The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is the fantastical story of one man who is born old and grows young. He comes into the world a wrinkly aged child. His youth is one of wheelchairs and squinting through glasses. His adolescence has him looking like a man in his fifties. As the movie goes on, he progressively reaches the physical equivalent of a normal teenage youth. Then he shrinks and shrinks, loses his mental faculties along with his memories, and then finally goes out as we come in; instead of opening our baby eyes to the bright world ahead of us, he shuts his and fades away.

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An Abandoned Premise?

The peculiar thing about this idea is that it really isn't as important to the story as you might think. You would expect that something as stunning as a man who ages backwards would dominate every stage of his life. It does and it doesn't. People treat it as a mere curiosity and it doesn't ever really seem to result in anything consequential. For example, scientists never express interest in Benjamin or his unique biological process. It doesn't seem to affect his taxes, insurance, or social security. He isn't swept up by some hack and presented as a man whose blood is the fountain of youth.

Instead, the only real consequences of this involve how he grows up and the dilemma of raising a baby (more on that point later). Benjamin, instead of growing up with parents or at a child's daycare, grows up among old men and women near the end of their lives within a nursing home. I found that this, more than just about anything else in the movie, affects Benjamin's personality and subsequent actions throughout the story, making it more an effective argument for nurture over nature than of the unique experience of a guy who ages backwards. Through this 'upbringing', he lives among these people who value every moment and experience because, for them, it may be the last one they have. Thus Benjamin acquires his drive to constantly explore the world and reach for anything that makes him curious, no matter what. His is the ultimate “live life to the fullest” personality, tempered by the perpetual calm of a distinguished elderly gentleman.

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Themes

This movie is pretty much a distillation of all of our existential fears into a message that, by and large, is glowingly optimistic, if a tad bittersweet. This is the main purpose of Benjamin's backward aging process; it is used by the writers as a tool for dwelling on many questions that affect us throughout life. This could have turned out rather depressing but, due to Benjamin's preternatural calm and understanding, the result is more meditative and relaxing. We see Benjamin's life and watch as he meets fanciful larger-than-life people of all kinds: a perpetually drunk tugboat captain, a discontent wife of a spy, the mysterious owner of a button factory, and more. Through these people, we see their regrets, their abandoned dreams, and we watch as Benjamin encourages them to seize them once more or move on to a brighter future.

This is realized most powerfully in Daisy, the love of Benjamin's life. Daisy experiences a normal life that we get to see alongside Benjamin's own. In a sense, Daisy serves as the audience surrogate; she experiences life and its ups and downs just like we have (or will). Perhaps her most poignant moment is seeing her jealously watch someone who can swim for longer and faster than she can. The mood that results is easy to relate to; we all fear that we won't be able to keep up at some point. We fear age and how that will affect our beauty. We worry that we won't be able to realize our dreams, or that we'll get so absorbed in something else that the time for realizing them will pass us by before we can act upon it. Daisy's life is all about holding on to the fire of life with all of her might, and thrashing about helplessly when she can't find it. She is the realization of all of our fears but, through Benjamin, we are able to realize that there's more to life than that, and that sometimes it's okay to let things go.

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Flaws

Overall, I loved this movie and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is probably one of my favorite movies of all time. But it isn't all perfection and, with my usual tendency to nitpick, I can't help pointing out how it might have been better.

First of all, the movie is too long. At almost three hours, there reaches a stage where, like in Return of the King, it becomes hard to maintain focus and care about what is going on. Perhaps the fault was in the framing story, in how we receive this tale through a near-death Daisy and her daughter reading Benjamin's diary. This part of the movie wasn't necessarily bad; the daughter discovering Benjamin's letters for her is one of the most heartwarming moments in the story (yes, even I cried a little bit over that one). However, the whole bit about the oncoming hurricane didn't seem necessary or relevant to anything, and that could've been cut. Another idea is taking out one of the people that Benjamin meets; for example, his time with Ngunda Oti (the pygmy) was fairly interesting, but had no lasting impact on the story as a whole. If you've seen the movie before, my guess is you probably don't even remember who that is. But your mileage may vary on this.

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Second, I found the dilemma of whether Benjamin should stay and help Daisy raise their child to be important and dramatic, but not a terribly difficult decision. Again, perhaps this is my own perspective bleeding over my logic, but Benjamin's fear of getting to a point of being unable to parent did not seem enough. They were having a child when Daisy was in her mid-forties; even if Benjamin aged normally there'd still be a concern of either of them getting a disease that comes with age that would make parenting difficult. If a normally aging Benjamin had had a history of Alzheimer's in his family history, would it still be acceptable to abandon his parenting responsibilities like he did?

