Wherein I Discuss My Love of Batman

My wife has been encouraging me to get back into writing, as it was a passion of mine, so I've decided to dust off the old blog. I spent a half hour just finding out which old email address I used for it. In addition to my wife's encouragement, my friend Bridget also just asked out of nowhere if I've been writing seven minutes a day. Sadly, the answer has been no. Well... unless I'm arguing with people on some comic book forum. And then it hit me! I had an apostrophe (I think you mean an epiphany). I love writing about comic related things, and I haven't blogged since long before I had a wife or a friend named Bridget. So my first bit of writing will be a comic related article on my old blog. And what comic related item should I discuss? Well, it's May of 2014. What else could I possibly want to write about but...

Yes, my friends, Batman has turned 75 years old. And anyone who knows the first thing about me knows that I love Batman. Honestly, that's a literal statement. It's usually the first thing anyone finds out about me. I've loved Batman for as long as I can remember. What American boy hasn't? In the last 75 years there have been only short periods of time during which there wasn't some iteration of Batman standing front and center in pop culture. I could write a detailed history about the character, but then this would just be a wikipedia entry. Screw that. I'll just write about MY history with Batman. Or is it with BatMEN? The character continues to evolve rapidly. The Batman in comics and film today, in some ways, barely resembles the Batman I first knew...

There was a long period between 1966 and 1989 when one image of Batman stood out as definitive to the public at large. That was the image of Adam West. In the comics, Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams had firmly returned Batman to his dark roots in the 70's, and Frank Miller changed the entire genre with his Batman titles in the 80's, but I was four. I didn't know about that stuff. And, to me, there was nothing ridiculous about this spandexed hipster running around in broad daylight with his domino-asked ward bashing Frank Gorshin and Burgess Meredith with the accomanying "POW's" and "WHAM's" and I'm pretty sure I saw a "BIFF" in there at least once. Even at that age, I thought it was absolutely moronic of the villains to constantly leave Batman and Robin unsupervised in elaborate deathtraps, but that was easily explained away by a universal truth Batman ingrained in many children. Bad guys are dumb. And I would smile, roll my socks down until they resembled pixie boots, and treat swing-set swings as ropes for me to sail across a Gotham which looked strangely similar 1960's Los Angeles. It was a version of Batman that many fans desperately wanted the world to forget (myself included for a time). That it made Batman campy, colorful, and stupid. I'm glad it has, instead, been recognized as a perfectly legitimate interpretation of Batman, to be remembered fondly. Because we all enjoyed it. And, yes, that is an autographed Adam West picture made out to me. It is one of my most prized possessions.

Have you ever danced with the devil by the pale moonlight?

In 1989, "Batman" starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson came out and I wasn't allowed to watch it. It was rated PG-13 and I was five. And that sucked. It sucked until Christmas time that year when, during Christmas vacation, my brother and I came into possession of a copy on VHS. And we watched it at least twenty times in a four day period. It was scary and exciting. It was a Batman I never knew existed... and ultimately it would be a Batman I liked less when I got much older. Batman himself wasn't really the star of his own film, and he killed people left and right (a giant no-no for Batman). Still, it was visually mesmerizing. Keaton brought a danger to the character never seen on film before and not matched again for over a decade, and Nicholson was so charismatic that no one thought anyone would ever touch his performance (we ended up being wrong on that one). I loved Batman, but my love turned into an obsession thanks to Bruce Timm...

I am vengeance! I am the night!

