Dark Knight Thoughts with light spoilers and more

The Dark Knight was fantastic. I was a little worried going in mostly because of a still of the "Bat-pod" with it's ridiculous lazy-river-inner-tube sized tires. The implementation was awesome btw. Heath Ledger's death hadn't really bothered me before seeing this movie. Sure, I was sorry he died. I thought he was a good actor and was never bothered by any of his performances. But this performance, wow. I wanted to see him reprise the roll, and I wanted to see what kinds of roles he'd get in the future. The Joker is creepy and in all the right ways. Funny and vicious in the same breath. When you realize that he tells the scar origin story differently to each person he meets, it's just terrifying. The horror of this villainous nihilist is that he never gives you a reason. By retelling the story, he dangles a why in front of his victims but snatches it from us at the same time. My father once told me that the main reason all the conspiracy theories popped up around the assisnation of JFK was that the general populace couldn't deal with the idea that it could be as senseless as mad man with a gun. It's terrifying. And throughout the movie, he never gives us anything to explain it. I also liked that he didn't rely on any gimmicky character based gadgets or toxins or anything. As he points out, it's all he needs is gasoline and gunpowder.

The other performances deserve a nod as well not that you'd expect any less from the likes of Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, and Michael Caine. Maggie gyllenhaal was meh and I have to be honest, I lost a little faith in ol` Christian Bale/ Chris Nolan (the director deserves some cred). As Bruce Wayne he was kind of a yawn and as Batman, the throaty growl was too monotone and persistent. Most irritating was watching Batman present Fox with the new city wide cellphone sonar system in that same weird voice. I get the reason for disquising your voice, but Fox knows damn well who he is. I'd have hit him in the head. Still, it's a small note.

The look as before was the best I've seen for the series though I still think Burton's was well adapted for the late eighties early nineties. All in all my favorite movie this year.

On a seperate note, if you happened to see a commercial a Sony HDNA commercial featuring a bunch of vines that engulf a big flat panel TV and then retract revealing a new one, I had a large hand in it's execution. It wasn't a great concept though. The TV's owner leaves and then the tranformation takes place. When he returns he is neither surprised nor angry that his TV has become smaller and now has a keyboard and a windows based remote and is showing that awful piece of shit "21". The last shot is him giving a peculiar little smile which I didn't really get. Perhaps we are witnessing his catharsis as he realizes he doesn't have to overcompensate for the size of his manhood. I just don't know.

I've also recently seen the Watchmen trailer. I know everyone is really excited, but I'm a little worried about the look. I read that they had shot a ton of it practically, but it seems a little fakey and flat to me. Perhaps I should watch it at a higher rez that 320x240. The blue electro men worry me also. They look like someone just discovered bump mapping to me.

If you like the Dresden Dolls or just good music check out Amanda Palmer's myspace page. She's got a new album coming out and from the few selections she has up, it's going to be amazing. I've been neglecting my iTunes entirely at work for the last couple of weeks just listening and relistening to the few selections. I found her because Zoe Keating linked her, and since I will eternally seeking out the sound of that angel's cello, I was extremely pleased. (Astronaut's Wife is the best!)

I'm gonna miss you, Minus

Minus ended a couple of weeks ago. Ryan Armand's clever and sometimes macabre comic about a little girl who just happens to be omnipotent was a joy every Thursday for the last couple of years. Frequently, the wacky adventures would go on for several strips and take interesting turns. It's worth noting that his brand of absurdity had enough grounding in character and the strip's internal logic to stay relevant and engaging as opposed to the more common and lazy disconnected non-sequitor that nearly ruined the Simpson's in the later seasons and usually prevents Family Guy from ever becoming genius. The art was always gorgeous and not for lack of effort on Ryan's part: (from the website)


"Each minus strip is painted on a 15x20" piece of Illustration board. With this comic I am pretending I am making a comic strip for a newspaper in the early 20th century. A special newspaper that lets me use as much color as I want, because real papers have limitations on that sort of thing. Or maybe they did in the past I'm not sure!"

Thanks again, Mr. Armand, for the fun. I hope you will find the time to put out a collection. There's a couple of recent additions after the end of the story including a long promised outcome to the business man with wings story.

On Airtalk today, representatives from McCain's and Obama's campaigns were sort of hashing out the chances either candidate had in the general election. One of them made the excellent point (I forget which one, but it doesn't matter) that each and every time an American goes to fill their car's gas tank they get a pricey reminder not to elect another Republican to office. I really hope the Democrats hit that point a bit.

Cool short film

IT Guy Vs Dumb Employees - Watch more free videos

It's a funny piece, but the coolest part is that all of the only visual is the screen of the main character. It's yet another example of how solid story can truly make a great piece. Also, though everyone sounds like a chipmunk, the attention to audio is pretty brilliant.

Here it is....

Just a place to drop thoughts, videos and other shite I've thought about vfx and pop culture wise. I make no promises to mind updates, proper grammar, well thought out posts, statements or arguments and run on sentences. So there.