How Many Years Can Some People Exist Before They're Allowed To Be Free?

The Dark Knight Rises (Nolan, 2012)

Finality can be unsettling. I recall most of the major occurrences of finality in my life fairly clearly. For better or worse time carries on and chapters of life (this is a phrase I detest, by the way) inevitably draw to a close as we continue throttling forward. As I stood waiting in line at the IMAX, about an hour and a half before Christopher Nolan's final entry in the Batman franchise, The Dark Knight Rises, was set to start the idea of conclusion was set firmly in my mind. After seven years he was prepared to move on, to put a bow on top of the series and pack up. And about 4 hours later, coming out of the theater, the conflicted feelings I usually have with confronting finality were still present in full force. Is this what it's like to end, can it be a satisfying conclusion, or will it all collapse under the weight of the previous movies?

Every Superhero Need His Theme Music

Marvel's The Avengers (Whedon, 2012)

Only once have I attempted writing an extended fiction piece. It was a silly story that I hardly remember, but it was kind of playing on the idea of all the small events in a town that built toward some larger story in a Winesburg, Ohio kind of way. I kept losing track of the connections and eventually gave up, so when thinking about how Joss Whedon's Marvel's The Avengers attempts to fit together so many individual parts I can't help but be impressed by how much of it feels seamless. Sure there have been minor film crossovers, most notably Tony Stark showing up for a brief appearance in The Incredible Hulk or Nick Fury basically having his hands in every franchise film at some point. But often when all the pieces are assembled the result can easily feel inauthentic. For the most part Whedon's blockbuster gives all the heroes enough of a reason to join forces aside from the obvious "we would like to make money" mantra of Hollywood popcorn movies. All of the character groundwork has been, theoretically, set up, and Marvel's The Avengers is able to act like a grand sequel, but the thing about sequels is that many of them feel redundant, so how exactly does Whedon navigate this problem?

There's A Cold Wind Coming Off The Ocean

The Adventures of Tintin (Spielberg, 2011)

Earlier this month I wrote a post about nostalgia in film, with The Muppets and Hugo being the focus of that piece. After stepping out of the theater I could not help but think of the term nostalgia when considering The Adventures of Tintin. Though Spielberg may be appealing to a certain nostalgia by adapting the reporter-detective Tintin (Jamie Bell) for the big screen, it seems odd because I am sure the vast majority of the US audience (myself included) has little familiarity with the character or the comic series. What this leaves then is Spielberg working in a realm where he is evoking nostalgia for his past adventure movies. The Indiana Jones, Jaws and Jurassic Parks of the world. Now aside from those dinosaurs I have a great displeasure for the majority of 'classic' Spielbergian movies, yet seeing Tintin I think I finally realized why many of his movies are so beloved.

Time to Wake Up: The Darkness, Reflections on Comics and Games

So I'm a bit behind schedule, but also finished Lost and picked up Naruto today, and I have finally finished my reflection on the video game adaptation of the comic series The Darkness. For future reference, I will be using the comic series in Italics and the video game in Bold.

A long time ago, when I was just a sperm concerned with getting inside a vagina to bring forth new life, the comic book industry thrived along with the arcade industry. The two cultures began to mesh as the arcade industry died down and some of the steam of mainstream comics began catering to a more devoted crowd. Flashing forward a little more than 18 years, one will notice very few of the things previously mentioned have changed. The video game industry continues to grow each year, Comic-Con and other festivals expand audiences yearly, and I am still primarily concerned about spreading life. However, both cultures continue to share one trait in common: comics and video games are niche markets. On a mainstream level the fans are sterotypical nerds and geeks who dress up as imaginary characters and rarely leave the home, only for D&D night, to wait in line for the next Star Wars film, or to LARP all over someone's face. The problem is, as most gamers/comic readers will tell you, that these stereotypes are flawed and very wrong. The casual fan is just as important to each industry, and with the influence of comics in other mediums the pairing of these two previously intertwined cultures seems obvious.