Part of the problem here for me was that Benjamin returns when their child looks about thirteen, and he still has almost entire control of mental capacity. He could have fathered the child and been a legitimately loving parent until then without problem. Even though he deteriorates relatively fast after that, I think it is reasonable to expect that a supportive, loving daughter and wife would have helped him through it. But, instead of this scenario, we are given one where Benjamin leaves Daisy and basically forces her to find another man ASAP to help her raise the girl. This isn't fair to Daisy. This isn't fair to her new husband (as Daisy will always love Benjamin, and because he's basically only there to raise some other guy's kid). And it isn't fair to the daughter, who is understandably pissed off when Daisy, on her deathbed, reveals that she's actually the child of another man. This is a nitpick, I know, but it didn't seem to follow Benjamin's character to make this decision.

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Conclusion

Altogether, this movie is very much worth seeing if you haven't already, though I advise either a break in the middle or multiple viewing sessions, given the length. It is a movie that will inspire you to spend time working on your dreams. It will give you the warm feeling that even the worst life can throw at you is merely a step on the path to something greater. And it will give you that bug to go exploring, to walk down the narrow creek, to feel the wind on your face, or feel the sand under your feet on a distant shore.

The Dark Knight Rises

I want to say that I loved The Dark Knight Rises. It was a dense, complex movie with a lot going on. This was both what made it great and what gave it flaws that perhaps made it not quite as incredible as The Dark Knight which came before. This is going to be rife with SPOILERS, so beware of this going in.

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Gotham's Reckoning

First off, I'm going to talk about what made the movie awesome, and then nitpick it from another angle. I loved Bane. I think they did an excellent job of turning him into a fearsome villain with presence, a force that moves through Gotham like a knife through butter. It is remarkable what Tom Hardy was able to do with only body movements and the use of his eyes. And, what's more, Bane is Batman's superior in almost every way, and it shows. There isn't a fight in the film where Bane doesn't kick Batman's ass, thoroughly. The only way he is overcome is through the cheap trick of punching his mask, which felt about as rewarding as beating Darth Vader by bitch-slapping his respirator.

It is worth noting that Christopher Nolan improved on the Bane of the comics by, on top of making Bane deadly, turning him into a sympathetic character. It is truly touching that Bane, a prisoner, essentially sacrificed his humanity to save the life of one little girl. Doing so turns him into what is clearly a monster, unable to connect with people and discarding them like sacks of worthless flesh. It is only with Talia that he is able to become a protector and show a scintilla of compassion. I wish they had spent more time on this dynamic, but given the twist of Talia's appearance, it could not be.

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Al-Ghul Resurgent

One thing important to note about this movie is how important the events of Batman Begins are to the plot. Indirectly, Liam Neeson's Ra's Al-Ghul drives the entire story; Bane is trained by the League of Shadows and his plan mirrors their twisted philosophy of purging civilizations in order to purify them from corruption. Bane's excommunication from the League tells us two things: it requires us to take him seriously since this is akin to someone being kicked out of the Soviet Spetsnaz (an infamously dangerous special forces) for being too violent; it also illustrates that Bane is a dark shadow of what Batman could have become. It is also worth noting that Talia's parasitical entrance into Gotham's society would not have happened without Batman allowing Ra's to die at the end of the first movie. Revenge drives the movie, with Ra's Al-Ghul a specter above it all.

The Dark Knight Rises also returns us to the Asian and Middle Eastern influences of Batman Begins. I thought that one of the most powerful moments of that first movie arose from Bruce Wayne's time abroad in the Tibetan mountains, training with the League of Shadows. Similarly, Wayne's time in captivity in this movie, as well as the backstory surrounding where he is imprisoned, includes many of the more poignant scenes in the film. It's interesting that the most intriguing moments for me in this trilogy were the moments where we aren't in Gotham and when we aren't dealing with Batman; instead, it is those moments where we confront the psyche of the man behind the mask. We get a great deal of that in The Dark Knight Rises, possibly more than any of the movies that came before.

