Wednesday, March 23, 2016

The Dark Knight Rises Is A Bad Movie

With Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice due out this week, and early reviews slamming it already, I feel it's time to post my thoughts on Batman's last appearance on the big screen. This was originally written as an email to a friend shortly after the movie originally came out. I've just cleaned it up a bit to post here.

When I first voiced my dislike of the third Christopher Nolan Batman movie, I annoyed some of my friends, who were so sure The Dark Knight Rises was a perfect movie walking out of the theatre. I remember review sites were getting threats from readers if they gave it a less-than-perfect rating. But it doesn't deserve a perfect rating. It doesn't even deserve a good one.

Firstly, I want to say that I did enjoy parts of the movie. I thought the cameo from Liam Neeson was well done, and I squeed loudly when Cillian Murphy appeared. I also enjoyed seeing the ridiculous Batpod doing it's spinning wheel sideways thing. But, there are massive problems with this movie. This is my list, and only my list. It's the things that I noticed personally. I've tried to avoid including things that I've read online since. This is about my issues.

1- It's a movie where we see Batman recover and return TWICE! The first time, he goes from being a cripple for 8 years to being A-okay in a matter of days, if not hours. A high-tech leg brace gives him back all his agility and strength. The second time he recovers from a broken back by having his spine PUNCHED back into line!?!? I would actually have given either one of the recoveries as part of the suspension of disbelief that movies, especially comic book movies, require, but the second made both stand out as stupid.

2- Even more than previous movies, the inconsistency of Batman's belief in not using guns was more evident. He uses guns and missiles on the Tumbler, Batpod and the Bat. While you can argue that they're only used on scenery, that gets thrown out the window at the end when he fires directly at the cab of Talia's truck. Batman has always been known for his gadgets over guns, but here "gadgets" just means bigger guns. Where's his super-epoxy truck sticking foam, or bat-EMP truck disabling beam, or just tire-destroying bat-caltrops?

3- While on the subject of missiles- I loved the magic missiles that Selina used on the Batpod to unblock the tunnel. A few shots into several tonnes of wrecked cars and a perfect V-shaped hole appears to be cut right through.

4- Those cops were down there in the tunnels for 3 months. Hundreds of them. Where did they shit? Where did they clean their uniforms? Where did they maintain their guns? How did the resistance get that much food down to them to keep them not only alive, but able to stay in shape?

5- How did one opening rescue them all? Were they all trapped conveniently together in one chamber? That's not how it looked when the bombs went off.

6- They were just below street level, as seen several times. Could they not have just dug down through a nearby building floor? I'd accept that just blowing the street open might be enough to let the trigger-man hit the button and detonate the bomb, but they weren't a million miles underground, and they had THREE MONTHS to rescue them! They could have done it in secret in a building!

7- What was with that 3 month time-limit anyway? The bomb was always going to go off. Everyone was always going to die. It made no sense. There was no redemption, no chance to become better, to take back the city. They were all just dead, they just didn't know it. Clearly, Talia failed to read the Evil Overlords Handbook.

8- Batman recovers from a broken spine in THREE MONTHS! Yes, I covered this earlier, but what if the bomb only had energy for 2.5 months. They'd all be fucked. It was a weak plot device. I mean, seriously, he gets back into Gotham with hours to spare, from where-ever he was abandoned in the world. And how did he afford to fly back to the US, not to mention get into the country WITHOUT A PASSPORT!

9- The bomb is referred to differently during the movie, the worst of all was when it is called a "Neutron bomb"... which doesn't even explode with the classical nuclear mushroom cloud devastation. It just emits a neutron burst, which wouldn't affect buildings!

10- Let's look at the bomb a bit more: It was originally a clean-energy fussion device until Bruce mothballed it because it could be used as a weapon, and he hates weapons. Except, as previously noted, on his vehicles. How did he get so far into the project that he spent billions of dollars without anyone pointing out that any form of fussion reaction could, potentially be used as a weapon? How is there only one person on the planet capable of deactivating the bomb? He must have been involved with the fussion reactors creation, but did he work entirely alone, with no team, no colleagues, no documented paperwork?!?

