Caddickisms

I don’t have it in me to write everything I think about this movie right now, but I wanted to get something down.

Just like Spider-man 2, this sequel takes an amazingly good predecessor and improves on it.

And just like in the Spider-man franchise, the key is focusing on the character’s development. Bruce/Batman learns a lot about himself and his chosen line of work - the limits, the responsibilities, and the consequences.

Heath Ledger, for anyone wondering, actually deserves the praise he’s getting for this role. It’s not a posthumous sympathy vote. I wouldn’t call myself a Heath Ledger fan, generally, but I simply can’t imagine anyone else playing this role this well.

In my last post I counted Wall-E out of Best Picture contention, despite rumors to the contrary. The Dark Knight, however, is a serious contender - if the Academy can get past the whole blind spot it has for Sci-Fi/Fantasy films.

I may come back to this later for a more thorough review.

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Lots of news and some rumors hitting the net lately… here are the best of the bunch for Sci-Fi and comics lovers:

The next Stargate SG-1 film titled Stargate: Continuum now has a July 29 DVD release date.

Marvel has announced that Iron Man 2 has been confirmed for release in 2010, in addition to a movie about Thor. Also reported: the Avengers and Captain America (with Matthew McConaughey as the lead?) in 2011.

Also announced by Marvel: an Ant Man movie, though the timeline for the film is unknown. (This is where they start to lose me… Ant Man? Seriously? I think they’re stretching to reach a mainstream audience with that one. My guess is his popularity in the Avengers movie will determine if this one really gets made.)

Iron Man, Tony Stark, will make a cameo in The Incredible Hulk.

Superman: Man of Steel will now not be delayed due to the “Justice League of America” film but is geared up for a 2009 release with Brandon Routh back as Superman.

Both Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and The Dark Knight will run over 140 minutes. In fact, The Dark Knight may run close to three hours.

Speaking of The Dark Knight, director Christopher Nolan has signed on for a third Batman feature, and Christian Bale has expressed interest as well. Details of plot are even starting to circulate - apparently the film will focus on Two-Face and may introduce Robin, following the plot of the graphic novels “The Long Halloween” and “Dark Victory” for a rough outline.

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The Dark Knight is coming out on July 18th. Everyone has heard of that. And I can’t wait.

But did you know about Batman Gotham Knight, the animated DVD (also downloadable) coming out on July 8th? Oh, yeah….. Batman gets the “Animatrix” treatment (well, sort of).

Yes, Kevin Conroy will once again put a voice to Gotham’s caped crusader:

Conroy set the standard for modern day Batman voices with his performance in “Batman: The Animated Series,” “The New Adventures of Batman and Robin” and “The New Batman Superman Adventures.” He reprised the role as an aging Bruce Wayne playing mentor to a new Caped Crusader in “Batman Beyond.” Animation legend and “Batman Gotham Knight” producer Bruce Timm said Conroy was the obvious choice for both widespread fan approval and to provide an overriding sense of continuity within a film in which Batman appears in so many new, visual variations.

For more on Conroy and the Gotham Knight project, read this Slice Of Sci-Fi entry.

The six anime-style stories will delve deeply into Bruce Wayne’s transition to becoming Batman. It’s not clear if the Batman Begins storyline will play any role, though I doubt it.

So July 8th, we get ahold of some great Bat-animation, just in time to stoke the flames for The Dark Knight. Until then, here’s the trailer…

Batman = cool.

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Apple - Trailers - The Dark Knight

I can’t believe no one told me this trailer was out.

Okay, visually it’s an extremely boring trailer. Pretty much, it’s the bat-symbol with a light show.

The voice-over, though, is cool. You get to hear the voice of the Joker. Not bad. Just a little Nicholson thrown in there - a slight homage.

This is my “can’t wait” film for 2008.

Technorati Tags: Batman, Christopher Nolan, Christian Bale, The Joker

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“Justice League of America” Moves Forward - Slice of Scifi

I’m sorry. I just can’t picture this movie being made well any time in the next 5 years.

