Showing posts with label The Dark Knight. Show all posts
*There are no spoilers here.
Someone's BATmitzvah is a special day. One to be held in high esteem compared to other days. For seven years, in fact for all time, no one has had a BATmitzvah. The world has suffered because of this.
A BATmitzvah is the day you become a man or woman. It is the day you leave one stage of your life and enter into another. A person's BATmitzvah is a once in a lifetime occasion.
Thursday July 19th is my birthday. It is also the first day in the history of the world that anyone will be able to experience their BATmitzvah.
The rules of a BATmitzvah are simple: In a 24 hour period you must watch all three Christopher Nolan Batman films. Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises.
After a BATmitzvah you will be filled with so much awesomeness that some family or friends may not recognize you. They may ask, "Tom you look so different, almost like you are glowing. What is going on?" Fear not in telling them the good news.
Spread the message of the #BATmitzvah.
Never before has a project like The
Avengers been attempted. It is hands down one of the riskiest ideas
ever kicked around Hollywood. Immensely successfully franchises are
derailed all the time by a terrible sequel (Spiderman 3, X-Men 3).
Yet Marvel's new plan was to produce multiple movies introducing
individual super heroes with the end goal of bringing them together
in one movie depicting one of comic book's most beloved teams. Make
no mistakes about it, The Avengers is really Marvel Comics
6.
The story of The Avengers begins
in a meeting between Marvel studios and Merrill Lynch in the
pre-recession golden years of 2005. Merrill Lynch gave Marvel a big
ol' pile of money in hopes that this superhero craze, that I refer to
as Wave One, would continue and make everyone involved more piles of
money. It was a huge risk, especially since at the time Marvel was
witnessing DC Comic's release of Batman Begins capture far
more critical and box office attention than their own movies had
received of late. Marvel got the loan from Merrill Lynch, probably
financed by selling some poor family a house they couldn't afford,
but who cares because movie history for the rest of us!
Wave One/Wave Two
Speaking of history, here's some that
I've been storing in my head for years in case a random facts moment
was needed at cocktail parties. The comic book resurgence began in
2000 with director Bryan Singer's take on the X-Men. It would
continue for years dominated by Marvel movies that redefined what
comic book adaptations could do.
Bryan Singer would change all of that
with X-Men. A far more serious look at comic book heroes,
Singer was able to launch the first Wave of the superhero resurgence
with his gutsy film. Marvel would ride Wave One for seven years with
two more X-Men sequels, three Spiderman movies, two Fantastic Four
films, Ang Lee's Hulk, Daredevil, Elektra, Ghost
Rider and a Punisher remake. In seven years Marvel
released three times as many superhero movies as it did in the
previous 70 years.
While Wave Two technically began in
that fat cat meeting back in '05, the real wave began with the
release of Iron Man in 2008. Robert Downey Jr. charmed both
audiences and Ms. Potts to new heights and Iron Man launched a trend. It was the first time a movie truly had two roles- to be a
coherent film while also being a prelude to a project down the road.
Each of the Wave Two films would have to deal with this balancing
act. Some faltered (Iron Man 2, Thor) while others shined
(Captain America). It's tough to iterate how unprecedented
this plan was so let's try an SAT association test to prove my point.
If The Avengers is the Lord of the Rings trilogy then
Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain
America are The Hobbit. $780 million on a prequel. Unlike
The Hobbit, those in charge didn't know how successful The
Avengers would be. They were guessing, like every studio guesses
that it's next film will be a hit when the truth is they know about
as much as audiences do about the next film's success. But that's
what The Avengers is, the main event. Everything before this
has just been a prequel so we know what is happening in The
Avengers. It's been a five year study in mass-psychology and the
results are in: we can be taught.
Each of the Waves represents a change
in how comic book movies are presented. Before Wave One they were
popular and had dedicated fan bases, but lacked mainstream appeal.
Wave One changed that. It made comics cool again, made fandom a
desirable trait and captivated the world in a way that had not been
seen before. Wave One made it okay to tell a story through a
superhero lens.
