Superhero Movies, Part 1: The Dark Knight Rises

Last weekend I happened to stumble upon the incredibly uninspired Avengers cartoon.  Seeing the Hulk in action made me want to watch the Incredible movie version again.  I didn't have the chance to watch it at the time, but the simple thought seemed to trigger a thematic movement in my reality.

A few days later, the news broke that Anne Hathaway had been cast as Selina Kyle in The Dark Knight Rises, the third and final Christopher Nolan Batman movie.  The same news also revealed who Tom Hardy would play: Batman villain Bane.

Not coincidentally, I'm sure, TNT showed the second Batman movie this evening.  TNT is really good at playing movies that kind of force you to watch them, even if you already own the movie on DVD.

Between the Batman movie news, TNT, and my desire to watch the Incredible Hulk again, I have found myself on a superhero movie kick.  It's good timing, too, given how many of these movies are going to be released this year.

The Dark Knight Rises casting story caused quite a stir, although I think more for those who don't read comic books than for those who do.  Want proof?  The phrase "Batman Bane" was one of the most searched on Yahoo last week, because only people who read Batman comics actually know who Bane is.

Those of us who do read comic books talked about how odd the choice seemed, given the library of much more popular Batman villains.  Bane, however, has advantage of being a character who easily translates to film.  He also doesn't have much of a fan following or any pop culture recognition, so he's ultimately a blank slate for Nolan.  There's also nothing particularly campy or over the top about him, or at least such a portrayal can be easily avoided.

I do wonder how much Nolan will delved into the drugs that give Bane his superhuman strength, or if that will even be a part of the movie.  Simply giving Bane such abilities begins to take the movie away from its strengths, and it wouldn't surprise me to see Nolan drop it all together, or at least make Bane's usage of the drug (known as "Venom" in the comics) less frequent.

It will also be interesting to see if we'll get a brief appearance by Hugo Strange, who had a hand in creating Bane.

As for Selina Kyle, I had something of an epiphany about her character earlier this evening.  One of the things that most people have pointed out as being curious is the fact that the press release announcing Anne Hathaway's casting referred to her character as "Selina Kyle."  It didn't say anything about Catwoman.

That's kind of strange, given that Catwoman is a household name and not many people know the name Selina Kyle.  If they're going to name Bane, why wouldn't they name Catwoman?

My theory is that Selina Kyle will never be called Catwoman in the movie or, if she is, it's just as a joke.  She'll still retain all the elements of the character: she's a cat burglar, she's a love interest to Batman -- I would guess she'll probably even love cats.  But I don't think she'll ever use the name or ever wear any kind of costume.

Which makes sense.  Nolan would want to keep this movie as realistic as possible and costumes have been off limits so far for anyone other than Batman.  I wouldn't expect Bane to wear anything resembling a costume, either.

I have high hopes for The Dark Knight Rises, despite the title.

Now, Green Lantern, on the other hand...

Nation of Humpbacks

That is nothing at all like what my desk at work looks like, I just felt like being hyperbolic.  But I do work in a cubicle, albeit one that is relatively free of papers, let alone stacks of papers.  And I do sit in a desk all day, which has slowly but surely beaten all the muscles in my back to something of a gelatinous state.  This, of course, is only compounded by the fact that I then go home and sit at another desk for a few hours to, in theory, write.  

This is all in addition to my carpal tunnel syndrome, for which I have wrist braces and a snazzy keyword and mouse.  If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me what was wrong with my wrists, well, I wouldn't have to work in a cubicle anymore and then no one would ask me that.  Wrists brace are the helmets of the cubicle world.

Chuck 4.11 Review (spoilers)

I think it's time I finally read the writing on the wall: Chuck has seen better days.

For every moment that I enjoyed (Lester, the near proposal, the A plot itself), there was a moment that made me groan (the lack of logic in the ending, the proposal storyline, the lack of logic in the ending -- did I say that already?).  Sadly, this has become a pattern this season on Chuck, and one I don't see ending until the initial season order of 13 episodes has wrapped up.

Old School

There was something incredibly charming about the spy story in this episode, something that harkened back to early episodes of the show.  Perhaps it was the somewhat wacky, very simple premise: crazy CIA gadget needs to be retrieved and the team goes undercover to get it.  Perhaps it was Casey taking on a role as yet another person who has to serve Chuck (like a waiter or a bartender, etc.) or Sarah and Chuck posing as a couple on a romantic trip again (even though, this time, they're exactly that).  There was a certain purity to this story, like something out of season one.

Idiot Box

I watch a lot of TV, I freely admit that.  It probably takes the place of things like working out and being social.

I know that when the TiVo was first released, people said it revolutionized television, and I scoffed.  But then I got one and it really and truly does change the way I watch TV: it lets me watch more of it.

In a TiVo-less world, I wouldn't watch half the shows I watch.  If I had to pay for each show individually, I wouldn't watch most of them.  But neither of these things has come to pass, so I fetter away the hours on my couch.

Since new episodes of traditional television shows are returning to the air in the next few weeks, I thought I'd throw out my big, fat, list of Shows That I Watch.  So here we go, starting on Monday and going forward...

Avatar Review, and stuff about science fiction

My friend Tony commented that not seeing Avatar in 3D was a waste of time, and I'm inclined to agree with him.  Unfortunately, a) 3D makes my brain tingle (seriously) and b) I feel like any movie that's dependent upon special effects to be good, really isn't.  And that was certainly the case with Avatar.