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The Breaking of the Bat

Speaking of which, let's talk about Batman. Christopher Nolan does three things that are shocking for a comic book movie like this. First, he cripples Batman's spirit; the first half of the movie is a trail of Batman seeking a purpose in a world that hates him, and then being destroyed for it against the immutable wall of Bane. Second, he cripples Batman's body; Bane's thrashing of Batman is so brutal that he must spend months retraining his body and popping his freaking vertebrae back into place. Lastly, he kills Batman. Who does that? The only apparent way that he gets out of it is by some weird factor of Christian Bale being immune to nuclear explosions or Alfred being so mentally deranged by the events of the movie that he hallucinates Bruce Wayne's appearance in Europe. However, this is another area where I wished that they would spend more time allowing events to resonate with the audience. Things moved so fast that it was hard to connect with Bruce Wayne's anguish; we were too swept up in Gotham going to hell that it was more difficult to mull over the more quiet moments of the prison and Batman rising from his slump.

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The French Revolution

One thing which I thought very daring on the part of Christopher Nolan was making clear references to the French Revolution. That same French Revolution that brought on the guillotine, the execution of Marie Antoinette, the kangaroo courts, and an atmosphere where you could be killed for any reason; a barely controlled anarchy. I have long regarded the French Revolution as the most terrifying event I've ever read about in history. Imagine going for a walk and being branded a traitor, brutally raped and murdered, just because you wore a watch. This was a time period where the lower class's hatred of the rich grew to such levels that they would lynch, torture, and kill anyone who had even the barest hint of privilege. If you spoke in a refined and polite manner, you'd likely be pointed out and killed. People reported their neighbors, old rivals, and anyone who pissed them off that day as traitors to the new order. And, because the desire for a purge of nobility was so powerful, it made absolutely no difference whether the claims were true or false; they'd guillotine you anyways. People accused one another just to focus the mob somewhere, anywhere, else. It was worse than living under some warlord's or drug lord's yoke; it was humans murdering one another for expressing rational thought, a bloodbath that targeted civilization itself.

We see that same sort of spirit in the revolution that Bane brings to Gotham. People are encouraged to replace the existing order, to kill those in charge and to overturn old idols. It is exemplified clearest at all in the monstrous court created by Jonathan Crane, the Scarecrow of previous movies. He seats himself atop a ruin of thrown papers, books, chairs, and tables, the same devastation which Bane has brought to the order of Gotham. And, from this perch, he listens to people try to explain why they aren't guilty, but sentences them to death regardless, a mockery of the justice system of old. The fear that overtakes replacement Commissioner Foley is indicative of the same fear that overtook the average person during the French Revolution; people hoped that by remaining quiet and suppliant they might escape the carnage when, in fact, what was needed was a gathering of the silent majority in opposing it.

This was unexpectedly impressive food for thought but, like with the meditation of Batman repairing his sense of self, I felt that the French Revolution aspect of Bane's agenda came by so fast that it wasn't allowed to fully resonate with the audience. I'm willing to bet that the average movie goer completely missed that this was a perfect cautionary warning of how the excesses of groups like Occupy Wall Street could cause them to radically deviate from their agenda. It also is a perfect fictional illustration of the fact that, throughout history, we've seen populist movements before and that they must be taken with a grain of salt or risk spiraling dangerously out of control.

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Conclusion

Altogether, I enjoyed The Dark Knight Rises immensely, but I can't help but wish it had been a longer movie or that it had tried to tackle a bit less. All the points and characters that it brought up were incredibly interesting, but I found myself wishing for some longer scenes, for things to slow down just a little bit so some of what was happening could feel more fleshed out and less frantic. This is, perhaps, a hilarious complaint for a movie that's already three hours long. Perhaps this nitpick should be rescinded in favor of the fact that this will lend itself well to multiple viewings, which is always good for any movie.

But The Dark Knight is probably the better movie, if only barely. I say this just because, upon leaving The Dark Knight, I felt awed and thoughtful. By contrast, upon leaving The Dark Knight Rises, I felt overwhelmed and that I had a LOT to process. This isn't necessarily bad, but it's worth noting that I didn't find myself reaching that cathartic moment where the movie ends and everything feels tied together. But, then again, it isn't like we had that moment with the movie, Inception, either. It's a truly tough call.

If nothing else, I did want to comment that I find the idea of Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a new Batman to be a little bit ridiculous. It isn't that he doesn't have the acting chops, it's more that he looks so young that I can't picture him in a Batsuit without laughing. Also: Catwoman was well done by Anne Hathaway but, like I predicted, I never felt like her presence in the film was really necessary. Batman didn't have to be trapped into a fight with Bane; he was going to fight him anyways. And someone else could just as easily have saved him and helped him out in the final confrontation. Her only salient point was giving Batman a sort of curious kick in the pants at the beginning, prompting him to stop being Howard Hughes and to put the Batsuit on again, if only to recover a lost necklace.

