Darren

Batman: The Dynamic Duo Archives, Vol. 1 (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on July 13, 2012 by Darren

To celebrate the release of The Dark Knight Rises, July is “Batman month” here at the m0vie blog. Check back daily for comics, movies and television reviews and discussion of the Caped Crusader.

It’s very hard to believe, but there was a time when both Batman and Detective Comics were on the verge of cancellation. While the character had been one of the first major superheroes to emerge, and had a profound impact on many who followed, the fifties had not been kind to the Batman. When changes in the market forced the publisher to move away from the traditional crime stories, they tried to tell science-fiction epics. This approach actually worked quite well on Superman and Action Comics, as Superman leant himself to stories about aliens and other dimensions, but these elements felt somewhat out of place in a Batman comic book. In a last ditch effort to save the titles, editor Julius Schwartz was drafted in to revamp the character and his world, resulted in a “new look” version of the Caped Crusader who would inspire Adam West’s version of the character, but felt like something of a return to the character’s roots.

Na na na na na na na na…

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Batcave, batman, Batmobile, Bob Kane, Carmine Infantino, Dark Knight Rises, dc comics, detective comics, gordon, gotham city, james gordon, John Broome, joker, Kane, Patricia Powell, robin | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Teen Wolf

Posted on July 12, 2012 by Darren

Teen Wolf is quite possibly the single strangest werewolf movie I have ever seen. I would love to have been a fly-on-the-wall at that pitch meeting:

Teen movies are all the rage this year, sir.

And werewolf films have been trending up since The Howling.

Now if there were only some way to combine the two.

As the name implies, Teen Wolf is the story of a teenager who discovers that he has hair in places where he didn’t have hair before. Lots of places. The film does an… interesting job using a conventional movie monster as an exploration of teenage “otherness”, and I actually like the film’s second act is completely off-the-wall, but even the considerable charisma of Michael J. Fox isn’t quite enough to salvage a muddle mix of eighties clichés, knock-off eighties theme songs, and confusion about the movie’s rather basic “be yourself” metaphor.

Scott’s attempt to grow a beard has gone horribly wrong…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Adolescence, An American Werewolf in London, film, Folklore, Howling, literature, Mark Vieha, Michael J. Fox, Movie, MTV, non-review review, Randy Newman, review, Teen Wolf, Tyler Posey, werewolf, werewolves, wolf | 3 Comments »

Batwoman: Elegy (Hardcover) (Review)

Posted on July 12, 2012 by Darren

When I read Batwoman: Elegy, I couldn’t help but feel like I just didn’t get it. I mean, it’s good, it’s really good, but everybody and their mother had been going on and on about how it was the best Batman book in ages, and how it really was redefining what you could and couldn’t do in mainstream comic books. I liked it, but I didn’t love it, and it’s hard to put the finger on why – I suspect it’s something purely aesthetic. As much as I appreciate the fantastic art of J.H. Williams, it all seemed rather conventionally plotted by Greg Rucka. It was your standard cookie-cutter superhero story, which meant that the art just looked like pretty window dressing on a fairly routine storyline.

Last night, the bat signal went off in her head…

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: batman, Batman Incorporated, Batwoman, Batwoman: Elegy, Christopher Nolan, comic book, detective comics, gotham central, grant morrison, greg rucka, JH Willaims, JH Williams III, lewis carroll, Maggie Sawyer, paul dini | 2 Comments »

Check out Mondo’s Dark Knight Rises Poster…

Posted on July 12, 2012 by Darren

Mondo are great even if – as somebody who lives in Ireland – I’m relegated to simply posting screenshots of their distinctive alternate posters. They did a whole bunch of alternate posters for The Avengers, which were awesome. And they’ve done one for The Dark Knight Rises.

The artwork on this is by Jock, who is one of the most distinctive Batman artists working. If you want to see more of his work, you could do a lot worse than picking up The Black Mirror, which is also one of the finest Batman stories of the past few years. (If not, you know, ever.) Just sayin’ is all.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: avengers, batman, Christopher Nolan, dark knight, Dark Knight Rises, imax, Ireland, Jock, Mondo, poster, posters, Warner Bros | 2 Comments »

A Look Back at Burton and Keaton’s Batman (and Bruce Wayne)…

Posted on July 11, 2012 by Darren

With the release of The Dark Knight Rises just around the corner, it seems like Christopher Nolan’s interpretation of Batman is getting a lot of attention and generating a lot of reflection. I have to admit, I think that the director’s take on the character presents the best live action interpretation ever, and probably the single best take on the character since Batman: The Animated Series during the nineties. However, I can’t help but feel that Tim Burton’s take on the character gets brushed aside a little too easily, dismissed from consideration far too quickly. In particular, I’m especially fond of Michael Keaton’s superb central performance as Bruce Wayne and Batman. While I wouldn’t necessarily rank his performance as better than Christian Bale or Kevin Conroy, I do think that Keaton’s Batman (and especially his Bruce Wayne) get unfairly overlooked.

