Bruce | the m0vie blog

Batman – Full Circle (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on July 29, 2014 by Darren

23rd July is Batman Day, celebrating the character’s 75th anniversary. To celebrate, this July we’re taking a look at some new and classic Batman (and Batman related) stories. Check back daily for the latest review.

In a way, Mike W. Barr and Alan Davies’ Full Circle feels a bit like Steve Englehart and Marshall Roger’s Dark Detective. It’s a cap to a run on the character, something of a forerunner to DC’s recent “Retroactive” initiative, reteaming classic creators on a particular character in an attempt to recapture past glories. Like Dark Detective, Full Circle doesn’t quite work. It’s a direct sequel to Barr’s Year Two – albeit with recurring gags and characters thrown in from the rest of his Detective Comics run – and it seems to exist solely to make sure the reader understood what Barr was doing with Year Two.

Given that Year Two was hardly the most subtle of comics, Full Circle occasionally runs the risk of bludgeoning the reader into submission.

It’s a Boy Wonder he doesn’t get killed…

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Alan Davies, batman, Bruce, business, Costume, dark knight returns, Deathtrap, dick grayson, Joe Chill, Lego, Martha Wayne, Mike W. Barr, Recreation, stan lee, zack snyder | Leave a comment »

Beware the Batman – Hunted (Review)

Posted on July 22, 2013 by Darren

Batman is a character who thrives on reinvention and reimagining. The character has over second decades of interpretations behind him, covering a wide range of portrayals. He has been Adam West’s camp crusader, Tim Burton’s gothic outsider and Christopher Nolan’s urban warrior. In the comics, he’s undergone an even more diverse series of changes and reworkings. Beware the Batman is the latest animated series to focus on the Dark Knight, offering a take quite distinct from the variety of animated interpretations we’ve seen in the recent past.

A running start…

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: alfred, alfred pennyworth, batman, Batmobile, Beware the Batman, Bruce, bruce timm, Christopher Nolan, grant morrison, professor pyg, Toad | 3 Comments »

Superman: The Animated Series – Knight Time (Review)

Posted on June 25, 2013 by Darren

To celebrate the release of Man of Steel this month, we’re going Superman mad. Check back daily for Superman-related reviews.

It’s always fun to compare and contrast Superman and Batman, partially because they are two of the oldest and most iconic superheroes in popular culture, but also because the lend themselves to contrast. Superman is all smiles and primary colours, while Batman is shades of grey and shadows. It’s fun to see the worlds of the two superheroes overlap, if only because they are so radically different in tone, atmosphere, mood and content.

While World’s Finest brought Batman and the Joker to Metropolis to play with Superman and Lex Luthor, Knight Time sees the Man of Steel substituting in for an absentee Batman in Gotham.

I gotta get me one of those…

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: bane, batgirl, batman, Bruce, bruce timm, Christopher Nolan, Dark Knight Rises, gotham city, lex luthor, lois lane, man of steel, robin, Roxy Rocket, Steel, superman, zack snyder | Leave a comment »

My 12 for ’12: The Dark Knight Rises & Blockbusters with Brains…

Posted on December 31, 2012 by Darren

I’m counting down my top twelve films of the year between now and January, starting at #12 and heading to #1. I expect the list to be a little bit predictable, a little bit surprising, a little bit of everything. All films released in the UK and Ireland in 2012 qualify. Sound off below, and let me know if I’m on the money, or if I’m completely off the radar. And let me know your own picks or recommendations.

This is #1…

There’s a popular idea that just because a movie makes a lot of money, or just because it attracts a large audience, or just because it features fantastical elements, that it is somehow unworthy of discussion and debate. The Dark Knight Rises has been a divisive film, sparking a lot of debate about its relative merits and those of Christopher Nolan, the director and co-writer. Following on from the massive success of The Dark Knight, Nolan opted for an unconventional approach for his sequel. Structurally and tonally, The Dark Knight Rises represented a significant departure from The Dark Knight. While the The Dark Knight had been an urban crime thriller exploring the wake of 9/11, The Dark Knight Rises was an epic social drama pondering how divided American society had become.