Anyways, enough nitpicking. All in all, it's a fantastic movie and I'll definitely be seeing it again at some point. I'd be curious to hear other impressions in the comments below, if anyone wants to contribute.

Luther

Written by Joe the Revelator

Cop shows and police dramas have never been a big interest of mine.  CSI, CSI Miami, NCSI, ASDF-CSI, Miami Heat...It's a game for people who like to guess who the killer is, why the killer went on a spree, and what evidence will turn up to convict them. The same vindication can be had from reading Encyclopedia Brown novels, or if Jeopardy had a killers and victims episode, and the audience could guess at the categories without feeling dumb when Alex Trebec hits them with "Who Is: Ed Gein?"

Luther is all the crime drama and the police politics interplay without the feeling that you're being brought for a squad-car ride along, or that you're a lab tech fumbling through last year's cutting edge crime analysis tools. Luther, played by Idris Elba the captain in Promytheus, is a cop-on-the-edge, spiraling out of control after catching one too many kidnappers.

His first real breaking point and the opening scene is of a child predator hanging from a catwalk in a warehouse like the Joker, waiting for the good-guy detective to haul him to safety. Without knowing the inspector's background it's still evident he's struggling with the notion of upholding the law when he has the opportunity to remove an infected limb of society by simply not lending a hand. Dirty cop? That's the whole magnificent package, from seasons one to two.

Offices are made to be broken.

The foes Luther faces are as stunningly strange as the rivals in a Sherlock Holmes novel. Alice, played by  Ruth Wilson, is a sociopath extreme. Her flop of a case is one of many recent failures Luther is faced with, which somehow earns him a companion, albeit a very disturbing one. And the challenges get stranger, between men he's known and worked with turning the guns on him, to a severe case of Role Playing, which a pair of 'Gamers' roll dice to see which weapons and methods they'll use to slaughter groups of innocents.

I honestly don't know why Luther works at the police station at all. Any real stumbling block in the case, any argument with his wife, results in a broken window or a smashed keyboard. Watch the series on Fast-Forward and you could make a drinking game out of the show. Every time he breaks something take a drink. If he does something ludicrously self-destructive (playing Russian roulette, dousing himself with gasoline, running into gunfire) take a shot.

That's what the killer said.

If my judgement of Luther so far sounds overboard, that's because it is. It's amazing they've kept up the tension this long. Any real cop would have been suspended, killed, or just plain retired after making so many back alley deals. The third season should have Luther sitting in a doctor's office complaining of high blood pressure and a ulcer. Watching this show could give you both. But like me, you might love every minute of it. Despite having the drama in the red for every minute of every episode, Luther manages to come off smart and compelling. You may feel you need a hot bath and an antidepressant, but it's worth giving it a spin.

The Long Halloween

Continuing the Batman addiction in preparation for The Dark Knight Rises, I thought I'd try my hand at reading some Batman comics that are regarded as the best of the best.

An Offer He Can't Refuse

The Long Halloween is primarily the story of how Harvey Dent became Two-Face. It is also a gangster story, a Catwoman story, and a story that manages to include just about every single one of Batman's villains, while not having any of them be the culprit of the ongoing mystery. With a feel reminiscent of The Godfather, The Long Halloween is probably the first time I've ever read a Batman comic that feels genuinely like something out of film noir. It is gritty, hard-boiled, and the mystery is incredibly hard to crack. And it simultaneously manages to call into question everything we know about Batman, as well as many of the people he surrounds himself with.

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The premise of The Long Halloween is initially simple. A serial killer is killing people on holidays, leaving souvenirs at the scene of every crime that are themed to each holiday. On Christmas, he leaves a snow-globe. On St. Patrick's Day, a leprechaun statue. On Thanksgiving, a cornucopia. And nobody can figure out who it is. Jim Gordon, Harvey Dent, Batman... Each of them investigate the killings and are completely stymied.

Simultaneous to this are the intrigues of the Falcone and Maroni crime families. You've got the whole Godfather-esque picture: low-level thugs, seemingly refined gentlemen of the upper echelons, and the Italian weddings and celebrations. Because of their schemes, their members seem prime suspects. However, there's also the problem that, for the most part, Falcone family members are the only ones being killed off by the Holiday killer. Why would the gang be killing their own?