How lucky we all were to live in a time when Batman: The Animated series was on TV! The first episode I saw was "Heart of Ice." From the opening sequence, the style (a new kind, termed "dark deco") was so unique and engaging. I felt like I was watching a twisted, more violent Dick Tracy. Then the episode began. It was about a guy in a chryo-suit who sought revenge against his former employer with a freeze ray. It was also as emotional and tragic as anything I had seen before or since. I was hooked. Not just to the series, but to the character and the mythology, in a way I had never been before. Through that series, I was introduced to Dick Grayson. REALLY introduced to him. Yeah, Robin was on the 60's series and Superfriends, but those shows never had an episode like "Robin's Reckoning." That series eventually gave us Mask of the Phantasm: a theatrical animated film that was truer to the character's mythology than anything Burton or Schumacher gave us in live action. Bruce Timm's animated Batman grew into a massive shared DC Animated Universe. Really, it's thanks to Batman that I was introduced to all of those characters (except Superman. C'mon. Every American is fed Superman at the teet). Last but not least, Batman: TAS gave us Kevin Conroy as Batman and Mark Hamill as Joker. At this point, I was sold. I was diving into Batman comics, graphic novels, new animated series, new films... In fact, I have to mention...

The training is nothing! The will is everything! The will to act!

I followed production on this film every single day from long before it was even in production. A couple of Batman reboots were being shopped around. One was an adaptation of Frank Miller's "Year One," to be directed by Darren Aranofsky, and the other was called "The Intimidation Game," being pitched by Chris Nolan. Both Nolan and Aranofsky were artsy indie directors at the time, so it was hard to get behind either of them... until hearing about what Aranofsky and Miller actually had planned for Year One. Let's just say we're better off without that film. Chris Nolan's on the other hand, was the perfect film for the time. In anticipation for it, I bought about 12 seats for the midnight screening, so all my friends could sit with me. At the film's conclusion, when Batman and Gordon discuss escalation in criminal activity, and this new guy called "The Joker," I felt a chill as Batman soared off the roof, Gordon smiling behind, and the screen went black with the title "Batman Begins." I stood up and hugged my friend Andy, who was sitting behind me. I was almost in tears. To me, it was the first time they finally got Batman right in a movie. Three years later, my brother and I would be sitting in a fans-only pre-screening of a sequel called "The Dark Knight."

It's what I do that defines me.

But that's enough for now. I've already told about just HOW I got into the character and a brief history beyond that. It's time to wrap this up. Let me just say that my love of this character may seem extreme, but a few things should be understood. Fictional characters resonate with the masses in ways that few actual people can. I grew up without a father, and Batman became a male role model that could never let me down. As Kevin Conroy once said, "He always does the right thing." Moreover, as we all know, Batman is just a mortal man like us. However, he shows how we can be extraordinary. He saves the day time and again using nothing but his wits, body, and will. For Batman, more than any other hero, the point is that NOTHING is insurmountable. Whether he's stopping a mugger, or going toe-to-toe with Superman himself, Batman will triumph. He always finds a way. What better role model could a kid ask for? 25 years after I first watched his adventures, he's still my hero. During the next few weeks, I'll be posting my own personal recommendations of movies, shows, or books having to do with Batman. Or I'll post about other stuff because it's my blog and I hate being restricted to a single theme. Thanks for reading!

Oh, My Lovely Old Blog...

The whole reason I got a new computer was so I could start writing again. Nearly four months later and not so much as a note. Here I am attempting to change that. Oh, my lovely old blog. How I've missed thee. Soon, very soon, I will make long-winded posts presenting my thoughts on films and comics, and films about comics. :P I might write short stories again too. Woo!

Where the Wild Things Are

This trailer got me way more excited than the first time I saw the Watchmen trailer. Will I be seeing this movie? Oh yes. I will.

Day 3 cont...

I went to McDonald's here in Berlin. The quarter pounder IS called the Royale Burger! Vincent was right! Also, they do give you mayonaise with fries but they also give you ketchup, often in the same cup. All you have to do is mix them together and it's like Utah.

However, McDonald's meals cost like 10 bucks (with a small drink even) and inside of the place is a McCafé which is like a little Starbucks. There are two floors at McDonald's and it seems like a much nicer place than at home where it's basically the bottom of the barrel.

The keyboards here are a bit different. The most notable difference being that "z" and "y" are switched presumably because "y" is almost never found in a word whereas "z" frequently is. So I guess people didn't like exhausting their left pinky fingers and never using their right index.

