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?

The Dark Knight Rises: a Batman Event

As you can tell from that first sentence, it was an incredibly awesome movie! Just like the title, it's a lot like the Dark Knight, but everything about it has risen. I really can't think of anything I didn't like about it. The main villain was great, the surprise villain who I never saw coming was great, I liked the unexpected appearance of an old villain who I won't name, even though his role was short and not much came of it,  Batman had awesome gadgets and fithr scenes, most of the cast of Inception were in it and all did a really good job, and also the music was awesome and reminded me of Inception, which I thought had great music. I would totally use either of those two soundtracks to beat someone up to, or even just to walk around to. But it would have to be really loud and coming out of nowhere. It's not as fun if its just being played through some speakers. It should be almost like life is set to music. Remind me to write a post about that concept. I have more to say about it, but for now it will have to wait. I was expecting a lot from this movie, but it met, exceeded and rose far above my hopes. this is the movie Batman needs, and the movie he deserves. If it was just three hoursish of guns and explosions and Batman beating on thugs, I probably still would have enjoyed it to be honest, but it's so much more than that. It has real emotion and depth. In order to rise, one first must fall, and Bruce certainly did. Batman being broken just hurts to watch. They couldn't  have told this story with any other villain. The villain(s) is (are) far more than (with all due respect) some psycho murderer in a costume. And I say that in the nicest of ways as far as Joker, Two-Face, and all those guys are concerned. Puls, the other two movies in the trilogy had this too, but less so, there were moments when something happens that's just so awesome you don't even know what to say. And I can't confirm this since it was cold in the theater, but I think I might've got awesomeness goosebumps. But it was cold in there, so I can't be sure until it comes out on DVD. But anyway, while we're on the topic of not knowing what to say, I'm just kind of rambling here, and not completely sure how to smoothly end this post. So I won't end it smoothly.  
ME SAY ME STOP WRITING NOW!

Amazing Spider -Man

Last night I went and saw the Amazing Spider-Man. It was actually better than I was expecting. Not that I thought it would be bad or anything, but I'm always a little skeptical of series reboots. The movie was fairly accurate to the comic books, but they tie everything to Oscorp. For example: Curt Connors, Richard Parker, Gwen Stacy, Peter's synthetic web, the radioactive spider that bit him, the list goes on. In the game they do that even more: Vermin, Alistair Smythe, the Rhino, the Scorpion, the Iguana, possibly the Vulture, once again, the list goes on. But that doesn't bug me that much. My only other complaints are that they spent a little too much time with the high school romance stuff, and also (this is a small one) he unmasks too much and too willingly. He took his mask off so a kid he was saving wouldn't be scared, which I understand but wouldn't do in his place, and he also told Gwen who he was, even though he hadn't known her for that long. Captain Stacy and the Lizard knowing who he was doesn't bother me though. What I think they did well though is that they did a good job with the personality of Parker as both Peter and as Spider-Man. Making fun of a thug for trying to threaten him with a knife is totally something the real Spider-Man would do. Notice my use of the word real. I'm referring to the one that inhabits the mainstream Marvel comic book universe, with the numerical designation 616 if I'm not mistaken. Also, before he becomes Spider-Man, he's noble even though he's weak, but he's a little bit awkward and not very confident. That seemed about right to me. And I don't mean to just suddenly change the subject, but I will anyway. After the credits, there was a mysterious scene. Not exactly as tantalizing as the ones from Iron Man 1 through Avengers, but it still made it look like they plan on making a sequel. It showed Connors in jail talking to someone (you can't see who, but I think it's Norman Osborne) who asks him if he told Parker the truth about his father. I was actually expecting there to be more about Richard and Mary Parker in this movie, but there wasn't. I can feel that a second one is on the way, but we won't get it for a long time to come. At least we can still look forward to the Dark Knight Rises. Maybe I shouldn't talk about a DC hero in a Marvel post, but we're allowed to like both, right?