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On top of this, other villains in the city actually get to the point where they feel they have to act out because of all the attention the Holiday killer is getting. The Joker decides that nobody is allowed to supplant his position as primo-criminal, and so tries to stage a grand crime that will revert attention back to him. Other villains, such as Poison Ivy and the Riddler, hire out their services to the gangs, who appear to be trying equally hard to find the Holiday killer themselves. In addition, Catwoman is slinking around, seemingly always hiding and watching wherever Batman appears to be.

The result is an insane shitstorm where villains are lashing out, the gang families are getting increasingly disruptive, and the Holiday killer flits about without anyone able to figure out who he is, much less stop him.

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I Believe In Harvey Dent

The Long Halloween is a story that manages to tackle an enormous amount of tricky story elements and still manage to come out amazing. Not only is there a lot of stuff going on, but it also manages to make time for contemplative character moments that surprise you with their poignancy. There's a moment halfway through the comic where Dent and Gordon realize that, like Batman, they are leading double lives in how often they stay away from home to bring criminals to justice. We end up seeing a good deal of their home lives, their wives; and the dichotomy between the characters is remarkable. Gordon somehow manages to maintain being a caring husband and father despite his constant absences. By contrast, Dent's marriage is constantly under strain, heartbreakingly so. Gilda Dent (his wife) is so deeply in love with him that she finds it hard to cope with Dent's career and, as things get more dangerous for him and he inevitably snaps, it's genuinely hard to watch as she tries so hard to help him and for it all to be in vain. This is a marriage that should be perfect and the stuff of movies but, instead, is twisted by the events around them to the point of fading away, no matter how much Gordon and Batman try to help.

To that point, I would say that The Long Halloween handles Harvey Dent's fall with more depth and passion than The Dark Knight. The Harvey Dent of this story is zealous to the point of being willing to break the rules, making more sense that he would take matters into his own hands when his mind breaks. In addition, with the character of Gilda, we genuinely yearn for Harvey to succeed so that he may return home as if, through hope and will alone, we may ignore the fact that Harvey is doomed to fall. He is essentially Batman if Batman didn't have money and was bound to operate within the rules of law. And that's interesting to think about because, in another life, Harvey Dent could have been Batman.

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Conclusion

Altogether, I loved every minute of this comic. The mystery managed to cast suspicion on every single character (including Batman himself, at one point), and I was completely unable to predict who the Holiday killer turned out to be. Throughout this trail of crumbs, we're treated to one epic race after another, as Batman and the others try their damnedest to find the killer before each holiday comes to pass. On top of this, we're treated to the romantic back-and-forth of Catwoman, the efforts of Bruce Wayne to combat the gangsters economically, one villain encounter after another, and more. And, finally, the art is both beautiful and gothic; Batman has never looked so fearsome and inhuman.

If you're looking for a really good, effectively written, and gangster/mystery/noir/Batman story, this is one comic definitely worth buying.

The Dark Knight Rises - Background and Influences

The Dark Knight Rises is just around the corner and, despite my efforts, it's been impossible to not read about it and get incredibly psyched. After all, we remember the awesomeness of The Dark Knight, and Christopher Nolan has shown us (with Inception, if nothing else) that he can create one intense movie.

Yet as I've read of this upcoming movie and of its apparent inspirations, it occurred to me: most people probably don't even know who Bane (the villain-to-be) is. And it might not be immediately apparent why this new movie is set a full eight years after the previous one. So, given my immense repository of useless information (which includes comic book lore), I thought I'd make an effort to create a sort of background primer explaining the source material that Christopher Nolan appears to be working with.

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Bane

Believe it or not, we have seen Bane before. In the godawful Batman & Robin movie, Bane appears as a skinny little git who grows into a tank of a minion, when fueled to the gills with some nasty greenish compound known as Venom. His sole purpose in that movie is to serve as a giant bruiser for Batman to fight and, more or less, easily dispatch, serving merely as an idle distraction before getting to the 'main course' of Poison Ivy. What you need to do now is forget that this iteration of Bane ever existed. I thought about putting a picture up of what that Bane looked like, but I'm not going to. It's about as accurate to the source material as if Batman were some dog dressed in Bat-tights.

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It liiiiiives!

Anyways, what makes Bane special among Batman's eclectic coterie of bad guys is that Bane is the only villain who has ever completely and utterly defeated Batman. Not only did he beat Batman in a viciously brutal fistfight, but he destroys Batman emotionally as well. He's the only one who pushes Batman past his limit and, by doing so, messes Batman up so thoroughly that Batman gives up and lets someone else take the Batman moniker.