Dunkin Donuts bares the subtext "American Bakery." Doesn't that fill you with pride? It does for me. Earlier I was watching Police Academy and The Man With The Golden Gun on German tv. The difference being that Steve Güttenberg is way funnier when you can't understand him and Roger Moore is less stuck up full of himself. (Can you tell I wrote Guttenberg with the ü just to take advantage of this keyboard having that?)

So now you know that since coming to Germany I've been to McDonald's, Dunkin Donuts and watched Police Academy. So you know I'm making the most of my time. Honestly, though, I've spent so much time on trains, walking, and feeling my head spin from exhaustion that it's not always so awful to just relax and do something unimportant.

Our hostel is right above a strip club and at night we can hear the music through the ground. It doesn't bother me. Sometimes we have to make sacrifices so that other peoples' lives can be enriched and made full. Bless you, strippers.

Tomorrow the embassy. Bright and early.

Eurotrip day 3

Day 1 we went to New York. We went to the city for about an hour and promptly hopped a flight to Germany.

From Frankfurt to Berlin we flew, and here we stay. We were leaving a train when Chandler noticed I'd left my bag behind. In doing so, he himself forgot his planner. His planner which contained his passport, ID, and cash. So we are staying in Berlin for the next while.

Another word added to the "do not say" list...

"Oh Snap!"
Your time has come. You were amusing for a little while there. Now, when people say you, I want trigger a rat trap over their lips and giggle at the sound it makes when it snaps closed on them. Like the guy who said it during one of the talks in church today. Are you kidding? No more, "oh snap." No more. Just go away quietly.

Also, Zoolander was a stupid movie whose only saving grace was Bowie.

Watchmen: thoughts on the movie and thoughts as a fan

Alan Moore and David Gibbons' Watchmen is the most beloved graphic novel of all time. The trailers for the film weren't just spouting that to get people in seats. It's true. It's even my favorite graphic novel. I didn't want it to be. The Batman fan in me wanted to read it and be able to say at the end, "It's good but it's not as good as Miller's Dark Knight Returns." The Dark Knight Returns actually has a very similar tone and similar themes to Watchmen, but Watchmen is easily the superior book. It blew my mind and I've spent hours pooring over it again and again finding new depth and meaning to both the writing and the artwork. It's the best graphic novel ever written.

So, considering my love for it, seeing it and writing a proper, impartial film review is a difficult. It'd be very easy to nit-pick and hate everything that differed from the book and allow that to effect my view of it simply as a film. And that's pretty much what I did. So I decided not to write anything about it until I had allowed it to sink in a bit more. And my perception has changed but just a bit. Certain things I still stand by.

Without book comparison, I feel I can say Watchmen IS a good movie. The cinematography is stunning. Visually it's unlike anything seen before and has nearly 3 hours of rich characters and story.

For anyone who's unfamiliar with the story, Watchmen takes place in our world if masked heroes were real. For anyone who says, "well so is Spider-Man," let me explain. In the Watchmen world things were the same as ours except in 1938 after the release of Action Comics #1 (the first Superman comic), real life people began dressing in masks and going out to fight crime. None of them actually had super powers (except one who comes later on).

The story of the film itself is set in this world's 1985. America won the war in Vietnam, Richard Nixon is serving his 5th term in office, masked heroes have been outlawed, the United States and the Soviet Union seem inescapably headed towards nuclear armegeddon and someone has just murdered one of the old costumed heroes. There you go.

I feel it's important to let people know that this is very different from any superhero movie that's come out in recent years. Probably most importantly in the fact that it's rated R. And that R rating is no joke, people. If you have a problem with lots of violence, sex, and nudity but feel like this wont be so bad because it has people in tights and domino masks, I'm telling you now DON'T SEE THIS MOVIE. It's incredibly violent and has one sex scene in it I'd go as far as labeling a softcore porn scene. And, honestly, these are two reasons I have to put marks against it if only because they took me out of it.

