Posts Tagged ‘batman’
The Dark Knight - Batman sequel
Tuesday, August 1st, 2006SCI FI Wire | The News Service of the SCI FI Channel
Warner Brothers announced that its upcoming sequel to 2005’s hit Batman Begins will be called The Dark Knight and will feature Heath Ledger as the Joker.
I will be there. I thought Christian Bale did an utterly fantastic job as Batman in the first movie, and I can’t wait for the sequel. I’m a little worried about Heath Ledger, but I’ll wait and see how it goes.
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Heroes preview
Saturday, June 10th, 2006NBC.com > Heroes
“They thought they were like everyone else… until they woke with incredible abilities.”
When I first heard of this show, I figured it would be an X-Men rip-off, similar to Mutant X. After having watched the preview, though, I really think this has the potential to be a good series. It seems to lean more toward the take of M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable, though not with his trademark quiet mysteriousness.
From what I’ve seen, it looks like these will be people from all over the world who are brought together to prevent a catastrophe forseen by a painter who paints future events. And it’s not the “secret identity, pastel underoos with a cape” kind of show. People get hurt (one guy has his hands cut off in the preview!). They seem to deal with this stuff pretty seriously, which is exactly the right way to play it. No camp at all. This is why I think this show will succeed where many other superhero shows have failed. They have taken their cue from the success of Smallville (though that one is a bit heavy with teen angst), and movies like Batman Begins, X-Men, and Spiderman.
An important difference here is that these are all new characters while those in the mentioned stories are established comic book characters. With the comic book characters, while realism is important, it’s easier to stretch the suspension of disbelief a little farther because they already have a long-standing popularity and audiences will be a little more forgiving. With new characters, like these, set in a real world scenario, realism will play an even bigger role. I doubt there will be people on this show with outrageous powers like controlling the weather or multiple powers like Superman.
I’m really looking forward to seeing this show and hope it plays out as well as the preview.
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Review: Justice League
Tuesday, May 30th, 2006(Originally posted Jul 31, 2005 on my older blog)
I’ve been watching Justice League and Justice League Unlimited lately. This is good stuff.
Mike got me hooked. I’d caught it while flipping channels from time to time, but never really followed it well, and certainly never knew the episode order. Now I’ve seen all four seasons in order and … wow.
This Justice League is way beyond any previous incarnation. (Actually I suppose I should say “these Justice Leagues,” since the first two seasons are the seven member “Justice League” followed by the next two seasons of “Justice League Unlimited” featuring a whole host of heros led by the original seven.) While still mostly “kid-friendly,” these stories deal more seriously with their subject matter than most cartoons. I’d say it’s pretty close to animé in that respect.
One thing I really like is that actions in one episode have consequences in the remaining episodes. Relationships are affected, both on a personal and global (really, literally universal) scale. The consequences of gathering what amounts to an army of super-powered individuals is explored, and is actually the main theme of the fourth, and likely final, season.
I don’t know that there are plans for a fifth season, or even a related new series, but I really hope so. It’s nice to see some smart animation on the tube.
By the way, it’s worth pointing out that these series’ are the latest in a remarkably consistent and interrelated set of series, starting with Batman: The Animated Series, its two (I think) successors whose titles escape me (but undoubtedly start with “Batman”), Batman Beyond, and Superman: The Animated Series. It also seems to be tied in to Static Shock, which seems to be a much lighter show, but I haven’t really paid much attention to that one so far.
While I really love all that depth of story that’s been (and is being) developed, it’s really not fair—I have a lot of catching up to do. The only other of those series I’ve watched is the original Batman: TAS. Off to the DVDs!
[Update: They did go on to make a fifth season (3rd of JLU), and it was good, though not as good as previous seasons. The final episode though, was awesome. For me, it was worth going through the full 5th season to get to that one episode. Oh, and I've since watched all the Superman: TAS shows. Also very good.]
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