It isn’t quite as fantastic as The Dark Knight, but it was strong, bold, vibrant and challenging film making – proof that budget does not belie brains.

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Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: bane, batman, batman begins, British Isles, Bruce, Christopher Nolan, ChristopherNolan, dark knight, Dark Knight Rises, DarkKnight Rises, film, Forbes, Guardian, Lykke Li, Mitt Romney, Moonrise Kingdom, Movie, Muppet, nolan, Silver Linings Playbook | 6 Comments »

12 Movie Moments of 2012: The Dark Knight Returns (The Dark Knight Rises)

Posted on December 26, 2012 by Darren

As well as counting down the top twelve films, I’m also going to count down my top twelve movie related “moments” of 2012. The term “moment” is elastic, so expect some crazy nonsense here. And, as usual, I accept that my taste is completely absurd, so I fully expect you to disagree. With that in mind, this is #6…

Ireland got an IMAX screen this year. Well, it had an IMAX screen before, but it shut down before The Dark Knight kick-started the whole “watching cool movies in IMAX” thing. Evidently, watching Liam Neeson talk about Everest wasn’t nearly as exciting as watching Batman flip over an articulated lorry. Christopher Nolan shot a large percentage of The Dark Knight on IMAX, but he shot even more of The Dark Knight Rises using the special cameras.

As such, I was delighted that Cineworld and The Irish Times organised a special screening of The Dark Knight Rises in early December, even though the cinema had only reopened after Nolan’s epic was available on blu ray. It’s an oft-cited criticism that the third part of Nolan’s Batman trilogy featured surprisingly little Batman. I’d disagree, and instead suggest that the film made excellent use of its large cast – and when Batman appeared on screen he carried the weight that he deserved.

The sequence in which Bruce leads the Gotham Police Department on a merry chase while pursuing Bane and his terrorists is the perfect example, a fantastically constructed action sequence that tells us pretty much everything we need to know about the cast at that moment in time.

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: arts, avengers, bane, batman, batman begins, British Isles, Bruce, Christopher Nolan, ChristopherNolan, dark knight, Dark Knight Rises, Everest, film, gotham city, imax, liam neeson, Movie, New York City, nolan, reviews | 5 Comments »

Infinite Crisis (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on November 30, 2012 by Darren

This month I’m taking a look at DC’s massive “Infinite Crisis” Event. Although it was all published in one massive omnibus, I’ll be breaking down the lead-in to the series to tackle each thread individually, culminating in a review of the event itself. Check back for more.

Infinite Crisis is a fantastic concept with a somewhat muddled execution. The idea of reflecting on the way the DC Universe has evolved since Crisis on Infinite Earths is a fascinating hook for an event miniseries, and writer Geoff Johns does an effective job of exploring how times have changed. However, the original Crisis on Infinite Earths had a tendency to seem too vast and too all-encompassing for its own good, randomly jumping between a cast of hundreds lost in a maelstrom. Given that Marv Wolfman had twelve issues to tell that story, and still occasionally ended up a little confused, it seems a little unfair for Geoff Johns to attempt a similar effort in only seven issues.

There are times when Infinite Crisis feels less like one cohesive story and more like a series of vignettes based around a theme. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of interesting stuff going on here – or that Johns doesn’t have something compelling to say about modern superhero comics – it just means that Infinite Crisis is a bit of a mess. A bold and ambitious mess, but a mess nevertheless.

A smashing success?

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: alan moore, batman, Blue Beetle, Bruce, crisis on infinite earths, DarkKnight Rises, dc universe, dick grayson, Geoff John, gotham city, infinite crisis, joker, maxwell lord, power girl, superboy prime, superman, wonder woman | 6 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The Dark Knight Returns, Part I

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Darren

Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns might just be the most influential Batman comic ever written. It offers a glimpse an alternate future where Batman has retired as Gotham’s protector, and where a new wave of violence brings him back out of that retirement. It is also, and perhaps more notably, a study of the character’s psychology. It’s notable for suggesting that Bruce Wayne’s obsessions might be ultimately self-destructive and that there’s a primal conflict between the “Batman” part of his persona and Bruce Wayne. Like Watchmen, it’s generally recognised as one of the comics that represented a maturity in the medium.