DC Comics
Titans of the previous generation's
youth, DC has become second tier in the movie business during the
21st century. Since X-Men, DC Comics has released seven films
compared to Marvel's twenty-four. While two (and the upcoming
conclusion) can be quickly named, outside of Christopher Nolan's
Batman franchise it is difficult for the average person to name any
of DC Comics other films. Catwoman, Superman Returns, Watchmen,
Jonah Hex and Green
Lantern. Two were unmitigated disasters that did not recoup their
costs (Catwoman, Jonah Hex), two made up their budgets at the
box office but after accounting for marketing and licensing costs
still are considered failures (Watchmen, Green Lantern), only
Bryan Singer's Superman Returns can claim anything close to
success, yet it was so routinely dismissed by fans and critics that
no sequel was ever made. Audiences basically said, look we went to
see this flick because it's about Superman, whom we love, but your
movie sucked.
A brief aside for fans of Watchmen
Look guys (and statistically speaking, yeah it's guys), Watchmen was awesome. It was the greatest interpretation we could ever hope for and I love Zack Snyder for making it happen. Compared to the rest of DC's non-Batman fodder, it's the only one that's any good. The problem is that Watchmen is not really a superhero movie as people came to know them during Wave One and Wave Two. It tried to be something else. Something more align with it's source material, something challenging and interesting and unique. To be blunt, Watchmen tried to be Batman Begins. In my opinion and most fans' opinions, it worked. The problem is that the Watchmen are not Batman. When you do something challenging and interesting and unique with characters that the general population is not familiar with it is easy to dismiss. Even when Chris Nolan did a very similar thing with Batman. I know, it's not fair. Watchmen was awesome, and I feel really bad about lumping it together with garbage like Jonah Hex, but the truth is that there aren't enough people like you and me. There's a bunch of normies out there who are reading this thinking, "this is a strange and weird aside, can we get back to The Avengers." No, normies, we can not. You should have seen Watchmen in the theaters. And Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Now back to The Avengers.
Batman
Before we get back to The Avengers,
I need to talk about the $1.3 billion elephant in the room. That's
how much money Christopher Nolan's two Batman films have made. $1.3
billion. But the most important part isn't the money it's the man.
It's not DC Comic's Batman films, it's Christopher Nolan's Batman
films. There is absolutely no one else like him. His take on Batman
is worthy of it's own wave- Wave Nolan. Exactly as Wave One/Two
marked changes in comic book movies, so to did Wave Nolan.
Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins
and The Dark Knight are so perfectly crafted that they
transcend any singular superhero. In fact, Nolan's Batman is so far
beyond any single superhero that it is strange to even put them in
the same category. While Iron Man was getting drunk, The Dark
Knight showed audiences insanity, depravity, pure evil, and
sacrifice on an unparalleled stage. Other filmmakers appear to be
telling stories about superheros while Nolan was telling stories of
super-heroic proportions. Before the release of The Avengers
it was impossible to think another film could challenge Nolan's The
Dark Knight.
The reason for this is two fold.
Firstly, Christopher Nolan tells complete stories. Batman Begins
and The Dark Knight do not have to be seen together. While
it's difficult to follow anything going on in The Avengers if
you're unfamiliar with the numerous prequels, The Dark Knight
stands on it's own just fine. There is no question that the films
complement one another, but they are not supplements of each other.
Secondly, Christopher Nolan knows how
to be Christopher Nolan. There is a tone and feeling when someone
enters a Nolan film. It's not that we know what the movie is about
(Inception) but rather we understand we are watching the work
of a master. One of my biggest pet peeves is movies not understanding
what they are supposed to be. Often this is a side effect of a
multimillion dollar production with hundreds or even thousands of
viewpoints all jockeying for a chance in the spotlight. John
Carter is a perfect example of a film made by people who didn't
know what the film was supposed to be. Maybe it started out with a
clear vision, but over time and a thousand screaming voices that
vision was lost. Christopher Nolan knows how to deliver the concept
behind 'Christopher Nolan'. His films are perfectly constructed
despite the fact that there are just as many people screaming for
attention on Nolan's sets as there are on everybody else's.