11- Wayne Industries is broke because Bruce has gone underground. What kind of company literally cannot function without one man? If that's the case, Apple would have been fucked without Steve (it might still be, to be honest)! What was that board of directors doing for the last 8 years? What of all the other parts of the company? Were they all shut down to finance the mothballed fussion reactor?

12- Joseph Gordon Levitt was the best thing in that movie. He spoke clearly, unlike almost everyone else, had valid character motivations, and stuck to his convictions throughout, but he was woefully underused. Bruce should have stayed broken, he should have been The Batman in the finale.

13- How could the police not find Bane's construction underground. Yes, there are miles of tunnels under there, but don't start at random man-holes around the city. Start at the fucking water tunnel where all the bodies keep appearing and follow the water back along. It's not that hard, dumb-asses.

14- Why is there a rope sitting at the top of The Pit when Bruce gets out? Does no-one in there have families, friends, evil organisation co-workers, or anyone willing to just walk out there and throw the rope down to rescue them? There are NO GUARDS! EVER! Just walk out of that enormous city we see, throw down the rope that is right there and walk away. And why does Bruce throw it down? Are they all just political prisoners, white-collar criminals that won't get out and return to a life of raping, murdering and pillaging? Or does he just trust that their time in The Pit has reformed them all into good citizens?

15- "Welcome back Mister Wayne. Sure hope you remembered where you parked the Bat because I don't have access to any others that I plan to sell to the military at the end of all this after you're dead." "Yup. On a rooftop that no-one in the last three months has gone up to. No one. Not one single per- FUCK! IT'S GONE! Also: What?"

16- "The bomb is ticking down it's last minutes. Let's all stop to listen to Talia's dieing ranting. Man, I hope those injuries are enough to kill her in the next 30 seconds, or we're all dead."

17- "Only 1 minute 57 seconds left on the bomb. I'll just stop to give everyone a pep-talk, kiss this cat burglar who everyone has avoided calling Catwoman for the last three hours and reveal to Gordon who I really am under the mask, by making a reference to an event decades ago that he only ever could have done once, because I'm the only person that Gordon has probably ever comforted in his entire career in the service."

18- "Aw. Batman died saving everybody. Well, better get back to selling these high-tech batwings to the military. You two random techies, fix the auto-pilot in this thing that looks kind of like the thing Batman used to fly, but it's not, because this one is in military camo and his was black. Also, I totally don't work for Batman. What's that you say? The auto pilot is fixed? By Bruce Wayne? Three months ago? Why the fuck would Bruce fix the auto-pilot in the model he's not even using? And when did Bruce learn to program complex auto-pilot routines for experimental helicopter designs? And when or how did he test this? And OH MY GOD HE'S ALIVE!" Dun-dun-duuuuuunnnnn.

19- "Nice of Master Bruce to give the house to the orphans. Sure hope none of them mess around with that piano."

20- "Wow! All this cool shit. Look at that. I get to be the new Batman! Woo-hoo! Now, how do I afford to repair any of this when it gets damaged, or even fuel the Tumbler. In fact, how do I adjust any of these suits to fit my clearly very different stature. Fuckit. I'll just go home."

21- The movie was far too long. I felt the set-up scenes were poorly played, and I actually got confused because I lost focus on what was happening. I thought it was Selina that Bruce sleeps with in the mansion during the rain-storm and the power-outage. That was the plot-point I missed entirely for the end of the movie when Batman seems so focused on saving what-ever her name is that turns out to be Talia. I kept thinking "Why does he seem to give such a shit about this board-member? Why is she important?"

22- This final one is something that I disliked, but others didn't seem to mind: There was no fan-service, nothing only for the comic readers. Like in Avengers, we had the Thanos reveal, or in Thor, we had the artifacts in Odin's museum and the Cosmic Cube in the after-credits scene. Even as far back as Iron Man, we had the Nick Fury reveal. Stuff that left the long-time fans whooping and cheering, but left the casual fan that just turned up for the movie intrigued about what they just saw, but not feeling lost or missing a key plot-point. The little extras to reward the nerds. Batman never had that. Everything was clearly explained. There was nothing only for the comic reader. And there was opportunity! Right at the end: "Something for John Blake?... Oh, maybe my full name: Robin." As subtle as a brick, and unconnected to the comics in every way apart from the use of those 5 letters in that order. Why not "Something for John Blake?... Oh, maybe my birth name, Tim Drake?" There. Better! The fans get the "Woot!" moment, the rest get, "Oh, he's someone he didn't appear to be, but it's not as important as learning he's becoming the new Batman."

