If Bruce Wayne were real, I'd marry him.

The Dark Knight Rises has had a rough start. Everyone knows about the shooting that occurred in Colorado by now. I'm not really here to talk about that kind of thing. Honestly, it's beyond my scope. I just don't have the ability to put words to this kind of tragedy. So, as in my other entries, I will focus on the movie with a light and airy tone. I'll now take this moment to say:

WARNING WARNING SPOILER ALERT

IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE, DO NOT READ THIS POST (unless you're okay with spoilers)

Now you may feel free to insert "squees" at random intervals during this post. It'll help you know what it was like to be the guy sitting next to me in the movie theater. I may have ruined his experience, but I had a blast. I'm the only one who matters in this equation anyway. I was, I must admit, a bit reticent about viewing this movie. Don't stop reading, but I found the second Dark Knight film to be a bit disappointing. I'm predicting gasps of horror. Let me defend myself. Heath Ledger diserved the Oscar. It is a beautiful film to watch. That was the worst interpretation of the Joker ever. Here is where I make another confession, for those who don't already know: I'm a huge comic geek. I've been subscribing to Wonder Woman since I was twelve, my first comic was an old issue of Aquaman when I was seven or eight, and I've been in love with Bruce Wayne/Batman since I was about four. Ever since Batman: the Animated Series the Dark Knight has held top rank among my favorite superheroes.



Who wouldn't love this?


It's no wonder why I loved Batman Begins so much. Christopher Nolan brought Batman and one of his greatest villains into a world that could be ours. It was wildly appealing to the comic geek side of my nature. The Dark Knight appealed to the film geek in ways that the first installment didn't, but left the comic geek floundering.

For me, Mark Hamill's Joker will always be the best portrayal of the Clown Prince of Crime. Heath Ledger's Joker made you laugh because you couldn't think of a better way to deal with the violence he could do with a pencil. Mark Hamill's Joker could make you laugh because he was funny. I find this characteristic essential to the Joker's character, and it was missing in The Dark Knight. The final film in this trilogy made up for it with a vengeance.

They're comparing Romney to this!? He's just not awesome enough.

As if Christopher Nolan could read my mind, he and his writers took elements from three of the best and most important Batman story arcs and shoved them into a mindblowingly beautiful film. For those who are wondering (even if you aren't I'm going to tell you), those story arcs are Knightfall, No Man's Land, and Batman R.I.P. Nolan seemlessly combined all three right down to the "death" of Bruce Wayne. Then he added Talia al-Ghul just for shits and giggles. Oh man, this movie was good.

I know this is wrong on many levels, but when Tom Hardy as Bane broke Batman's back, I squeed. Everyone else in the theater did a kind of audible wince, but I was geeking out so hard that I was bouncing in my seat with glee. I may be completely messed up, but I SO CALLED IT. I was pleasantly (too mild a word) surprised when they closed Gotham from the outside world. Everytime Officer Blake marked a street corner with a Batsymbol, I almost convulsed in joy.

Then Nolan did what the writers at DC didn't have the courage to do. He retired Bruce Wayne. He passed that iconic cowl to someone else (Dick Grayson should have been Batman damn it!). In the end it doesn't matter who wears the cape and cowl. It's the symbol, the idea of Batman that matters most. This was the best possible way for Nolan to end his tenure with the Bat. Even though he isn't continuing, here's to hoping that someone picks up the baton.

I'll leave you these words from DC's Final Crisis:

"We'll all miss him. And pray for a resurrection." - Superman

Thanks Mr. Nolan, it's been fun.

Movie Droughts and the Passing of a Giant

We've all experienced it. We decide to spend a day hanging out with a friend (or friends), and what better way to do that than to go see a movie? Huge drinks, horrible popcorn, and darkness are what help build the bonds of friendship, right? You get your heart set on it, and you even go so far as to check movie times. Then you make the horrible discovery. There is absolutely nothing out that you want to see. The few passable options have already been seen by someone in your motley crew.



The current selection of major releases.


I bet you can guess what happened to me on Monday. A friend and I are having a girls' day. Through the haze of a carb induced stupor, we think, "Hey, we could go see a girly movie." What is our only option, you might ask? That's right, Magic Mike, a film to which there will be no review in this esteemed blog because I refuse to see movies that I know are going to be crap. I don't care how much man candy is in the film, if it doesn't have at least the promise of good plot, I am not going to see it. Musing a bit more on this subject, I realize that there haven't really been any major rom-coms released this year. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, looks good, but it's only showing at the artsy theater here in Knoxville. It looks good, but probably raises questions, and does a lot of that "communicating ideas" thing that they teach you about in intro level Cinema Studies courses. A fun girly day kind of movie, it is not (quoth Yoda).



See! He agrees with me. Just look at that face.


Further into my musin's and ramblin's, it struck me that there will be a dirth of really good rom-coms for the forseeable future. These are the kinds of movies that make you feel warm and fuzzy inside, but that you also want to buy when they come out on DVD. They are thoughtful without being too thoughtful, and they aren't Nicholas Sparks adaptations. Why this drought of rom-com-y goodness (so many hyphens)? Nora Ephron's passing.

I know it isn't exactly current news, but I'm going to talk about her anyway. Nora Ephron did for the romatic comedy what Francis Ford Coppola did for the gangster movie. Sleepless in Seattle is probably the most famous romantic comedy she did, but she also wrote When Harry Met Sally. The films that she had a hand in have high watchability. She was also one of the few really influential women in Hollywood. In an industry that is overwhelmingly dominated by men (at least behind the camera), she reached some of the most powerful positions in a film that you can have: producer and director. Women aren't uncommon in the positions of writer and editor, but women actually directing or producing films is unusual. Her filmography isn't extensive. Her films are popular and fun, even if they aren't particularly spectacular from a film studies perspective. Nora Ephron, and women like her, have broken the trail for the next generation.



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"I'll have what she's having." - Estelle Reiner in When Harry Met Sally