Saying that a movie knows “what it is
supposed to be” means it has one solid artistic vision and that
vision is noticeable in every detail from casting to editing. Fast
Five is a film that knows what it is supposed to be- awesome popcorn
flick and a hell of a lot of fun. Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On
Stranger Tides is an example of a movie that didn't know what it was
supposed to be- continuation of old characters? introduction of new
ones? exploration of grand mythology? random treasure hunting flick?
Johnny Depp being Jack Sparrow? A clear artistic vision is needed for
a film to feel complete and whole. Christopher Nolan has been able to
do that with Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.
The Avengers...finally.
The crazy thing about The Avengers
is that it's better than the sum of it's parts. While nothing on this
scale had ever been attempted before, the small-scale tests were not
inspiring. The closest thing to The Avengers experiment were a
few episodes of CW's Smallville that attempted to show the
beginnings of the Justice League of America. Just like The
Avengers, characters were introduced in their own episodes and
some got multi-episode arcs exactly like Iron Man got multiple
movies. The results were near disastrous. None of the JLA episodes of
Smallville were critically well received, often citing the
rushed pace, a confusing storyline or even complete cop outs like
putting characters on the phone instead of in the fight. Die-hard
fans, myself included, loved seeing everyone together but the
nostalgic effect soon wore off and we were left with a few mediocre
episodes. While TV and movies aren't directly correlated, many in the
industry and fans across the world feared The Avengers would
fall into the same traps that plagued Smallville.
Whedon to the Rescue
Joss Whedon has had a big 2012. All he
had to do was direct The Avengers and it would have been the
biggest moment of his career, but a much smaller flick called Cabin
in the Woods- a genre mash up masquerading as a horror movie-
managed to sneak it's way into theaters a couple of months before The
Avengers. Cabin should have been a preview for what was in
store when The Avengers finally graced the screen. The tight
pacing, writing and editing apparent in Cabin all can be seen in The
Avengers.
Already a cult hero for fan favorites
like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly and Dollhouse,
Whedon's name will now be at the top of every studio's list. If Christopher Nolan tells complete, realistic, gritty versions of his
cape-wearing hero then Joss Whedon operates like the yin to Nolan's
yang. It's not that The Avengers is the opposite of The
Dark Knight, it's that they are two masterful films playing with
different sides of the same coin. Each film knows what it is supposed
to be, each has a clear artistic vision and each is a masterpiece.
The Avengers is whimsical. It is
fun. It honestly feels like an adult came along and put together the
scraps some toddlers were playing with and turned them into a
skyscraper. That is not meant to be a slight to the other filmmakers,
merely a way to convey how fantastic Whedon's The Avengers is.
Yet Whedon delivers all the goods. Each
character is given their share of screen time, their stories both
concluding the arcs begun in their individual movies and catapulting
them to the next level of herohood (that should be a word). Whedon
presents us with a sort of nostalgic whimsy. A time portal to our
youth when things were fun and funny, where time passes unnoticed,
where enjoyment is had at each and every moment. The Avengers
transports viewers in a way that every film should but only the great
ones do. That's the similarity between Nolan and Whedon, each of
their films transports you, and we recognize that as a rare thing.
The difference is in where they choose to take you.
Last Panel
The Avengers made movie history.
Yes, it looks like the box office is going to be astronomically high
and for all those that needed it to be so- congratulations. More
importantly, The Avengers is the culmination of an idea that
should have never worked. No film franchise in history has banked so
much on a single idea, and because of that, no film has ever lived up
to such high expectations before. In the future we will show our kids
The Avengers and its prequels the way our parents showed us
Star Wars. It is a historic moment, so here's what I really
wanted to say...
Thank you.
Part 10 of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. To see all entries, click here.
Heath Ledger as Joker in The Dark Knight is one of the greatest performances ever captured on film. Any person on the planet could spend a lifetime studying every frame of that movie and never be able to copy Ledger's performance. An actor's ability is just one part of the overall impression viewers are left with, the rest is created by the script, stylists, make-up artists, editors, cameramen, and, obviously, the director's vision. However, Nolan's Joker will be remembered as one of the greatest villains of all time because he represents a portion of humanity that exists within all of us, that bubbles underneath the surface, encompassing the thoughts we think in those still, small moments when we are alone. Joker is us, and that is why he is terrifying.
