RodVision - BatVision

The Rod

Project QL Intern
:bat

BatVision

Its well known that The Rod is a Batman fan, so in the past few days since His return He has been catching up with the films and TV shows aired in His absence. Today, He would like to talk about The Batman Films. Now He had already seen Batman Begins, now He has seen Dark Knight and Dark Knight Rises..Dark Knight was excellent, Heath Ledger was immense and has overshadowed Jack Nicholson’s Joker AND Mark Hamill’s joker (not an easy task there). Dark Knight Rises though has split The Rod. On one hand it’s an excellent spectacle of a film, action scenes and story are pretty good, however as a Batman film, The Rod is less convinced.

He has decided to compile a list of some of what He liked and disliked about the film, in no particular order......

The Rod did not like:

1. After the events of Dark Knight, Nolan would have the viewer believe that Bats quit. 8 years has passed after Dark Knight and yes, there has been a new organised crime bill, The Harvey Dent Act, which has practically eliminated organised crime from Gotham, but more importantly, Rachel Dawes was brutally blown up by the joker. Batman hung up his cowl and that was the end of that (Oh, did you know Batman’s flying deeley ‘The Bat’ had a malfunctioning autopilot?).

Well, The Rod has a problem with this, Batman won’t quit until he HAS to quit. In the comics he quit because he was too old to manage anymore, he still tried and it almost killed him. The same happened in the animated shows. As long as there are wrong doers, The Bat will be there. Ok, organised crime has gone, but are the viewers expected to believe that ALL violent crime has been defeated? So is Batman a crime racist? Only organised crime interests him?? He hangs up his cowl because of this AND because a girl he has a crush on has been killed????

Well, No, sorry. The Rod is not happy with this ONE bit.

Why did Bruce Wayne become the Dark Knight? Because his parents were brutally murdered in front of him, to avenge them by dispensing justice to ALL criminals in Gotham in their name. SO if the fact that they were murdered created him, are the viewers to believe that the murder of Rachel Dawes would hit him so hard that he gives it all up?? Please!

2. If you’re a criminal in Gotham, you fear The Dark Knight. Batman is the ultimate urban predator, kind of like The Rod, except He polices the Rodternet...... :-D

Batman is a master martial artist, trained in a variety of disciplines, both armed and unarmed, he has an armoury of weapons and Vehicles, well The tumbler (assuming he got a new one), The Batpod and The Bat (which incidentally, did you know the autopilot doesn’t work?). He knows every move you are going to make at LEAST 3 moves before you’re going to.......So, enter Bane, in the comics Bane crushed the Bat only because Bane had broken EVERY one of Batman’s super villains out of Arkham, Batman was out hunting constantly and as a result got very little rest as he defeated each of his arch enemies. He became fatigued and weakened as a result. Bane then confronts him IN the Batcave (Bane is very intelligent and has figured out who Batman is by observing his movements against the arch villains) and destroys him, made even easier by the fact that batman can put up very little resistance due to his weakened state, against this super powered monster.

In the film, Batman comes out of retirement , confronts Bane and is crushed pretty easily, put down to the fact that Bane is just as trained as he is, we are left to guess whether he is as super powered as the comics. Now this part The Rod is not happy about. Based on how intelligent and well versed in laying the smackdown he is, Batman lays into Bane and attacks him with everything he’s got, well, everything except his mind. Why does The Rod say that? Well, Bane has a contraption over his face, Nolan did not tell us what that did except in some vague offhand way later on, but if The Rod is watching and thinking “Maybe Bats should smack that thing on Banes face, it might hurt him”, then surely Batman who is the ultimate predator, would think “maybe I should smack that thing on Banes face, it might hurt him”. As we all know, he does not, and is then broken and thrown in a pit of a jail.

3. It made a good story line, but surely if the stock exchange is attacked, any sales would be void? (Also, ‘The Bat’ has a malfunctioning autopilot?)

4. It takes almost an hour before Batman appears. Come on, is This Bruce Wayne Rises???

5. Robin. Oh yes Mr Nolan, everybody sees what you did there, you’ve been very clever, making his REAL name Robin......ahh ha ha ha...No. At least treat the true Batman fans and not the generic action film fans with respect, you should have named him either Dick Grayson (Robin/Nightwing and occasional Batman) or Terry McGinnis (Batman Beyond, took over from Batman when Bruce was too old). Either would be a good choice to take over from the Bat, except in this universe, Grayson has not been mentored for years as Bats’ sidekick and as a result would have no idea how to be Batman. Just having somebody called Robin take the keys to the Batcave, the Batpod & The tumbler (but not the Bat, remember the auto pilot wasn’t working.)??? No..No..No..No..No..No..No..No..NO..NOO..NOOOO..NOOOOO..NOOOOOO!

