Films

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
[#58 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

Fantastic. My full spoiler-free initial thoughts are here.

Articles

This #DarkKnightRises 3D street art ain't half bad...
(from @empiremagazine)

Wow.

Click to enlarge.

TV

Parents
1x03 Episode Three
Well that was... surprisingly better.

Superstar
1x07 Episode Seven
Amanda Holden is an incredibly laughable presenter. "Do not call after lines have closed (surprised face) or your vote will not be counted! (frowny face) And you may still be charged!" It's literally like she's trying to tell it to a two-year-old.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Films

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)
[#57 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

Just time enough to drop this in to my schedule of Batman viewing. If you don't know, it's a theatrically-released spin-off from the acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series animated series, which Those In The Know have long hailed as one of the best Bat-films of any kind.

And by golly, they're right! It's bloody brilliant. Not sure where I'd place it in the overall scheme of Batman movies, but then that's always hard because they have such different styles anyway. Though I don't think it's far from the truth to say it has one of the absolute best, most complex storylines for the character of Bruce Wayne -- certainly better than anything in the Burton films, better than Batman Forever, and more original than the familiar vengeance arc offered in Begins. The nearest similarity may be parts of the Bruce-Rachel story in The Dark Knight and its (apparent) continued effect in The Dark Knight Rises. But even then, this may have the edge.

Add to that stunning design and animation, including multiple barnstorming action sequences, and it all adds up to fantastic entertainment. And for an American animation, it's stunningly mature/adult/grown-up, while also remaining kid-friendly. Outstanding.

Non-Fiction

Holy Franchise, Batman! by Gary Collinson
Part 1: Live-Action Batman - Batman on hiatus (1997-2003) (pages 120-124)
Part 1: Live-Action Batman - Aborted spin-offs (pages 169-175)
Part 2: Animated Batman - The Dark Knight in the DC Animated Universe - Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993) (pages 189-191)
Part 2: Animated Batman - The further animated adventures of the Caped Crusader - The Batman vs Dracula: The Animated Movie (2005) (pages 217-219)
Part 3: Batman of the Future (pages 242-244) [the end]

I am nothing if not thorough in listing exactly what I've read.

TV

Parents
1x02 Episode Two
I have a suspicion this is going to get increasingly dire rather than any better.

Superstar
1x06 Episode Six
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Films

The Dark Knight (2008)
[3rd watch]

I was, oddly, a little nervous sitting down to watch TDK for the first time in four years. I'd had such an incredible experience viewing it in the cinema (twice) and, by not watching it since, it had built up some kind of aura in my mind. But I dismissed such silliness and damn well got on with it.

It's interesting watching this directly after Begins. While Nolan's first film isn't even close to being as all-out fantasy as the earlier entries, it errs more in that direction than this one, in my opinion. Begins has a kind of fantastical warmth to it, alongside the more urban-realism aspects. I say "warmth" probably because of the sepia/brown hues of the sequences set in the Narrows and so on. The Dark Knight, by comparison, is set in the cold grey-blue steel world of skyscrapers and the modern metropolis, inspired by towering architecture in its visual style and by epic crime-thrillers in its plotting.

Begins is, at heart, still a superhero action-adventure; Dark Knight is a crime thriller that happens to take place in a world with superheroes. Does that make it inherently better? No. But it does make it more unusual for the genre. And as Nolan & co pull off the crime thriller style and feel so damn well, it flat out makes it a great film.

TV

Starlings
1x02 Episode Two

Superstar
1x05 The First Elimination
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Films

Batman Begins (2005)
[3rd watch]

As I've decided to cover this Bat-series re-watch on 100 Films now I'll say some more about this film there (on Friday, I should imagine), but now I want to make a comment about the way it uses Gotham City.

Primarily, I think it's important to note what a fine job Nolan does of making Gotham City another character in the film. All of the Batman films have done this to some degree -- it was Burton's stated aim to make Gotham "the third character" in his first effort -- but by giving the city recognisable landmarks, districts, a true sense of history and on-going interrelations, it feels like a real place. And those recognisable landmarks continue into The Dark Knight (the split-level roads, the Narrows and it's bridges, even if the vital-to-the-plot elevated railway completely disappears between films), cementing the importance of this cityscape.

I do hope this continues into The Dark Knight Rises. I've already read one review that said they should've named the final film Gotham City, so I'm optimistic.

Articles

Review of The Dark Knight Rises by Nev Pierce (from Empire)
and
Review: The Dark Knight Rises closes out Nolan's trilogy with brains and bombast by Drew McWeeny (from Motion Captured at HitFix)

A pair of great, spoiler-free reviews of the new Batman film. Really looking forward to this, so much so that I've booked a ticket and it'll be my first cinema trip in over a year. And now I intend to avoid reading too many (or any) further reviews, just in case.

In other TDKR news:


The Dark Knight Rises -- This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things
by Matt Atchity (from Rotten Tomatoes)

With reviews coming in, Rotten Tomatoes has gone insane... kinda literally. Not the site itself, but it's users/commentators, which has led the site to take some action. Official statement-y thing here should give you an idea what's been going on, but I first read about it somewhere else so in case my foreknowledge led me to think this was more thorough than it is, what you need to know was there were a raft of positive reviews and a single negative one, which attracted thousands (I do believe it was literally thousands) of comments, most of them abusive stuff from people who hadn't even seen the film.

