesn't steal the show. Everyone gets their chance in the sun from Alfred to Lucius Fox to the crime bosses to Harvey Dent to Rachel. People said that Batman got pushed to the side, but the story is still, at it's core, about Bruce Wayne and Batman.
Dark Knight Rises is very different. For most of the movie, Bruce Wayne isn't at the center. And it's one of those things that I think rubbed me the wrong way. But in the six hours that I tried to sleep since I finished the movie, I'm starting to realize what he was trying to do.
Because while it's not a movie about Bruce Wayne, it's a movie the organically continues the story that started with Batman Begins. And it makes you completely alter your thoughts about the Dark Knight and what really happened.
Batman Begins saw Bruce stare into the eyes of the monster inside him. And he realized that he could use that monster as a symbol for good. To shake people out of bystander apathy. If they realized that they had power, they outnumbered the crooked and the corrupt. And the point of Batman Begins is that he does this. He's successful.
The Dark Knight starts off in a Gotham City where the (good) cops have taken control, and the people of Gotham have hope. It was a horror....now it's just a normal city. And out of the ashes of old Gotham City rises the Joker. As an agent of chaos, he unleashes anarchy onto Gotham to test it's foundations. And Batman proves that what he built cannot be taken down. Hope can't be destroyed once it stands up tall.
But then there was Harvey Dent. The Joker's ace up his sleeve. He tore Harvey down to tear down the rest of Gotham. And so Batman took the fall. He thought he could sacrifice Batman to finish what he started. That he could stop being Batman (which is what he wants) and rid the city of crime.
And he's right. While Batman ends the movie as a fugitive, I think the viewer naturally assumes that Batman was right. That Gotham would enter a state of prosperity, with or without the Batman.
And the Dark Knight Rises opens on this world. Crime is down. Way down. The city went from the most polluted to the most clean. Batman and Gordon's lie worked. The city is safe.
But neither is happy. They got what they wanted, but it was all wrong. Gordon struggles with the truth. Bruce abandoned the Batman persona and locked himself away in his new mansion. Gordon waits for the day he can let people know the truth, and Bruce waits for the day when he can end things correctly.
Enter Bane. Like Joker, Bane is a madman and an agent of chaos. Bane only has slightly more humanity than the Joker, and he only has a slightly more complete arc. At the end of the day, he's like the Joker was in the Dark Knight - not the primary villain....because the villain is something much more abstract. Like Joker, Bane just exists so that the abstract villain can have a human face.
Bane's plan is far more epic than anything I could've possibly expected out of a Batman movie. While I expected a "Broken Bat" tribute in this movie, it's actually much more like "No Man's Land" from the comics. Bane separates Gotham from the rest of the world and makes it tear itself apart. The whole movie is basically the story of the French Revolution, with the common man taking power away from the elite. They even storm the freakin' Bastille.
Before that, though, Batman shows up on the scene. And Bane knows that he needs to destroy Batman before his plan can truly come to order. He lures Batman to fight him and destroys him.
And I'm not going to lie, it was very sad to see Batman get his ass kicked by a superior opponent. Bruce, out of shape after not fighting for 8 years, is easily defeated by the physically superior Bane. As someone who loves the character of Batman, it was very hard to see him torn apart. You always expect Batman to win, and it was just very horrible to watch him lose so handily.
And for most of the movie, Batman is on the sidelines. Even Gordon spends much of the movie in a hospital bed. In his place are a lot of new characters - beat cop / detective John Blake might actually be the hero of the story. He spends most of the time running around, trying to fight Bane while Bruce and Gordon recuperate.
And this is where I think people get lost. The movie isn't really about Bruce Wayne. It's about how Batman's fight would naturally evolve. And how it would have to end. Batman's legacy has to be passed down to someone else. He has to have inspired someone. And I think he inspired John Blake into a force of good that can take over. If you see the spirit of Batman in John Blake, then you realize that the story might not be about Bruce Wayne.
