Nolanverse Bane

Just a warning, I'll probably be making a lot of Bane jokes in this post, and they could be extremely painful ... for you. So deal with it. Also, you've probably noticed that I'm using italics to show that I'm speaking in a Bane voice. Anyway, the Bane from what I call the Batman Nolanverse (the Dark Knight trilogy universe) has done something extremely difficult: he's a movie version of a character that I like more than the comic book version. When another character does that, he has my permission to brag. But seriously. Nolanverse Bane is powerful, but doesn't ruin the atmosphere of the movie by being a giant superhuman monster, manages to sound crazy evil, even without using a particularly sinister (but extremely fun to imitate) voice, and just generally oozes awesome. I think he fits the movie so well because unlike the other characters, who have merely adopted the Nolanverse, Nolanverse Bane was born in it; molded by it. Which reminds me, Bane has some awesome quotes, and is one of my favorite movie villains to quote, much to my friends' despair. So, as I terrorize my friends with Bane quotes, I will feed them hope to poison their souls. Don't misunderstand me though; I like comic book Bane. Or at least I like him when he's smart. I prefer the "masked man" over the "mentally challenged gorilla man," as seen in the same movie that featured George Clooney disgracing the Batman. I have no love for that movie (I wondered what would break first: the writing or the acting?... Or perhaps I'm wondering why they would shoot a movie for which they should be thrown out of a plane...) or that version of Bane. I do kinda like when Bane is a super genius and incredibly strong though. I still think Knightfall, the story where he first breaks Batman, is one of the better Batman stories out there. But as good as that is, my favorite Bane has to be Nolanverse. Honestly, the only thing I would've liked to see with him but didn't is some mention of Osito, his childhood teddy bear that was so important to comic book Bane. That's a pretty small thing though. And I suppose it didn't actually show him as a child in prison, so for all we know, Nolanverse Bane did spend his childhood shanking people with knives concealed inside his teddy bear. Like I said though, it's a small thing anyway. Nolanverse Bane is pure awesome.

Dredd

This is one of the best comic book movies I've seen, and by far the bloodiest, which contributes to it being one of the best. Also, I usually don't see movies in 3D when I have a choice, but I did for this one, and I think it actually was better. There was blood flying off the screen in slow motion, and some other stuff like that, so I think they made good use of the 3D technology at their disposal. What I like about Judge Dredd is that he's not a hero, and the new movie didn't try to make him one. They said that they were trying to make it so that you can watch the movie, then pick up a comic book, and it's the exact same character, and I think they did a great job with that. There have been some comic book movies that I loved, but some of the characters were pretty different from their comic book selves. For example, the Nolanverse Batman movie villains. All of them were terrific villains, but some of them like Bane had very little similarity to the comic books. Not that I'm complaining; I like Nolanverse Bane at least as much as comic book Bane, maybe even more, but it's always good to see exactly the same awesome character on the screen and on paper. Especially someone with the pure awesomeness of Judge Dredd. I was kind of expecting this movie to have some cool action scenes, but have a weakish plot, but the quality was a lot higher than I was expecting. It also felt a lot longer than it actually was, since there was so much happening. In fact, I don't think I have any real complaints about it. Usually when I review movies and stuff, I try to come up with at least a couple criticisms for the sake of being a more credible and useful source, but right now I got nothing. Mega-City One was a little less futuristic and more realistic, but I have no problem with that. I think one of the few things that the old movie did relatively well was the lawgiver (sure, "double whammy" is a little ridiculous, but I thought it was kind of cool), but it was way awesomer in this version. The first time he pulls it out, his conversation with the perp is something like this:
"Put down the gun, hotshot"
"What?"
"I said hotshot."
*shoots perp in mouth with incendiary bullet, perp's head burns to a crisp*
I thought that was pretty cool. Now I really really want a lawgiver, Judge's helmet, and a lawmaster. Between a lawmaster and the Batpod, I'd say the batpod is probably the cooler bike, but I barely consider that a real motorcycle. So the lawmaster is on of the coolest actual motorcycles there are, and probably the one I would choose if a few were offered. Anyway, the movie itself is very true to the source material, has some extremely cool action scenes, and has a good plot. What's not to like?