Christopher Nolan, director of The Dark Knight, has stated that he’s in no hurry to make the second sequel to Batman Begins. He has reason to be cautious. Historically speaking, the third installment in a franchise has been, shall we say, lacking. Superman III, Spiderman 3, Terminator 3, Batman Forever, Rocky III, Police Academy 3… need I go on? Nolan’s got the right idea:

“I don’t know why they’re hard to . . . → Read More: Dark Knight takes it slow, plus Robot Chicken and Terminator]]>

The Dark Knight

Christopher Nolan, director of The Dark Knight, has stated that he’s in no hurry to make the second sequel to Batman Begins. He has reason to be cautious. Historically speaking, the third installment in a franchise has been, shall we say, lacking. Superman III, Spiderman 3, Terminator 3, Batman Forever, Rocky III, Police Academy 3… need I go on? Nolan’s got the right idea:

“I don’t know why they’re hard to do,” Nolan said. “Maybe there’s so much expectation to them. But I wouldn’t want to do one if it weren’t going to be as good as the first or second. That’s not respectful to the fans… The worst thing you could do now that you’ve gotten the plane back in the air is mess up the landing.”

Thankfully, Nolan is pushing back on Warner Bros., who want to jump ahead, to hold off until he has something worth making.

Interestingly, he also noted that the recently released DVD will not have any deleted scenes including Heath Ledger’s wonderful performance, nor will it have any outtakes. He said he’s not holding back, he just doesn’t have any deleted Joker scenes. He also feels that including outtakes is disrespectful to the actors, who work hard and trust the director to include their best work.

Finally, come January we may get the chance to see The Dark Knight on the big screen one more time. It appears that it’s being re-released to help generate Oscar-buzz and DVD sales.

"You and me... we've been at war since before either of us even existed."

It’s interesting to note that at some point John Conner says that “this is not the future my mother warned me about. Something has changed.” Maybe it’s that better Terminators have been invented than the ones that were sent into the past to kill her or him.  That would explain some of the stuff I’ve been hearing about the Terminator TV series (which I haven’t gotten around to watching yet, unfortunately).

This looks like it will be the darkest entry in the series, which makes sense given that this is the post-apocalyptic time period. All out war with the machines. It will be a special effects extravaganza. Hopefully the story holds up as well.

Oh, yeah… you also have to realize this is meant for adults, and that it’s way more offensive than most stuff I post here.

And you have to be in the US (sorry… nothing I can do about that. I don’t own Cartoon Network.).

So… if you meet all those criteria, enjoy this!

Robot Chicken pushes the envelope farther than even Family Guy. But I can’t deny it’s funny…

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, . . . → Read More: Pseudo-Review: The Dark Knight]]> 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.