Warner Brothers have produced an animated adaptation of Frank Miller’s classic, and I can’t help but admire it a great deal. While Alan Moore’s Watchmen was a novel that never really lent itself to film, Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns always had a cinematic quality that I think director Jay Oliva captures remarkably well.

A dark and stormy knight…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: arts, batman, Bruce, bruce wayne, ChristopherNolan, Dark Knight Return, dark knight returns, Dark Knight Rises, DarkKnight Rises, Dent, frank miller, FrankMiller, gordon, gotham, gotham city, Harvey, joker, Lana Lang, Michael McKean, Paget Brewster, Peter Weller, two face, Warner Bros | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Batman Beyond – Return of the Joker

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Darren

The Joker holds a special place among Batman’s iconic selection of villains. Appearing as early as Batman #1 all those years ago, the clown prince of crime has managed to hold on to his position as the prime Batman bad guy for pretty much all of Batman’s publication history. It was the Joker who put Barbara Gordon in a wheelchair in The Killing Joke, and it was the Joker who killed Jason Todd in A Death in the Family. As such, it’s no real surprise that the character should eventually make his way to the futuristic setting of Batman Beyond, to give Bruce one last challenge.

Guess who’s back…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: barbara gordon, batman, batman animated series, Bruce, bruce wayne, ChristopherNolan, dark knight, Dark Knight Rises, dc animated universe, film, gotham city, heath ledger, joker, mark hamill, Movie, New Batman Adventures, non-review review, paul dini, review, robin, Terry, Wayne Enterprise, Wayne Enterprises | 6 Comments »

Justice League Unlimited – Epilogue (Review)

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Darren

At the time Epilogue was written, the creators didn’t know that Justice League Unlimited would get another season. The show ultimately got another year on television, but Dwayne McDuffie and Bruce Timm constructed Epilogue so that it would serve as something of a coda to the entire animated DC universe, stemming as far back as On Leather Wings. It actually works almost perfectly, bringing everything a full circle. Justice League and Justice League Unlimited consciously pushed Batman to the periphery, which made a bit of sense. After all, the character had anchored two shows already. However, Epilogue moves Batman back to the centre, re-establishing Bruce as the core of the animated DC universe and giving him a (mostly) happy ending a few years before The Dark Knight Rises would do the same thing.

One final spotlight on Batman…

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: Barbara, barbara gordon, batman, batman animated series, Bob Haney, Bruce, bruce wayne, Brucetimm, Characters of Friends, Christopher Nolan, Counties and Districts, Dark Knight Rises, DarkKnight Rises, dc animated universe, Dwayne McDuffie, gotham city, joker, justice league unlimited, kevin conroy, Ontario, robin, Royal Flush Gang, Selina, Terry, Tim, Tim Drake | 4 Comments »

Batman Beyond – Rebirth (Parts I & II) (Review)

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Darren

This September marks the twentieth anniversary of Batman: The Animated Series, and the birth of the shared DC animated universe that would eventually expand to present one of the most comprehensive and thorough explorations of a comic book mythology in any medium. To celebrate, we’re going back into the past and looking at some classic episodes.

Batman is one of the very few of DC’s major superheroes who faces his own mortality. Superman knows that he inspires the Legion of Superheroes, and his alien physiology could allow him to live forever. Wonder Woman is an immortal. Green Lantern comes from an entire deep space police force. Even Hawkman and Hawkgirl live through a perpetual cycle of reincarnation. Bruce Wayne is just a man, and – as such – he will eventually die. Due to this simple fact, a lot of people have wondered what might happen if Bruce Wayne were confronted with his own mortality.

Batman Beyond explores that potential future.