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: batman, bruce wayne, christian bale, Christopher Nolan, Dark Knight Rises, joker, Keaton, michael keaton, michelle pfeiffer, tim burton | 4 Comments »

Scott Snyder’s Run on Detective Comics – Batman: The Black Mirror (Review)

Posted on July 11, 2012 by Darren

These past few years have been a great time to be a Batman fan. On top of Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed Dark Knight trilogy, you’ve also had the Arkham Asylum video games, Grant Morrison’s genre-busting run on Batman & Robin and now Scott Snyder joining the franchise. Indeed, even the lesser on-going series (like Tony Daniel’s Batman or Paul Dini’s Streets of Gotham) are still relatively entertaining, if significantly flawed. However, when good creators have gotten their hands on the Batman mythos in the past five years or so, incredible things have happened. And Scott Snyder’s Detective Comics run, The Black Mirror, is one of those incredible things.

Jump in…

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Arkham, Barbara, Bat, batman, Batman: The Killing Joke, Black Mirror, bruce wayne, Dick, dick grayson, gotham, gotham central, gotham city, Grantmorrison, james gordon, James Gordon (comics), joker, paul dini, robin, Scott Snyder, Snyder | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Shrek 2

Posted on July 10, 2012 by Darren

Shrek 2 is quite entertaining. It’s not nearly as good as the original Shrek, but it doesn’t feel quite as tired or stale as the two films that would follow. There’s still an endearingly subversive streak to the film, and the series hasn’t quite evolved into the very thing it was originally mocking. While it is charming, witty and intelligent, there’s a case of diminished returns. In particular, this time around, the series is growing increasingly dependent on pop culture references and cheesy “in-joke-y” references. While, again, not quite as bad as the two films that would follow, it’s a sign of things to come. Still, despite that, Shrek 2 has its heart in the right place, and continues the original’s spirited deconstruction of the Disney fairytale franchises. It’s only slightly diminished by the fact that it is gradually evolving into one itself.

Happily ever after?

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Antonio Banderas, cameron diaz, Confide, disney, Donkey, Fairy Godmother, film, Fiona, hollywood, Lord Farquaad, Michael Eisner, Mike Myers, Movie, non-review review, Princess Fiona, Puss in Boots, r eview, shrek, Shrek 2 | 1 Comment »

Gotham Central – On the Freak Beat & Corrigan (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on July 10, 2012 by Darren

If you ask me, Gotham Central is the highest quality Batman title that has been published in quite some time – if not the most consistent Batman comic book ever published. These final two volumes contain the second half of Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka’s celebrated forty-issue exploration of life within the Gotham City Police Department, providing one of the freshest and most compelling comic book stories ever told in either of the two major comic book publishers. Essentially the story of the ordinary men and women stuck in the superhero world of Batman, it’s a genuine comic book classic.

Taking a shot at the Batman…

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: batman, Christopher Nolan, Corrigan, Corrigan 2, Corrigan II, Crispin Allen, dc comics, Dead Robin, Doctor Alchemy, ed brubaker, freaks, GCPD, gotham, gotham central, gotham city, Gotham City Police Department, greg rucka, infinite crisis, Kano, michael lark, Night of Vengeance, On the Freak Beat, Police, robin, The Dark Knight, War Crimes | 2 Comments »

Not Quite Total Recall: Taking the Paul Verhoeven out of Paul Verhoeven Films…

Posted on July 9, 2012 by Darren

I’m actually a pretty forgiving guy when it comes to Hollywood rebooting and remaking older films. After all, these newer films don’t diminish the original. It’s fantastic if a writer and director can boldly reimagine an established property like Christopher Nolan did with Batman Begins, but there’s no big loss if the film fails. We’ll just collectively forget about, return to our cherished DVD copy of the original and there’s no real problem. So I actually don’t mind Hollywood returning to familiar themes, plots, characters, settings and ideas. However, with Hollywood producing a spate of blockbuster remakes of cult Paul Verhoeven films, I can’t help but wonder if they are completely missing the point.

Head wrecking…

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: batman begins, Christopher Nolan, gary oldman, hollywood, hugh laurie, Paul, Paul Verhoeven, Philip K. Dick, RoboCop, star trek, Starship Trooper, Starship Troopers, total recall, world war ii | 5 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Batman – Mask of the Phantasm

Posted on July 9, 2012 by Darren

There is a legitimate argument to be made that Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is the best Batman movie produced prior to Christopher Nolan taking over the film franchise. While I narrowly prefer Batman Returns, it’s hard to deny that this animated take on the character from the creator behind Batman: The Animated Series isn’t a superb exploration of the Caped Crusader and his world. Kevin Conroy is still, after all these years, my favourite actor to play Batman, and I can’t help but feel like the movie deserves a lavish re-release to celebrate the pending release of The Dark Knight Rises.