But it's still a Batman movie.
So Bruce picks himself back up, gets back to Gotham, and saves the day. And unlike the Dark Knight, he's able to save the day in the light. In front of Gotham.
Bruce gets to end the journey his way. He fakes his death (although, in true Nolan form, "did he?"), kills Batman, leaves the symbol of good as a symbol of good, and gets to lives his life without Batman.
And, just in case, sets up John Blake to be a man who can take up his mantle should Gotham ever need a Batman.
It's actually the perfect ending to the story. And while it isn't as good as the Dark Knight, it actually makes the Dark Knight better. And I think it does what it needs to do for the story to be complete, even if it means doing things that make the movie, as a whole, not as great.
I'm going to have a lot more to say, but I'm running behind and need to stop. I'll summarize this way:
It's not the movie we deserved. But it's the movie we needed.
Batman is my favorite superhero. He may be my favorite character. He's a man with childhood trauma who decides to bottle up all the rage and insanity that goes with it into something good. It changed him into a monster, but he uses the monster to help people. He's the anti-Dexter because he shows everyone his true face, and he doesn't kill. His dark passenger has a billionaire funding him, and his "code" doesn't allow him to cross the line.
And what I love about Batman is that he works as a character no matter what situation you put him in. As a one-man crusader against a city that was too lost to be helped by anyone ordinary, he's fascinating. Throw in Robin or Batgirl or Nightwing or whoever, and he's a man who understands that bad things happen to children. And that it takes a man who understands the pain of a child to help them. He's the father he assumed he could never be. And if you throw him into a Justice League situation, he has the (emotional/human) strength to stand toe-to-toe with ridiculous heroes like Superman.
No matter what situation Batman is is. No matter what iteration of Batman you're experiencing, he makes sense. He's a scared little boy who faces his fear (the truth, the unknown, and himself) and does what he can.
So when Nolan did Batman Begins correctly, I was shocked. I didn't believe I could see Batman in the way I saw him on screen. I don't even remember being all that excited to see it. I watched trailers and it looked good. But I think I saw it a few weeks after it came out, in a theater that was mostly empty. But it was awesome. Someone did a superhero movie right, and it was about the GD Batman.
Dark Knight is incredible. We watched it the other night, and it's almost the perfect movie. Probably too perfect...just because it set up unreal expectations for the follow up. I want to do an entire post on the Nolanverse....maybe one movie at a time...so I don't want to spend any time on the second movie.
The Dark Knight Rises can be summed up with two items.
- It's not as good as the Dark Knight. And, in fact, I'd say it went out of it's way to try and not be a follow-up to the Dark Knight. The tone is amazingly different, the feel of the movie is completely different, and the story is much more linked to Batman Begins. In fact, if you somehow tack the ending of Dark Knight (Batman's sacrifice and Dent's arc) to Batman Begins, the Dark Knight Rises completely ignores the Dark Knight.
- It's not a movie about Bruce Wayne.
The thing that made Dark Knight great is that it gives everyone a chance to shine. People said the Joker hi-jacked the movie, but I don't think that's true. I think Heath Ledger was amazing, but he doesn't steal the show. Everyone gets their chance in the sun from Alfred to Lucius Fox to the crime bosses to Harvey Dent to Rachel. People said that Batman got pushed to the side, but the story is still, at it's core, about Bruce Wayne and Batman.
Dark Knight Rises is very different. For most of the movie, Bruce Wayne isn't at the center. And it's one of those things that I think rubbed me the wrong way. But in the six hours that I tried to sleep since I finished the movie, I'm starting to realize what he was trying to do.
Because while it's not a movie about Bruce Wayne, it's a movie the organically continues the story that started with Batman Begins. And it makes you completely alter your thoughts about the Dark Knight and what really happened.
Batman Begins saw Bruce stare into the eyes of the monster inside him. And he realized that he could use that monster as a symbol for good. To shake people out of bystander apathy. If they realized that they had power, they outnumbered the crooked and the corrupt. And the point of Batman Begins is that he does this. He's successful.
