Monday, July 21, 2008

The Dark Knight Reviewed

Caution: Two Spoilers Ahead...

Okay so this isn't a comic book reviewed, but rather a DC character.

Batman, portrayed by Christian Bale is at it again, as the best Batman on silver screen in this latest installment of the Batman movie series. This has got to be the most impressive Batman movie that I have ever seen. Everyone's acting was suberb and the late Heath Ledger stole the show with his portrayal of the maniacal Joker. Aaron Eckhart as the Harvey Dent was superb. Also there was indeed fine acting by returnees Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon, Michael Caine as Bruce Wayne's butler Alfred and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox. Maggie Gyllenhaal plays Rachel Dawes in this movie, replacing Katie Holmes who played the character in Batman Begins.

Although Jack Nicholson's portrayal of the Joker in the Batman film by Tim Burton back in 1989 was great the character was not played as so maniacal and sadistic as Ledger portray's him. In my opinion Ledger is the dark Joker of the comic books, the one that provides Batman a truly worthy adversary.

The only fault that I have with the movie is one that I have with most comic based movies. That is that many times continuity, that is origin stories and certain other aspects of a character are changed from the comic to the big screen. In The Dark Night the Joker apparently didn't fall into a vat of acid as he did in the comics. Thus in this recent movie he paints his face white with makeup and apparently uses lipstick to cover the scars surrounding his lips.

In this movie, Harvey Dent becomes Two Face not by having acid thrown in his face in a courtroom as in the comic book but rather by gasoline or oil that was covering one side of his face ignite after an explosion.

Other than those two origin stories straying from the comic books this has got to be my favorite superhero movie of all time, even beating the recent Iron Man that I felt was spectacular.

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Monday, July 07, 2008

Rann-Thanagarian War

It's issue number three of this series and I can't say that I am impressed or disappointed. Neither actually. It is one of those series that you enjoy because it brings several characters together to face what seem to be multiple threats. On a scale of one to ten for the storyline I would only give it about a 7.5 because many of the characters used seem to have little personalities in my opinion.

Sure some of them have personality development within the last few months but these have always been second string characters in my opinion except maybe for those who have had their own books such as Hawkman, Adam Strange (sort of), and Animal Man.

Anyway we now have threats on three fronts. Throneworld, Rann and Hardcore station. Prince Gavin is desperately heading back to Throneworld after his ship on a scouting mission was destroyed along with it's crew. At Hardcore Station things are getting bad as the majority of our heroes find the populace under the control of alien beings belonging to the Eternal Light Corporation. And back on Rann, Hawkman is attacked by the Rannians being driven by the mad rantings of Sardath. Does Hawkman survive, what about the fate of Throneworld, and what about our heroes on Hardcore Station. The story continues in the next issue, no wait, in Hawkman Special #1.

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Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Batman kidnapped by Granny Goodness

(this is a review with spoilers from issue 2 of Final Crisis)

This just in... late breaking news. Veteran crime fighter Batman has been kidnapped by the resurrected Granny Goodness of Apokolips. Goodness like the other evil Gods of Apokolips under the leadership of Darkseid, were all presumed dead after the destruction of Apokolips.

Granny, evidently possessed Alpha Lantern Kraken of the Green Lantern Corps, and during an autopsy of the New God Orion at the JLA headquarters captured Batman while they were together examining Orion.

In other news it has been reported that Mr. Miracle Shilo Norman was seen in Japan recruiting new heroes to battle what he referred to as the evil beings who won a cosmic battle.

This 2nd issue of Final Crisis ties in well with issue number one of Final Crisis as well as Countdown to Final Crisis. It also has characters brought in from the Grant Morrison's recent Seven Soldiers of Victory with this issue featuring Shilo Norman.

The artwork is of high quality with great coloring. The darker colors used in the backgrounds help set the mood for the evil forces plotting throughout this mini-series. Although being chased by Death in the form of the Black Racer this issue does feature Barry "The Flash" Allen at the very end of the issue. There are also scenes featuring Superman, Green Lantern Hal Jordan, and Lantern John Stewart, as well as the new Question, Rene Montoya.

This issue did not feature the Monitors or any verbal reference that I can remember concerning the Multiverse. However, I did see Kamandi being held in a cage by certain evil Gods near the end of this issue.

What's going to happen next? To find out stay tuned and don't miss the next issue of Final Crisis.

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