1010

Hello subscribers, casual readers and anyone else stumbling onto my blog today!
This is my 1,010th posting!  It’s a quirky number.  Very binary.  In the spirit of quirkiness, I thought I’d use it as the title…
Anyway…
Yesterday, I finally got around to seeing the latest Batman movie:  “The Dark Knight Rises“.  Of course I AM a big comic / movie adaptation fan so I have a natural bias to enjoying these types of films.  And I did.
The current Batman series (for want of a better term – the Nolan series) is all about redemption generally, and despair, hope and struggle specifically.  As such, this latest version is a great tying up of loose ends between the three movies.  Why do we fall?  So that we can get back up – and be better for it…
The third movie has a lot of political undercurrents in it.  There has been a lot of criticism about this in (mostly conservative) movie reviews.  While I recognize the complaints, it’s difficult for me to agree there is a causal relationship between current events (Occupy Wall Street) and this movie as I understand the movie was written and filmed well before the events of the last year.  That’s not to say the events might not have had some impact on the final editing, but who’s to say as a casual movie goer.
What did I like about the movie?  Well, excepting for a few fight scenes, this is really a Bruce Wayne movie (harkening back to the first movie).  As Batman is really “just” a normal man with no super-powers, I like this more even treatment of both sides of the main character.  I also liked the more in-depth exposition of the origin of the Bane character.  This is in contrast to the second movie where there was almost nothing about the Joker.  It’s obvious to me that Heath Ledger was FAR better as a villain, but then my criticism of the second movie was that it was a Joker movie, not a Batman movie.  This third edition is, I believe more balanced.
I also really liked (and was surprised by) Anne Hathaway as the “un-named” Catwoman and ultimate romantic interest.  I didn’t really “see” her in the role as I understood it (a bad-guy), but the change of the character to a misunderstood quasi-Robin Hood wanna-be seemed to make it – the role – believable for her.  In any case, I thought she brought the right amount of glamour, humor and sexiness to the role.
Most everyone else just filled out their normal roles, with Alfred (Michael Caine) being a little bit too soppy for my tastes.
A lot of the movies action sequences are unrealistic and there is one medical miracle, but hey, this is a comic book as well as a Hollywood movie, so the criteria is fun and entertaining, not realism.
Major criticism?  The sound editing is VERY bad.  In some parts of the movie, the characters speaking are unintelligible – particularly Bane.  Fortunately, I don’t think dialogue was the movie’s strong suit anyway (remember – comic book, action movie).
As such, I highly recommend this movie and look forward to adding it to my DVD collection when it comes out on sale.
And on to my next quirky post number…
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There In The Sunshine

Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations.  I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.
—   Louisa May Alcott
[This was partially the inspiration for one of my own poems:  “Julie’s Poem“.  Small world that it is, I bumped into Julie several years ago when I went to the local emergency room about my heart.  She was the triage nurse on duty.  I like to think she had some small part in getting me treated quickly and helped to save my life.
(Way back in the ’70’s,) Julie had heard I wrote poems and didn’t believe it so she asked (challenged) me to write one.  I sat down and wrote the poem “for” her (not inspired by her) – hence the title.    —    kmab]
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