The Dark Knight starts off in a Gotham City where the (good) cops have taken control, and the people of Gotham have hope. It was a horror....now it's just a normal city. And out of the ashes of old Gotham City rises the Joker. As an agent of chaos, he unleashes anarchy onto Gotham to test it's foundations. And Batman proves that what he built cannot be taken down. Hope can't be destroyed once it stands up tall.
But then there was Harvey Dent. The Joker's ace up his sleeve. He tore Harvey down to tear down the rest of Gotham. And so Batman took the fall. He thought he could sacrifice Batman to finish what he started. That he could stop being Batman (which is what he wants) and rid the city of crime.
And he's right. While Batman ends the movie as a fugitive, I think the viewer naturally assumes that Batman was right. That Gotham would enter a state of prosperity, with or without the Batman.
And the Dark Knight Rises opens on this world. Crime is down. Way down. The city went from the most polluted to the most clean. Batman and Gordon's lie worked. The city is safe.
But neither is happy. They got what they wanted, but it was all wrong. Gordon struggles with the truth. Bruce abandoned the Batman persona and locked himself away in his new mansion. Gordon waits for the day he can let people know the truth, and Bruce waits for the day when he can end things correctly.
Enter Bane. Like Joker, Bane is a madman and an agent of chaos. Bane only has slightly more humanity than the Joker, and he only has a slightly more complete arc. At the end of the day, he's like the Joker was in the Dark Knight - not the primary villain....because the villain is something much more abstract. Like Joker, Bane just exists so that the abstract villain can have a human face.
Bane's plan is far more epic than anything I could've possibly expected out of a Batman movie. While I expected a "Broken Bat" tribute in this movie, it's actually much more like "No Man's Land" from the comics. Bane separates Gotham from the rest of the world and makes it tear itself apart. The whole movie is basically the story of the French Revolution, with the common man taking power away from the elite. They even storm the freakin' Bastille.
Before that, though, Batman shows up on the scene. And Bane knows that he needs to destroy Batman before his plan can truly come to order. He lures Batman to fight him and destroys him.
And I'm not going to lie, it was very sad to see Batman get his ass kicked by a superior opponent. Bruce, out of shape after not fighting for 8 years, is easily defeated by the physically superior Bane. As someone who loves the character of Batman, it was very hard to see him torn apart. You always expect Batman to win, and it was just very horrible to watch him lose so handily.
And for most of the movie, Batman is on the sidelines. Even Gordon spends much of the movie in a hospital bed. In his place are a lot of new characters - beat cop / detective John Blake might actually be the hero of the story. He spends most of the time running around, trying to fight Bane while Bruce and Gordon recuperate.
And this is where I think people get lost. The movie isn't really about Bruce Wayne. It's about how Batman's fight would naturally evolve. And how it would have to end. Batman's legacy has to be passed down to someone else. He has to have inspired someone. And I think he inspired John Blake into a force of good that can take over. If you see the spirit of Batman in John Blake, then you realize that the story might not be about Bruce Wayne.
But it's still a Batman movie.
So Bruce picks himself back up, gets back to Gotham, and saves the day. And unlike the Dark Knight, he's able to save the day in the light. In front of Gotham.
Bruce gets to end the journey his way. He fakes his death (although, in true Nolan form, "did he?"), kills Batman, leaves the symbol of good as a symbol of good, and gets to lives his life without Batman.
And, just in case, sets up John Blake to be a man who can take up his mantle should Gotham ever need a Batman.
It's actually the perfect ending to the story. And while it isn't as good as the Dark Knight, it actually makes the Dark Knight better. And I think it does what it needs to do for the story to be complete, even if it means doing things that make the movie, as a whole, not as great.
I'm going to have a lot more to say, but I'm running behind and need to stop. I'll summarize this way:
It's not the movie we deserved. But it's the movie we needed.
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