As I said in a previous post, there are just too many big characters to adequately pull something off with enough weight on each character, developmentally. Plus you’ve got the casting problem:

Of course the big question is — Can Warner get Brandon Routh and Christian Bale to play Superman and Batman for this project, or will they settle for other actors? The problem with getting others for the role is credibility. There is no question in any fan’s mind that Routh and Bale now own those roles. And Warner has to be asking themselves how readily fans might accept others in those costumes.

Sounds like Routh and Bale aren’t that interested in the roles in the new film, either. And I can’t say I blame them. They’re spending a lot of energy to get those characters right in their own films, with strong directors and (mostly) strong scripts. It’s a big risk to go into a difficult ensemble piece and risk watering those characters down. What if Batman comes off too light in the Justice League film? Will that hurt the stand-alone series and make it harder to get new viewers? It could.

As much as I’d like to see a Justice League done right, I don’t think it’s going to happen. I hope they prove me wrong, but I doubt it.

Technorati Tags: justice league, movie, comics adaptation, superman, batman, wonder woman

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Christian Bale, Michael Caine, and Christopher Nolan (all of whom worked on Batman Begins) join Hugh Jackman to create one of the best magician movies I’ve ever seen. Actually, this movie crosses a few genres, but I won’t list them because to do so may tip off the secret of the movie. I will say that there is a healthy dose of misdirection, but everything you need to figure it out is there from the outset (or close to it), as it should be with any well written mystery.

I actually suspected at least part of the truth midway through the movie, but wasn’t positive about it until after the secret of the top hat was revealed.

The most confusing part about this movie was the jumping around in timeframes. Much of the movie is told in extended flashbacks from different time periods, and their chronological order is not always evident. Even at the end, I found it difficult to go back and place certain events in their proper sequence. How much time, for example, has passed between the first death in the movie and Bale’s character meeting Sarah?

There is much to think about after the movie is over. Usually in these kinds of movies, you can find a hole in the plot, but I couldn’t come up with one. My wife thought she had one that could have altered the ending, but after talking it through the ending still makes sense.

In case you couldn’t tell, I’m trying hard to keep from loosing any spoilers on you, and it’s a bit difficult to write a review that won’t tip off the astute among you. I may write another, more “spoilerific” post for this one later, but right now I have to go to bed.

The verdict: 4-1/2 stars for The Prestige. Well worth the time and mental effort.

(Oh, and as a side note, I noticed at least 3 actors who had prominent guest roles in Star Trek: The Next Generation, plus “Robin Colcord” from Cheers. Just struck me as interesting.)

Technorati Tags: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Christopher Nolan, Batman Begins, Hugh Jackman, Movies, The Prestige, magic, murder, mystery, misdirection

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Wow.

I’ve never seen anyone lose that much weight for a movie before. Christian Bale was a walking skeleton in this movie. It hurt to watch the man move. Even Tom Hanks looked healthier in Castaway.

Unfortunately, that was probably the most impressive thing about this movie. It seemed to move too slowly, lingering on shots that didn’t really have a pay-off. It was successful in making me curious about why Trevor, the main character, hadn’t slept in a year, but that’s really all it was: curiosity. I never really cared why he hadn’t slept.

Normally in a movie like this, I’d be going back over it in my mind, piecing together the “reality” vs. the “imagined” sections of the film. As I write this, less than an hour after seeing it, I’ve found that I really haven’t thought much about the structure in that way.

One thing they did very well was make me feel that Trevor was very fatigued, and that anything could have been hallucination. I also felt relief along with the character when he finally gets to sleep (we presume). In the end, though, it wasn’t enough to engage me in the story.

Five stars for Christian Bale’s commitment, two and a half for the movie.

Technorati Tags: Christian Bale, Tom Hanks, hallucination, machinist, insomnia, fatigue, insanity, film, severe weight loss

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SCI 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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