The first scene that attempts to explain Joker's particular brand of insanity occurs between Bruce Wayne and his faithful butler Alfred.
Later in the film, when Batman is interrogating Joker, the villain comments on the "bad joke" society has created.
Joker's confrontation with Harvey Dent allows us to witness the creation of a villain. From high atop the social ladder, given everything the world had to offer, Dent follows the Joker's rhetoric down the rabbit hole until he becomes Two-Face.
"You see, nobody panics when things go according to plan." The recent Trayvon Martin/George Zimmeran case demonstrates Joker's point. Passions are stirred and tempers are enraged for one simple reason...seventeen year olds are not supposed to die on the street while carrying a bag of skittles. That's not part of the plan. And when they do die on the street, society panics.
Now imagine you could introduce a new way of thinking, a better way of thinking. A way that guaranteed everything was fair for everyone. How far would you go to insure that the world was fair? Would you tweet about it? Write a blog? Tell a friend? Protest in the street? Destroy a building? Would you be an agent of chaos if the cause was right?
As Joker says, that is all he is, an agent of chaos. Terrifying because viewers can see where he is coming from. Terrifying because he seems to say the things we feel. Terrifying because he blurs the line between fiction and reality. Joker is the perfect villain because everyone is afraid of becoming him.
"Because he's the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now." -Commissioner Gordon (The Dark Knight)
Cords that resonate with viewers long
after the credits roll. The Dark Knight is a film that allows people
to escape only to show them a reflection of society, and it is not a
bright reflection at all.
A commenter on a blog said it
eloquently:
drvictordavishj: "The key is the way Gordon draws a contrast between (Harvey) Dent "the hero we need" versus the Dark Knight "the hero we deserve." Nolan is saying that we need a law-abiding idealist, but that we don’t deserve him."
But these are our heroes. These are our
leaders. President Obama, Speaker John Boehner, Rep. Nancy Pelosi,
Sen. Harry Reid. These are the men and women who are supposed to be
our White Knights. Yet, not one is anything more than a sock puppet
for special interest groups, banks and lobbyists.
"Because I'm tired of it. Year, after year, after year, after year, having to choose between the lesser of who cares. Of trying to get myself excited about a candidate who can speak in complete sentences. Of setting the bar so low I can hardly look at it." -Leo McGarry (The West Wing)
We continue to allow our rights to be
taken away. Sometimes piece by piece and sometimes in massive sweeps
disguised as protection against our enemies. The, so-called, Leader
of the Free World signed a bill on December 31st that makes it legal
to hold United States citizens in jail...forever. With no charges or
trial. All anyone has to do is claim they are a terrorist.
We assassinate our own citizens, apply
justice arbitrarily, allow our private lives to be searched without a
warrant, refuse the global community the right to try our leaders for
war crimes and, incredibly, denounce other states for doing the same
exact things.
Maybe America is the world's Dark
Knight. We take on the evils of the world and the only way to do so
is by getting our hands dirty. Just as the Joker brings Batman again
and again to that moral line he does not wish to cross, the
world is doing the same to America. Maybe we don't want to be the way we
are, but what other choice is there?
I turn again to an anonymous commenter:
drvictordavishj: Nolan is ultimately saying that strong societies don't tolerate Dark Knights. If we do, it's only because we lack confidence in the institutions and values that we've inherited. After all, with all his gifts, Bruce Wayne could have easily been Harvey Dent, but because he lacks confidence in legitimate institutions and his moral inheritance, he’s not the philanthropist and healer that his father was. He's the sign of a sick society."
Ask yourself, do you have confidence in
our institutions? Is the government of the people, by the people and for the people?
The sad truth is there are a great many
things wrong with this society. We need no more evidence than the
existence of all the Dark Knights we allow to exist. Whether they be
vigilantes fighting crime in New York City or the very
countries we live in.
These are the heroes we deserve. These are our silent guardians, our watchful protectors. The existence of Dark Knights is a
sign of a sick society. And our society is filled with them.