How does this happen, you ask? In comics, the story is called Knightfall. A complete unknown at this point in Batman's history, Bane realizes that attacking Batman directly is futile, and so decides to stage an enormous breakout of Arkham Asylum, the place where all of Batman's villains are imprisoned. Batman doesn't know who did it or how, but the result is close to absolute anarchy, as foes such as the Joker, Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, Two-Face, and more spill out into Gotham and create their own little pockets of tyranny or madness. The police are completely unable to cope, hundreds of people are dying as victims in various insane schemes, and it's all up to Batman. He takes them down one-by-one and is driven to exhaustion. He is injured and shot repeatedly, and nearly runs out of his stock of gadgets and paraphernalia.

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Thinking it all over after recapturing the last villain, Batman returns home to the Wayne mansion and finds Bane waiting for him. It turns out that, in Batman's haste to stop all the bad guys who escaped, Bane has been able to track Batman's whereabouts and discover both the location of the Bat-cave and the fact that Batman is actually Bruce Wayne. Despite Batman's determination to fight Bane regardless, you can tell that Batman doesn't have a chance. He looks haggard, his face worn and unshaven, and he's shuddering, unable to shake off his exhaustion. And Bane, a villain who he's never even seen before, would arguably be Batman's equal in a fight, even if Batman were fully rested and armed. Thus, in short order, Bane brutalizes Batman, toys with him like he would a child, and then breaks his back and turns Batman into a paraplegic.

While, eventually, Batman recovers years later and defeats Bane personally, it's important to note that Bane is a combination of brute force and cunning. Unlike others, Bane is smart enough to weaken Batman and push him beyond his endurance before Bane even thinks of facing him. What will Christopher Nolan do with his version of Bane? Well, I'm willing to bet that the drug Venom won't be mentioned. In the comics, Bane does in fact have this compound that boosts his strength, but it's so secondary to what makes him a threat that it would just be pointless to bring up, especially considering that Christopher Nolan's Batman universe likes to have a firm grounding in reality.

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Old Batman

As mentioned at the beginning of this post, The Dark Knight Rises takes place eight years after the events of The Dark Knight. In what is perhaps the most fitting homage to Heath Ledger's crazy and epic take on the Joker, the Bruce Wayne of this third movie is going to be one who is legitimately damaged from the encounter. Batman is older, he looks gaunt, he's regarded as having murdered Harvey Dent, and is essentially a pariah, both among the police and in the media. In fact, Batman is regarded as "missing" for all of those years. It wouldn't be surprising if along with this trauma comes a strong dose of cynicism.

All this reminded me of The Dark Knight Returns, a comic that basically asks, “What if Batman became so overwhelmed with crime fighting that he gave up, retired for a dozen years, then came back, much older, to try once more in a Gotham that's become far more corrupt and dark in his absence." And I've read an article or two that suggests that this comic is one of those that was used for prime inspiration in the making of this particular film. This got me incredibly excited as The Dark Knight Returns is one of the most intense, cutting, and impressive comics I've ever read, and any nod to it is undeniably good.

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To summarize, The Dark Knight Returns has an old, unhappy sixty year old Bruce Wayne realize that, without the brutal vigilantism of the Batman alter-ego in his life, he's doomed to die alone and unhappy. So, despite the impossibility of one man turning about a truly twisted dystopian Gotham, an aged Bruce Wayne dons the cowl once more and fights crime again. What makes The Dark Knight Returns unsettling, however, is how the cynicism of this unhappy old man comes against Batman's thou-shalt-not-kill mentality. Batman becomes more brutal, more willing to push the line, and ends up dying for it. (For more details, see my old review)

While Christopher Nolan is obviously not going to follow the events of The Dark Knight Returns (it climaxes with Batman and Superman fighting to the death, after all), it's worth noting that the atmosphere and mood of that comic will almost certainly be employed. It's also interesting to note that the Bat-Tank that we've seen already was directly inspired by the same vehicle in The Dark Knight Returns. Lastly, if it's a major inspiration, it's more likely that Batman will die by the end of the movie. It would be a suitably intense end to the series, but we'll see...

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Catwoman

Unfortunately, I haven't quite decided what to make of Catwoman. I've read a fair amount of comics in my day, and I've yet to read a great Catwoman story. She's the femme fatale, the mischievous flirt of a thief, and basically serves as a lighthearted foil to Batman's serious justice-must-be-done mentality. She flip flops back and forth between helping Batman and helping the villain of the week, whoever provides the cleanest and most exciting adventure with moneybags at the end.