That's it. That's my teardown of The Dark Knight Rises. Don't expect one on Batman V Superman anytime soon. I do not plan on seeing it.

You shouldn't either.

Not My Baby

My little girl turns one today. In fact, if I've done it right, she turned one at exactly the moment this post went live, at 2:35pm, Pacific Standard Time, or 10:35pm Irish time. Here's a look at her first year.



Edit: I screwed up. I forgot to account for the difference between Canada being on Summer Time and Ireland not, so it should have gone live at 9:35 Irish time, and my blog ids still sete to that as it's home timezone. I must change that. 

Monday, March 21, 2016

Building WALL·E

Last week I took Ada to the mall to get out of the house on a wet March day in Vancouver. We went tot Oakridge, as it's easiest to reach on transit. While there, I stopped into the LEGO Store and discovered to my amazement that they had the LEGO Ideas WALL·E in stock! In fact, they only had one left!

I grabbed it right away.

On Saturday, I took Ada to Family Place as usual in the morning, and when I got home, Claire and I cleaned off the table, set up my Canon G12, and built WALL·E together over about two hours, photographing the entire process in time lapse. Ada joined us after her nap and played with her own LEGO, Duplo, of course, beside us in her chair.

It was a great experience, and one I hope we do again. Sometimes it's easy to get distracted by everything in life, and forget that Claire and I need to stop and enjoy each other's company together, working on a shared project. This is definitely something I'd like to make into a regular occasion, and would recommend to others as well. There really is something deeply satisfying about building LEGO together.

Here's the finished time lapse. I don't like the framing. The camera is pointed too far down, and it's hard to see our hands working on the parts, while also keeping all those bright, distracting bowls in view. Still, it works.


A quick trip to IKEA and I have the perfect display case.

 

It's Been One Year

It has been a long time since I posted anything, and for that I am deeply sorry. I've been very busy, but not to the point where I couldn't have put aside a few minutes now and then since November to post something! But lots has happened, so let's hit the main points.

In December, I left the job I've had and loved since arriving in Vancouver five years ago. I've been working in the daycare industry for all that time, with an incredible team, and an amazing bunch of kids. But in January, Claire got a kick-ass new job opportunity so we made the easy desicion that I'd stay home with Ada and she'd go back to work. The other option was for both of us to work, finding daycare for Ada, while I care for other people's kids.

I do miss work, but Ada and I go on fieldtrip sand visit some of the centres now and then, so that's been great fun and a nice way of staying in touch with great people.

But being a stay-at-home-dad is not easy. I thought being able to handle twelve infants would make handling one a breeze. I was wrong. At work, I have support if I'm tired, or having a hard time with a kid. Now, it's all on me. I have to prepare snacks and lunch, change all the diapers, and don't get toilet or lunch breaks. I have to fit what I can into her nap times, but that's over all too quickly some days.

And I wouldn't give it up for the world. I'm well aware that it's a rare luxury that I get to do this, and I have an unending amount of respect for parents who choose not to or, more often that not, simply can't due to a variety of reasons. I have an incredible wife, with an incredible brain and an amazing ability to continuously better herself, a talent I very much hope is genetic. It is only because of Claire that I get to do this, and I thank her every day for that.

I love spending all this time with my daughter. As well as fieldtrip said into Downtown, we regularly go to a local drop-in facility in the mornings to hang out with other parents and children. We've made loads of new friends through that and I know Ada loves going because as soon as the stroller stops outside the door, she starts shouting and laughing. Plus, it nicely wears her out so that she usually falls asleep on the way home and naps from noon until about one.

It's hard to believe that Ada turns one year old in less than 48 hours. This time last year, Claire and I wear enjoying our last weekend with just the two of us, waiting patiently for the hospital appointment on Monday, March 23rd, 2015, and the c-section surgery that would welcome our Spawnling into the world.

I have something special to share to mark that, but it'll be in another post, coming soon.

Post Script: The moment I opened the page to write this post, my media player threw up One Week, by BareNaked Ladies. It may have influenced the title.