6. The Autopilot wasn’t working. Come on Nolan, did you have to tell us EVERY few minutes that the auto pilot wasn’t working? Kinda blew the ending for The Rod/anyone who can listen and think.

7. Selena Kyle remained clothed the whole time.....Ok, That’s just The Rod’s wishful thinking.....You can’t really give the film a black mark for that...actually, yes, The Rod can. :-D

8. Bruce fires Alfred....The man who raised him, his defacto father if you will.....

9. The world’s most famous and eligible bachelor Bruce Wayne mysteriously disappears, yet at the end of the film he is sitting in a Parisian street cafe, not attempting to hide his face or anything....Where are the press.......


Ok, so that was just a few things The Rod didn’t like.......being the fair person He is, here are the things He did like:

1. Selena Kyle/Catwoman. He liked her A LOT.

2. The comic book style macguffin, namely the clean energy bomb.

3. Dr. Crane/The Scarecrow’s court scene. Marvellously crazy! Well done to Cillian Murphy for setting any ego aside and having merely a cameo in The Dark Knight/Dark Knight Rises after being the joint bad guy in Batman Begins. Brilliant.

4. The opening scene with the airplane.

5. The fact that in all 3 films very little CGI was used.

6. Its Batman people!

7. The final encounter between Batman and Bane...finally he smacks the contraption on the face.

8. The Ra’s Al Ghul connection.

9. ‘The Bat’ was pretty cool. (Well, apart from the fact that the Autopilot was not working....wait, it DID work......wow, wish The Rod had seen THAT coming.) :rolleyes

10. Selena Kyle/Catwoman.

So there you have it, just some of what The Rod liked and Disliked about The Nolan Batman films. Probably pointless as a reboot is surely forthcoming.

The Marvel films are the next viewing for The Rod......
 
Oh, Rod-Man, we've missed your sardonic wit!

Personally, I loved The Dark Knight Rises. It took my 2 favorite Batman storylines of all time: Knightfall and No Man's Land, and merged them together into one awesome narrative. Yes, looking back on it I can see its faults, but I still heavily enjoyed it.

As for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this is how I would rate them from best to worst (worst not necessarily equating to horrible, just not as preferable to me) :

1) The Avengers
2) Thor
3) Iron Man
4) Iron Man 2
5) Iron Man 3
6) Captain America: The First Avenger
7) The Incredible Hulk

(Definitely watch them in order though: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America all take place before The Avengers and encompass Phase 1.)

Wonder what you'll think about the J.J. Abrams Star Trek reboot, or the fact that J.J. Abrams and Disney are now the new driving force behind Star Wars...

The universe may very well implode... :eek
 
Oh, Rod-Man, we've missed your sardonic wit!

Personally, I loved The Dark Knight Rises. It took my 2 favorite Batman storylines of all time: Knightfall and No Man's Land, and merged them together into one awesome narrative. Yes, looking back on it I can see its faults, but I still heavily enjoyed it.

As for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this is how I would rate them from best to worst (worst not necessarily equating to horrible, just not as preferable to me) :

1) The Avengers
2) Thor
3) Iron Man
4) Iron Man 2
5) Iron Man 3
6) Captain America: The First Avenger
7) The Incredible Hulk

(Definitely watch them in order though: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America all take place before The Avengers and encompass Phase 1.)

Wonder what you'll think about the J.J. Abrams Star Trek reboot, or the fact that J.J. Abrams and Disney are now the new driving force behind Star Wars...

The universe may very well implode... :eek

:bat

No fear Dman, The Rod will not destroy the universe. He saw Star Trek on Friday (the 2009 one) and Into Darkness last night.

The 1st one was great, handled very respectfully, carefully announcing that it was an alternate universe so as not to incur The Great One's Wrath.

Into darkness, The Rod liked it, and it certainly felt like a Star Trek film, but He had his suspicions going in that the villain would be who he was. Whilst Cumberbatch did a great Job, The Rod feels that perhaps a story involving the Klingon conflict (Something being touted for the 3rd film) would have been better served. That being said, the very fact that this is an alternate universe, and that Kirk is assuming control of the Enterprise later in the time line than he did originally, means that the whole villain being who he is, is possible.

Sheesh, The Rod is being very well behaved for not using any spoilers, do you know how hard it is to put a point across without them!

Given that JJ was not a Star Trek fan, The Rod is very impressed at the level of respect JJ has used, now as far as the whole Disney and Star Wars thing goes, what the hell happened, The Rod leaves for a while and the whole world goes crazy!

JJ is an admitted Star Wars fan, so perhaps some good films can be made *eyes Lucas suspiciously after the prequel films......Stay in your corner George...