Seven Sexy Things about 70's Batman

Dames, demons, and Bruce Springsteen's Darkness on the Edge of Town. That's 1978, baby. Camp is dead. Frank Miller (big fan of Springsteen too) studying under the master sensei, Denny O'Neil. Batman is in his prime thanks to combining Clint Eastwood, James Bond, and Indiana Jones (predating 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark) into the Dark Knight Detective. And here's how O'Neil, Adams, Len Wein, Steve Englehart, Marshal Rogers, Jim Aparo, Bob Haney, and company did it!

Watching the Detective: Beware the Batman Ep1 "Hunted"

It always seems like a good time to be a Batman fan. Whether it’s the truest representation on film of Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams’ dark, yet romantic Byronic hero in The Dark Knight trilogy, the unapologetic love letter to the Silver Age & Dick Sprang that was Batman: The Brave and the Bold, beating up thugs and super villains in the Arkham videogames, or consuming the final issues of Grant Morrison’s epic 6 year run concluding in Batman Incorported, which has been the freshest, healthiest, and most encompassing take on the character throughout his 70ish year history in my humble opinion, Batman is a force to be reckoned with in media. Yesterday, I got to see the latest addition to his long and celebrated animated history. With Beware the Batman I can fearlessly say, “Holy Fulfilled Expectations!” Hop into the Batmobile for the rundown after the break. Beware Bat-Spoilers!

The Dark Knight Rises - Initial Reaction (Spoiler Free)

I saw the final episode of the Nolan trilogy last night and have a lot of reactions.

First, to get this out of the way, I don't think this film was better than The Dark Knight and I think the character development in Batman Begins topped what they attempted in this one.

That being said, it is a decent ending to the trilogy, I liked it, and I give it a definite go. Even my wife liked it, and that says a lot considering it kept her up until 3:30am (and I fed her after midnight -- if she gets this reference, I'm so dead).

Throughout the film, there were several things I didn't like. Some of them come from adapting a large story to a movie, others come from design choices with the comic adaptation.

My non-spoiler gripe was Bane's voice. About 50% of the time, possibly more, it is just awkward sounding. I'm glad they didn't go too far with the Darth Vader route, but the entire Bane intro scene made me cringe. Also, some of the lines Bane delivers are actually... campy. Nolan had done decently well before with avoiding camp (for the most part). I don't know the character of Bane THAT well, but that's not something I remember being attributed to the character.

Also, Batman has another moment where his voice/yelling demands is abhorrent. I almost think it's thrown in there as a nod to just how foolish it is, but I'll leave that up to you to decide.

If you know the comics, you will catch most of the plot twists before they slap you. If not, they did such a good job that people in the theater were really surprised. I wasn't embittered that I already knew what was going to happen, and they had at least one surprise that, even if you've read every issue of Batman, you wouldn't necessarily see coming.

I can't go into too many of the things I really liked or the other things I had issues with without giving mild spoilers, and I am going to avoid that in this post. Come Monday, I'll do a full run down.

As a final comment, I think they nailed the pacing for the length of the film. Yes, some things were a bit rushed. Yes, I personally would have done certain things different. And yes, it is still a long movie. That being said, it didn't feel like a long movie. The Dark Knight almost feels like two movies when you're watching it, and that is a major issue with pacing that isn't present in The Dark Knight Rises, which is actually 12 minutes longer.

That's all for now folks, next post will include a more detailed "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" review of The Dark Knight Rises as well as some character analysis for those who have no idea who the hell Batman beat up this time (or why the crowd kept clapping at random points).

I'd love to see some other reactions in the comments, but please avoid spoilers until Monday!!

Thank you!