ra’s al ghul | the m0vie blog

Venom Optional: Early Thoughts About Christopher Nolan’s Bane…

Posted on January 28, 2011 by Darren

When it was first announced last week, the choice of Bane as a Batman villain seemed a little… odd. I had reckoned that Nolan might opt for a modern villain who had yet to appear outside of comics or would return to a classic Batman villain, but I didn’t reckon he’d pick a modern villain who had already appeared on the big screen. Though I honestly doubt we have to worry about Nolan rehashing Batman & Robin, he seemed an odd choice for the sequel’s villain. However, after giving it some thought, he doesn’t seem such a bad choice. The fact that Tom Hardy is playing him certainly helps.

I'm kinda glad Nolan stayed away from the big guns...

Continue reading →

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: anne hathaway, bane, batman, bruce wayne, Christopher Nolan, League of Assassins, ra's al ghul, The Dark Knight Rises, tom hardy | 10 Comments »

Batman: The Animated Series – The Demon’s Quest (Parts I & II)

Posted on December 5, 2010 by Darren

This post is part of the DCAU fortnight, a series of articles looking at the Warner Brothers animations featuring DC’s iconic selection of characters. I’ll be looking at movies and episodes and even some of the related comic books. To tie into tomorrow’s review of Under the Red Hood, I thought I’d take a look at the episode which introduced Ra’s Al Ghul to the animated DC universe (and represented the character’s first appearance outside comic books).

If Heart of Ice – perhaps one of the best pieces of Western Animation produced during the nineties – illustrated just how good the creative minds behind Batman: The Animated Series where at innovation (updating and adding depth to previously shallow characters), then The Demon’s Quest perhaps reflects their skill at adaptation. Adapted from Denny O’Neill’s seventies story arc introducing Ra’s Al Ghul as an adversary of the Dark Knight, by the author himself, it’s also a testament to the show’s diversity. This isn’t exactly a conventional Batman story, and certainly not one conforming to the gothic or noir conventions which seemed to grip the character during the nineties.

"We'll always have your father's desert stronghold..."

Continue reading →

Filed under: Television | Tagged: animation, batman, batman: the animated series, btas, dc animated universe, dcau, denny o'neill, ra's al ghul, robin, Television, the demon, the demon's quest | 1 Comment »

Non-Review Review: Batman Begins

Posted on June 15, 2009 by Darren

Batman Begins has been somewhat overshadowed by the success of The Dark Knight, but Christopher Nolan’s original reimagining of the Batman mythos is a compelling and clever examination of one of pop culture’s most enduring icons. I think there’s a case to be made that Batman Begins represents the best superhero origin story ever told in film – and quite possibly the definitive introduction to Batman and his world. The key isn’t collecting bits of trivia to explain the finer details, although the script from the Nolan brothers and David Goyer certainly does that. Instead, Nolan dares to examine the psychology of Batman. Richard Donner’s Superman famously boasted that you’d believe a man could fly. Nolan makes you believe that a man would dress up as a giant bat to fight crime.