It’s funny. Back in the day when I used to love any superhero movie that came in to theaters, I found myself getting excited by “Batman & Robin.” Why? Because he mentions Superman in the opening for a brief second. Nevertheless that was when fans and Warner were still considering a Batman and Superman movie, and that never came to fruition, thankfully. “Batman & Robin” is a glorious mess. It’s a movie so awful that it’s compelling at times.
2012 has been a big year for fans of “The Walking Dead,” as companies of all kinds are realizing the franchising potential for the hit award winning comic book series. “The Walking Dead” has emerged as hit novels, popular board games, prized collectibles, popular toys, hit video games, a record breaking television series now about to reach its third season, and most importantly, the original comic book series is about to reach 100 issues this July. After ninety nine issues of unmitigated drama and compelling writing with rich characters and gripping horror in the world of the walking dead, Robert Kirkman is delivering issue 100 in July promising surprises, and material that is sure to shock, sadden, and excite loyal readers like myself. In honor of issue 100, we’re counting down our top ten characters of the Walking Dead from issue 1-100.
We warn you, if you’ve yet to complete all ninety nine issues leading in to one hundred, we will spill spoilers about character deaths and plot points, so display caution, and don’t come complaining later on.
In the first “Batman,” the dark knight is described and thought of as something of an urban legend. He hides in the shadows, is mistaken for something of a myth, and only arrives to instill justice when the police are outnumbered. In “Batman Returns” Batman is basically the police. You assume for a massive political event in the first twenty minutes of the film, there’d be barricades and strong police force, but Penguin is able to pretty much wreak havoc with the Red Triangle gang, while the streets are left in tatters with no police around. Only does the order get restored when Batman arrives and Commissioner Gordon is left to thank Batman for saving the day while the police are seemingly sitting with their thumbs up their collective butts.
After all these years, it’s safe to say that Tim Burton’s entrance in to the pantheon of Batman films is an admirable effort, but one that doesn’t really master the lore or the character. “Batman” is a very fine film. It’s watchable and occasionally entertaining, but there just isn’t too much fodder for the more conscious batman fan in the end. Burton does strive to set up parallels and subtext, but much of it is sadly never touched upon or explored. The psyche of Bruce Wayne is a corner of the Batverse that is never given a spotlight in “Batman,” and while Burton does enter in to corners of his life, there’s not a lot of warmth or interest in what makes him tick. He has a gallery of various armored bodies from around the world, but there isn’t a lot of reason as to why.
How did the armor influence him? Did they influence him? There’s never an indication as to why Bruce is tortured, if he is tortured, and Bruce’s life is depicted by Burton as often very cold and closed off from the world. Rather than the Joker, Bruce becomes the target of inadvertent comedy while Joker’s journey is more menacing and complex. There’s an odd scene of Bruce hanging upside down while sleeping for no particular reason, and in one instance Bruce’s date with Vicky Vale begins with the two sharing a dinner of soup far apart on a dinner table so long they can barely converse with one another. Bruce is of course oblivious to her desire to talk on what is obviously a date. Burton doesn’t often seem very empathic toward Bruce’s life and misses chances to provide insight in to what he’s all about and what makes him function as Batman.
In the prologue there’s a fascinating parallel to Bruce’s fate where we meet two parents and their son trying to catch a cab in Gotham to no avail. Anxious to find transportation they enter in to an alleyway where they’re held at gunpoint by thugs who almost kill the parents. It’s never pointed out how this comes close to Bruce’s own fate, and the poetry of the situation is avoided. Sadly, even with his masterful comedy chops, Michael Keaton can’t keep up with Jack Nicholson for most of the film, and Burton is aware of that, handing the film over to Nicholson for a good portion of the film. Surprisingly, Bruce and the Joker rarely share screen time with one another, so their war for Gotham feels detached and impersonal at times.
The journey of both characters feel like two very different films. The Joker is more centered on revenge while Bruce is more prone to trying to find his place in the world. The Joker views Batman as insignificant and holds no real concern for him, while Bruce doesn’t seem to understand how menacing Joker is until the climax in the city with the giant float. Only in the very final scenes do Batman and Joker duke it out and even then it’s very brief and abrupt. It’s a shame since Keaton is a very powerful actor in his own right while Nicholson can play well off of anyone. In spite of the film’s inherent flaws, “Batman” is still a rather entertaining fantasy action film with Michael Keaton doing quite well in the chair of Bruce Wayne.
His performance is restrained and layered, and Keaton is able to make due with what Burton gives to him. Nicholson has a blast in the role of the Joker and he really does manage to give the character a horrific personality paired with his trademark demented sense of humor. Burton provides a beautiful Gotham that seems boundless in its darkness and skyscrapers. It often feels like a limitless dimension rather than a city, and Burton excels at set pieces and moody locales. “Batman” is an interesting start in to a complicated and varied franchise. Ultimately, “Batman” is not a perfect film as it tends to rely on delivering two separate narratives involving Batman and the Joker rather than connecting them and intertwining their universes as much as possible. While one is a force of justice, and the other is a force for evil, they never quite affect each other’s world until the final moments of the film. While Keaton and Nicholson are dazzling in their roles, Burton never quite finds much to explore with Bruce Wayne, and that’s wasted potential.
The third entry in the “Puppet Master” series is by far my favorite. It’s my strongest memory of Full Moon in the nineties, and it made me a Full Moon fan boy for life. Back in the mid-eighties to late nineties, Full Moon was a bold studio. While their titles were hit or miss, even when they missed they were still very courageous in delivering some truly off the wall and creative genre pictures. “Toulon’s Revenge” is my favorite of the “Puppet Master” series and one I truly love to watch again and again.
Yes, we’ve all heard it already. It didn’t deserve to win Best Picture. It didn’t deserve all of its accolades. Now go away and tell us about how you don’t care about the Oscars, hypocrite. Now that we’ve gotten past the whining, “The Artist” is a film that is generally one of the finest films of 2011. It was a year of utterly underwhelming pictures, and “The Artist” took the accolades left and right because it was and still is a deserving ode to the era of cinema that left many actors out in the cold once sound was introduced to an eager audience. Even as a silent picture it works in developing rich and empathetic characters along with a truly sweet and heart warming story about friendship and love and remembering those who helped you rise to stardom.
If you’re one who is thinking “Arachnoquake? That sounds stupid,” then congratulations on displaying wisdom well beyond your years. “Arachnoquake” is a movie that sounds good on page, but when you see it, there’s just so much to hate about it that you can’t even take it at face value as a movie intended on being so bad it’s good. The movie is painfully self-aware to the point where you almost expect a laugh track to follow the “gags” staged. Meanwhile the writer behind the film is well beyond in over his head providing a three pronged story that jumps from sub-plot to sub-plot without resolving either, all the while ripping off films like “Jeepers Creepers 2,” “Children of Men,” “Deep Blue Sea,” “The Mist,” and “Piranha.” There are so much plot elements staged that are never touched upon or resolved, you could list them all in a whole review.