And then some 'real' critic posted a negative comment linking to something that wasn't a review because he hadn't even seen the film. It was something to do with making a point about how no RT commentators even bother to click through and read the whole review, but it seems this wasn't appreciated by RT's management. Not necessarily wrongly.

Dark Knight Girl Rises With The Dragon Tattoo

Trailer footage for The Dark Knight Rises set to Immigrant Song from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo trailer?

More awesome than it sounds, and it sounds awesome.

TV

A Short History of Everything Else
1x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Superstar
1x04 The Superstar Studio
Amanda Holden wasn't... actually as bad as I thought she'd be. I mean, she's not great -- she's no Graham -- but still, she can read out loud, so...
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Films

Batman & Robin (1997)
[2nd watch]

Believe it or not, Batman & Robin isn't a complete disaster. Relatively significant screen time is given to a subplot involving Alfred being very ill. Thanks to the general warmth of feeling felt toward the character, plus the acting abilities of Michael Gough and George Clooney, this storyline deserves to be part of a far better film.

Also, the realisation of Gotham is impressive. Mixing gigantic sets, model work and CGI, Schumacher and co crafted a towering fantasy landscape straight out of the comic's wilder imaginings. The neon colouring may not be to everyone's taste, but this is an animated-series-style Gotham writ in live-action.

The rest of the film is an irredeemable mess, however. I'll write more on 100 Films in a few days, but one thing I hate is a foul new look for the Batmobile -- though the DVD featurette on the film's vehicles almost makes you appreciate it. The behind-the-scenes version is much more impressive than what we see in the film.

Non-Fiction

Holy Franchise, Batman! by Gary Collinson
Part 1: Live-Action Batman - The Tim Burton/Joel Schumacher Era (pages 63-119)

Subtitled Bringing the Caped Crusader to the Silver Screen, this new book covers all the on-screen incarnations of the Dark Knight to date. As you can see, I'm basically reading along with my viewing (retrospectively, anyway), to perhaps inform the mini-reviews I'll post on 100 Films later this week.

TV

Parents
1x01 Episode One
Well that was... mediocre.

Starlings
1x01 Episode One
Or, as the title card would have it, "STarLINGS". Or perhaps "sTarLINGs", who can say. It's kind of like Stella, but not quite as good.

Superstar
1x03 Mallorca
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Yes, Prime Minister
2x02 Official Secrets

Films

Batman Forever (1995)
[4th or so watch]

Three observations I personally hadn't made before:

1) everyone goes on about how the pre-Begins Batman films dealt with the villains and ignored Bruce Wayne. That's true of Burton's pair, but this one spends a ton of time with Bruce (a lot of that's about Robin, but it's about Robin in relation to Bruce). The one who's hard done by is Harvey Dent/Two-Face, who gets relatively little screen time and most of it is spent as a cackling halfwit sidekick to the Riddler. Not befitting the character at all.

But 2) talking of Two-Face, wow does Tommy Lee Jones over-act furiously! Perhaps that's not news, but crikey it's so unlike anything else I've ever seen him in.

And 3) I swear Elliot Goldenthal's score referenced the music of the '60s Adam West series on several occasions. Which, considering the overall tone of the film, feels entirely possible. (I watched the featurette on the BD about the music but they didn't mention it, sadly.)

this week on 100 Films

I didn't get round to writing and posting either Green Lantern or Cowboys & Aliens (both of which have premiered on Sky Movies recently, and I've seen 'n' everything), so it's just one new review again this week...

Devil (2010)

Devil launched a series of films dubbed “The Night Chronicles”... as I recall the idea is they were a series of low-key/low-budget horror-thrillers conceived by M. Night Shyamalan (he has a Story and Producer credit here) but helmed by others... Funny thing is, this is better than anything Shyamalan has done in a long time.

Read more on my new blog.

Also, because of problems with my old blog, I've decided not to continue posting full reviews there, at least for the time being. Just in case you wondered where those links had gone.

More next Sunday.

TV

The Cube
5x07 Gold Medallist Special
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

How I Met Your Mother
7x21 Now We're Even
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Wallander [British]
3x01 An Event in Autumn
2½ years since the last British Wallander, Kenneth Branagh's more-prone-to-tears interpretation of the Swedish detective is back, this time with an adaptation of a short story. There are only so many novels for them to do, so clearly they're branching out before they run out. It's good stuff still though.
(Saying that, according to Branagh in this article, he hopes for another series adapting the two remaining full-length novels and then leave it at that. Hopefully they'll be able to do that much, then.)
(Also, it's coming up to two years since I last watched any of the longest-running Swedish Wallander! God, time flies.)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

Cowboys & Aliens: Extended Director's Cut (2011)
[#56 in 100 Films in a Year 2012]

Articles

Game of Thrones reveals new cast members for Season 3!
by Lauren Davis (from io9)

Including a tonne of people reading for British viewers to proclaim, "oh, it's him/her from... oh y'know... that thing..."

Clive Russell, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Ellie Kendrick, Paul Kaye, Mackenzie Crook, Tara Fitzgerald, Tobias Menzies, Anton Lesser -- if you don't know the name you'll probably know the face. Plus someone who I think was in Hollyoaks, someone who I think played Matilda on stage, some people I don't recognise at all even after Googling their face, and none other than Dame Diana Rigg(!)

Game of Thrones may have a cast bigger than the population of a small country, but at least you'll recognise them.