Here's the thing. Zack Snyder is a talented but still very young director who still hasn't learned the meaning of the word "subtlety." The film he did immediately before this was Frank Miller's 300. In that film, the stylized ultra-violence was fantastic. It suited the source material and the overall testosterone and effects driven goal of the movie. I loved 300 for that. With Watchmen, however, you're dealing with a more tangible world, yet we're still seeing the same slow-motion closeup of an bone tearing through skin as it breaks, blood flying towards the screen. I felt like it was contradictory to have a real world populated by powerless people, yet have the action and violence so stylized.

It's a question of what you're wanting to see more. Stylish violence with coreographed martial arts and wire-fu is fun to watch, but the trade is that the violence loses its threat. With more realistic looking movements and impacts, we're left with something that isn't as exciting to watch, but forces us to realize that these hits hurt. I enjoy either one if done well. What it comes down to for me is what serves the film's overall established reality and mood. In 300, stylish violence fits. In Watchmen it doesn't.

On to the sex and nudity. For the most part, the sexuality and nudity are handled just fine. It doesn't deviate from the book, really, and it could've easily gone much further than it did. The most prominent bit of nudity that drew loads of giggles from the unprepared audience was Dr. Manhattan, who spends most of the film naked with no attempt to cover is big, blue, glowing dong. In this case, the nudity is warrented and even important to the character. Dr. Manhattan is the only hero in the Watchmen cast who has superpowers. And he has a LOT of them. They've caused him to become further and further distant from humanity to the point where he's lost touch entirely. The clothes are a way of representing this. He sees no purpose in wearing them so he chooses not to.

However, there's one moment of sexuality that, like the violence, was a bit too over the top. This involves a sex scene between two characters that's stretched from two panels in the book (involving a clever innuendo that thankfully made it into the film), to a full on porn scene. I should be clear on something, this doesn't come from any prudishness or religious outrage. I could care less about sex in a movie as long as it serves a purpose. Here it's so gratuitously thrown at us that even I laughed a bit and said, "Really?" I hate to think that cerain elements of the book were left out because we needed time to explore the different positions Nite Owl and Silk Spectre have sex in. It's so very important to the overall story. So important that the book was able to get it across just as plane and much more deftly without turning it into a scene you'd have to go to the curtained area of a comic store to read.

Again, it's not a moral position because, honestly, I couldn't give a crap about that. It's about knowing when to pull the reigns as director and realize when a softer approach is more effective than brow-beating. Those long rants, however, are my only criticism of the film as a film. Aside from that, it's quite good and I think you'll really enjoy it.

As a fan of the book there's one more thing in particular that upset me and that's the ending which is very different and loses a great deal of its meaning. Not just the big thing either (those who've read it know what I'm talking about) but also small changes at the end that, if put back to normal, would've made it so much better. Not to mention the changes in character's costumes that pissed me off (Ozymandias dresses like a blonde, superhero Ramses II. Not in something George Clooney threw out after Batman and Robin).

HOWEVER, by and large I was pleased even as a fan of the book. The opening montage explaining the history of this world with Bob Dylan played over was brilliant. Certain scenes are panel to panel perfect. Rorshach's diologue is almost completely unchanged and gloriously fragmented. The casting is pretty much perfect. Even Adrian Veidt, who I initially thought would be a horrible Ozymandias because he really didn't look the part, did a great job. Aside from him all the characters looked and behaved very much like their comic counterparts. Jackie Earl Haley's Rorshach was especially fun. Certain scenes and images were wonderful to see brought to life. Even structurally the story of the film follows that of the comic. These loyalties were refreshing.

Overall, I'm obviously going to prefer the book. I knew that before I went in. It was just a question of whether or not I'd hate the movie. And I don't. For the most part I like it. So while I can't say it's as good as The Dark Knight (what comic movie is?) I feel like I can recommend it. Go see it and enjoy. Leave the kids at home.