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What concerns me is that, based on the trailers we've seen, Catwoman seems to be more enthralled with arguing the philosophy of a pretty Occupy Wall Street drone more than anything. On the bright side, this might manifest as her serving as a beautiful, buxom female Robin Hood. Or it might result in her operating as a one-note political message, much like how Morgan Freeman's Lucius Fox in The Dark Knight's only purpose was to remind us that wiretapping is unconstitutional and evil. It could go either way.

But what really concerns me with Catwoman is the fact that, as mentioned above, there's already a LOT on the plate already when it comes to characters and the plot. Batman's deterioration of spirit combined with the enormous, existential threat of Bane is going to dominate the movie, as it should. Is there truly room for Catwoman? I've no problem with Anne Hathaway prancing about sexily and stealing things but, given what I've outlined, she just sounds out of place in a story like this. I only hope that Christopher Nolan has an ace up his sleeve on this one.

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Conclusion

In the end, I have great hopes for The Dark Knight Rises combined with unending caution. This movie is going to be hyped to high hell, and it has a huge hurdle to jump with regard to just how awesome The Dark Knight was. But the director is one of the best and has yet to disappoint us. The source material is very strong and intense stuff, so my fingers are crossed. I'm just hoping that the addition of Catwoman (not to mention Marion Cotillard and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as new characters) doesn't cause the film to keel over under the weight. Time will tell, in just over a week!

Assorted Reviews - 7-11-12

To Rome With Love

Woody Allen has always been very touch and go with me. Sometimes, he absolutely wows me with movies that are both artistic and thoughtful, while having a distinctly European air that adds weight and a desire to travel to the story that he creates. Other times, he creates an annoying piece of crap that slaps the audience in the face repeatedly with his uniquely annoying brand of comedy. Match Point and Midnight in Paris represent the former category. Scoop and To Rome With Love represent the latter.

In a film that could be renamed Casual Infidelity: The Movie, we are treated to a handful of two-dimensional shallow short stories that almost utterly fail to engage. This would be tolerable if it did a good job of capturing the city of Rome and what it must be like to travel there, but instead we are treated to a sequence of simplistic plots that seem out of some college teacher's Intro to Fiction 101 syllabus that just happen to take place in Rome. In short, my theory holds true: if a movie created by Woody Allen also stars Woody Allen, it is destined to suck.

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Ted

I had zero expectations for this movie. A movie about a CGI teddy bear? Does nobody remember the failure of Garfield and every children's movie that's been made on a CGI animal before? And Seth McFarlane? I must admit, I'm a member of that tiny minority that sees Family Guy, American Dad, etc etc ad infinitum, and cringes. I've never been a huge fan of that type of humor for quite some time.

But then the movie turned out to be rather charming. Oh, I know. You were expecting the worst. But it actually managed to convincingly make me care for that damned teddy bear, even when it was being a vulgar, furry little fuck. Despite my fears, it was a rather touching movie that told the story of one guy's childhood friend, how they grew up together, and how they affect each others' lives, for better or worse, now that they're adults. For anyone who has ever had a friend who was considered a “bad influence”, you'll empathize with Ted. It isn't the greatest comedy I've seen, but it was pretty damn good considering how terrible it could have been.

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Winston's War: Churchill – 1940-1945

This book is spectacular. Essentially, what it is is a narrative of World War II from the perspective of Winston Churchill, and boy is it a great one. Winston Churchill is one of the most epic figures I've ever read about in history, and Max Hastings' writing succeeds brilliantly in capturing Churchill's indomitable spirit, romantic bent, and utter determination.

This is a man who, despite a country that flip-flopped between wanting to negotiate surrender with the Naxis and wanting to just let the rest of the world worry about Hitler, wrested control of the spirits of Great Britain to hold out against the most fierce military machine the world had ever seen. It's hard to convey the sheer amount of obstacles that confronted the Prime Minister at every stage of the war; he had to deal with a population that found “Uncle Joe” (Stalin) and Communism more likable than the Americans, people harassing him to open up a second front in Europe by himself, despite the impossibility of doing so, and a United States President (Roosevelt) who constantly undermined him in order to insure that the U.S. Achieved dominance, materially and influentially.

Sadly, due to the failure of my Kindle, I got only 70% into the book before having to 'put it down', but I would still recommend this as one of the most addicting and inspirational biographies/histories I've ever read. It is even better than Hastings' Retribution, in my book, as, unlike Retribution's smorgasbord of different stories from different civilians and soldiers, Winston's War has a more singular and effective narrative that keeps you hooked.