The movie was 162 minutes long, which was roughly 142 minutes longer than it really needed to be.  Twenty minutes of an adventure in the alien forest would have been enough.

I won't talk about the story, as that's been beaten to death since the movie was originally released.  No, what Avatar made me think about was science fiction in general, and our efforts to tell science fiction stories in visual mediums.

Basically, the odds of an alien race looking anything like us (as in humans) are really, really small.  The sheer number of evolutionary coincidences that would have to happen to create a humanoid race would be astronomical.  In other words, the little green men wouldn't really be men at all.

Of course, visual storytelling has been hampered by its tools.  Star Trek had face paint and limited prosthetics to work with, so the fact that every alien race they encountered had two legs, two arms, two eyes, two ears, a nose, and a mouth wasn't their fault.  They did the best they could with what they had.

I won't fault Avatar for this, either, even though it was, in theory, the first science fiction movie that could actually move away from this rather ridiculous trope.  From a storytelling standpoint, making your characters humanoid means the audience will be able to connect with them, at least better than they'd connect with, say, a shapeless cloud of energy.

Avatar does lose points for the rest of Pandora's residents.  Every single life form on that planet was an analogue for something on Earth.  You saw the alien creature and you knew it was a bird, or a cat, or a horse.  Each creature matched up with something familiar when, again, the odds of such a thing happening are infinitesimal.  Even the fact that the planet had plant life just like Earth is ridiculous.

And, again, Avatar, with all of its vaunted special effects, is the first movie to come along that truly could have acknowledged all of this.  It could make special effects look real and, in turn, made the unnatural comprehensible.  But it didn't.

No, I didn't see Avatar in 3D, but I think creators actually dropped the ball on this great new technology, which is unfortunate.

My Top 10 Albums Released in 2010

These are going to be in no particular order, mostly because I was having a hard time putting them in some kind of order.

A few opening comments: There are two notable releases from this past year missing from this list, by the Black Keys and The National specifically.  I have them, I just haven't listened to them yet.  I have a good reason for that.

I have a backlog of new music.  I have a playlist called "New" that I fill with music and periodically refill with music as I'm going through albums.  The list is currently filled with 8.8 hours of music I've yet to hear.

I also have a playlist called "Next."  This consists of new music waiting to move to the "New" list.  It currently contained 20.8 hours of music.

When a new album comes out, I don't always listen to it right away.  More often than not, it gets sent to the "Next" list to wait its turn.  I try to move new albums to the front of the line, but it doesn't always happen.  How do I decide what gets listened to right away and what doesn't?  I honestly don't know; it's kind of a mood thing.  It's also kind of a timing a thing; if I buy a lot of new music at one time, chances are good a new album is going to get lost in the shuffle.

So, now, without further ado...

Biographical Mix, 2010: Getting Better

It's January 1st, 2011 and I've already begun to notice a trend for the new year, one that actually started last night: optimism.  I was kind of taken aback by the volume of optimistic comments I saw on the various social media sites I frequent.

Yes, such optimism is generally a part of every new year, but it seemed more prevalent this year, far more so than last year, that's for sure.  Given the state of the world (not to mention a Republican controlled House of Representatives), it's hard to believe that so many people are coming out of 2010 and into 2011 expecting something better.  But that seems to be the case.

And why not?  We've all been in a very deep hole for a very long time, and while we might still be below ground, we're considerably closer to the surface than we have been in years.  For all the doom and gloom, the talking heads and spin, things are getting better.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel and it feels like we're actually moving towards it.

This was very much the case for me, personally.

A reminder for anyone new to these "Biographical Mixes" of mine: these songs are the best of what I listened to over the last calendar year, and usually includes music that was not released in said year.  I listen to a lot of music over 12 months and I'm on a fairly regular search for new bands to get into.  Because of this, the new music I listen to in any given years isn't usually from that year.

As a matter of process, I create a new mix for each quarter of the year, so when the year comes to an end I have four mixes which I then distill down to one.  Usually, any songs I deem "slow" or "sad" or the like ends up on a completely different mix, so while this is, in theory, a "Best of What I Listened To in 2010," it's is made up of only non-depressing music.  Perhaps someday I'll share my depressing stuff on this blog.

Okay, without further ado, my "Best of 2010" list...

"Mercury" by Chris Walla and J. Robbins
"Once, Twice, Again!" by DARTZ!
"Feel Good Together" by Drummer
"Living In Colour" by Frightened Rabbit
"Get Better" by Mates of State
"Bottled In Cork" by Ted Leo
"Left & Right In the Dark" by Julian Casablancas
"Up In the Dark" by the New Pornographers
"Hang On" by Weezer
"X's On Your Eyes" by +/-
"Enjoy the Silence" by Nada Surf
"Forced to Love" by Broken Social Scene
"Credible Threats" by One AM Radio
"Generator First Floor" by Freelance Whales
"Eyes On the Prize" by Eulogies
"Black Sheep" by Metric and Brie Larson
"Beat the Devil's Tattoo" by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
"Long Day" by Medications
"Perfect" by Sounds Like Violence
"How Heavy This Axe" by The Sword
"A Horse Called Golgotha" by Baroness

 Up next: Best albums actually released in 2010...