Batman Begins

When I heard that The Avengers was coming out, I instantly light-bulbed with the concept of watching the prequel/tie-in movies and reviewing them before it hit the theaters. Unfortunately that didn't work out but, on the bright side, it isn't like many of those tie-in movies were that good anyways.

But now we have a new monster coming, The Dark Knight Rises. And, unlike with The Avengers, the prequels to TDKR are really good movies. Christopher Nolan has truly managed to capture what makes Batman great. And so, without further ado, here is my review of Batman Begins.

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The Hero's Journey

Batman is a badass. We all know it. This is the movie where the focus is on him, his psyche, and where he gets his drive. Like any origin story, we see why Bruce Wayne is driven to fight crime, as well as where he gets his gadgets and skills. But, unlike most origin stories, with Batman Begins we go a great deal deeper.

At the beginning of our story, Bruce Wayne is in a prison in Asia, as far away from home as possible. He's living every day to the next with no clear idea of where he's going or what he's doing. For all we know, he's just going from one fight to another. Soon enough we learn that he's trying to understand what killed his parents (criminality) by immersing himself deep within it. It isn't until he's released by a mysterious man named Ducard that Wayne is set on the path of discovering how to harness his hatred of crime and conquering his own inner fears.

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Batman Begins makes for a fantastic first half of the movie. Christopher Nolan raises all sorts of interesting questions that make us understand that things aren't black and white for Batman. Through Wayne, we see that vengeance can mislead people into deviating far from where they started. Through Ducard, we wonder if the end does not always justify the means. Through Falcone, we question how different criminals are from the everyday people we see everyday. And through Rachel, we ask ourselves whether trying to do good within the system is ever really effective.

It's remarkable how many aspects of Batman we get, and we get to see many different criticisms of his methods and their efficacy before he even dons the cowl. However, what prevents the movie from being the masterpiece, in my book, is that this only applies to the first one-half or two-thirds of the movie. At a certain point, things swing back into motion that remind you that this is just another superhero movie. The villain returns and sets into action his nefarious plan, and Batman swoops in to save the day.

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The League of Shadows

Ra's Al Ghul is one of the most interesting villains in the Batman universe, mainly because everything he says is true. He serves as a foil to Batman, a dark counterpart who represents what Batman could be if Batman had no moral code. And even that is a simplifying of matters. Ra's Al Ghul represents a neoconservative viewpoint on how to deal with injustice and crime in the world; he maintains that criminals should be made a brutal example of since they show no attachment to society's laws. The theory is that if the world is not harsh with people who disobey, then the rules which we maintain will slowly be corrupted in time, leading to the decaying of civilization.

This is a controversial subject, but this point-of-view hasn't been proven wrong, even today. Fact of the matter is that we have differing perspectives on how we should treat criminals in this day and age. Some nations like to do their best rehabilitate them, with considerable success. On the flip side, those nations with harsh penalties such as public humiliations or the death sentence provide an immense discouragement to anyone thinking of breaking the law. There is not yet a definitive right answer, and the middle ground arguably causes just as much harm as good. This is important as, if Ra's Al Ghul is correct (and there's nothing that can definitively disprove his philosophy), then Batman is genuinely serving as an impediment to human progress by prolonging a system that perpetuates corruption.

However, I wish that the movie had found a more ambiguous way for Ra's to serve as a villain in the end. I say that because, near the end of the movie, we discover that he is going to cause the whole city of Gotham to devolve into a bloody anarchy by spreading fear toxin everywhere, likely killing thousands of people. This seems very odd for someone who declares earlier in the story to have lost his wife to criminals; one would expect such a man to have more empathy for those members of Gotham who aren't corrupt. But, hey, any movie can't be perfect I suppose.

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Conclusion

Batman Begins is a great movie that could have been greater if only it had had the balls to deviate from the superhero origin formula that requires a climactic battle at the end. That may be silly to say, and it isn't like the action wasn't awesome, but it made it so that a movie that was genuinely thought provoking turned into a more mind-numbing thrill-ride at the end.

Lastly, I had one nitpick. Do you remember the scene where Batman is being forced to execute someone at the League of Shadows' fortress, and instead chooses to blow up the entire fortress, killing everyone inside, instead of taking the man's life without a jury? Did it occur to anyone that, by blowing up the whole freaking place, Bruce ended up killing the guy anyways, and dozens of others besides? Also, for someone who says he'll never take a life, I find it hard to believe that he didn't kill any policemen in that one chase with the Bat-tank. At two separate points, he smashes a cop car underneath his huge rover and blows up two of them with explosive caltrops. How did nobody die? It seemed a bit unbelievable.