Review of The Dark Knight

I saw The Dark Knight on Friday night with some friends.  It was a very strong movie with a very good script.  Because my friends arrived at different times, we had trouble finding seats and had to sit way up in the second row.  Normally I would find this to be totally annoying, but I was so immersed in the movie that I didn't really pay attention to the terrible viewing location.  For me, The Dark Knight was that good.  I liked how the movie avoided having many standard features of comic book superhero movies.  Batman was presented in a realistic setting.  There were no doomsday weapons or malevolent villains trying to take over the world.  

The script was very dark, brooding, and in many ways somber.  The story had Batman struggling with many moral dilemmas.  It dealt a lot with corruption and how it can bring down good men.  Batman, Jim Gordon, and Harvey Dent form an alliance to clean out crime in Gotham City but it takes a severe toll on all of them.  In the movie, the Joker is very good at taking advantage of people's most basic fears and insecurities, swaying their opinions, and undermining the effectiveness of the city government.  He has Batman, the city officials, and the entire police department running around in circles.  One thing that immediately struck me was that the movie's themes actually didn't feel forced or contrived, but instead felt very well developed.  The Dark Knight may be "just a movie", but it does make me think about how society and civil order can fall apart very quickly. 

The movie was well acted by everyone.  Christian Bale is awesome as Batman and Bruce Wayne.  You get  excited whenever you see Batman cut loose and crush bad guys, the more brutally the better.  It's also nice to see Lucius Fox featured as an important character in this movie series, and Morgan Freeman makes him entertaining to watch.  Heath Ledger's interpretation of the Joker is terrific, very different from past interpretations of the character.  The Joker is usually done as either a clownish campy villain or an outright psychopath.  The Joker from Batman: The Animated Series was a very good blend of the various versions of the character.  On the other hand, Heath Ledger's Joker is more subtle.   He is manipulative and knows how to really really hurt people.  He also has a lot of neat quirks, like talking about his own origin differently every time, licking the scars around his mouth, and the way he generally talks.  The knife scenes are really unnerving to watch.  

The Dark Knight is easily one of the best movies based from a comic book and a great movie in general.  It has a substantive mature storyline and presents Batman in a realistic way.

Thank You Michael Turner

On Thursday I learned that the famous comic book artist Michael Turner passed away due to cancer at only the age of 37.  I honestly felt sad by the news of his passing.  Obviously I didn't know him, but I've been a big admirer of his artwork.  Turner is the guy who is famous for his work on Fathom and Witchblade, and for his ability to draw very hot women.  My first Michael Turner comic was Witchblade #14 and I've followed his stuff ever since. 

I've always found him to be inspiring, not only in his artwork, but also in his life story.  He's one of those people who succeeded in making his goals happen, despite battling cancer for eight years.  Turner got into Image Comics during the mid-1990s and became VERY successful VERY fast.  He was multidimensional as well, being an accomplished athlete and martial artist in addition to his success as an artist.  By all accounts, he was also a nice guy who never developed a huge ego.   

On one hand, I always thought that his anatomy was a bit awkward at times, and he sometimes relied just a bit too much on headshots and collages in his storytelling.  Yet at the same time, I was just totally attracted to his art.  He was a very solid artist first of all.  He was also one of those rare artists whose characters had a real sense of character to them, with an instantly recognizable style of drawing people and faces.  When an artist knows how to do this, it is a powerful way of creating his or her own universe, and viewers are drawn into that universe.  Turner's stuff in general had a sort of sexiness to it, but a classy type of sexiness.  Everybody looked cool and glamorous, and they were always hanging out in cool and glamorous places.

It is said that some people are not on this earth for very long, but their light shines very brightly.  In Michael Turner's case, it is definitely true.  He had a vision and impacted the comic illustration field very strongly.  Reading about his life and appreciating his art makes me think about how I should conduct my life and approach my art.  Michael Turner, thank you for showing how to not let the bad stuff in life get in the way of your goals and thank you for your awesome artwork. I will keep enjoying it for years to come.

from www.aspencomics.com:

Indiana Jones 4

I went to the midnight showing of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  Overall, I liked it and thought that it was fun.  It was a little different than the other three Indy movies because it was more lighthearted in tone and it had less gore.  Crystal Skull definitely felt like PG-13 lite.  Harrison Ford, as expected, is awesome as Indiana Jones.  Both the story and Indy himself use Indy's age for laughs, so it's not too ridiculous seeing a character in his late fifties doing the stuff in the movie.  Karen Allen is great as Marion.  Marion last showed up in the first Indy movie.  Even twentysome years later, Allen just steps into the role very easily.  The character Mutt Williams is nicely done as a comic foil to Indy.  The villain Spalko is a fun Soviet caricature.

As for the plot, it is one that you either buy into or you don't.  The concept of the crystal skull and the mystery surrounding it are interesting, but the direction the writers take with the idea is one where you just go with it or you have trouble accepting it.  Apparently, George Lucas had mentioned seemingly off-the-cuff that he was interested in trying something like this, but I never suspected that he was really going to go through with it.  Also, I think one of the things that made the first three Indy movies compelling was that they only showed the power of the artifacts Indy was after, but not the actual sources, or creators, of the power and artifacts.  It makes everything more mysterious and engages the viewer.  In this movie, they do show the source and I think it does detract from the movie somewhat.  

The action scenes were a lot of fun, although the vine-swinging part was just totally over-the-top cheesy.  I do wonder if the filmmakers deliberately made it that way.  There was quite a bit of soft glow CGI lighting.  Several of the computer animated effects were nicely done.  Spielberg's action scenes have a certain type of quality, where staging action just seems to come to him easily and almost effortlessly.  His action scenes (in this movie and in others) always flow very smoothly and you can always tell what's going on.  There is always a sense of the action actually going somewhere, with one thing leading to another in a pretty detailed way, rather than a bunch of cool looking fight moves put together.  

Indy 4 was a fun night at the movie theater for me.  Even though the plot is buy-it-or-leave-it, I recommend seeing this movie.

Stephen Colbert at SUNY Buffalo

I went to the Stephen Colbert lecture at SUNY Buffalo on Friday night.  Man, it was a good time.  It was an arena-size event.  It was a total laugh fest, rather than a formal lecture.  I think he probably does these lecture things a lot, but he did not seem bored at all.  His humor was sharp, fast, and flying, and it seemed like he was having a ton of fun messing with the audience.

There was definitely a lot of excitement and anticipation in the audience.  The Vice President of Student Affairs started things off with The Word (a segment from The Colbert Report) and briefly talked about political satire.  Then Colbert came out with music blaring and did a little dance.  He thanked the ladies, gentlemen, and hermaphrodites, because these days you have to be "diverse" and recognize all the various countless groups out there.  He then proceeded to make fun of Eliot Spitzer.  Colbert noted that Spitzer was on The Colbert Report the day Spitzer got a ride to DC to get it on with a prostitute.  Before the taping of the show, Spitzer's people told Colbert that Spitzer had to be done at a certain time to catch a ride to DC.  Spitzer even made a call from Colbert's studio about his ride.  Colbert and his staff only realized what was really going on after the scandal broke - apparently Colbert's whoredar didn't pick up on it at the time.  Colbert said the show-biz saying for a guest pressed for time is, "The governor has a hard out", and this time it was literally true!

He then ragged on young people.  He said that young people are so soft and coddled these days, with their internet blogging "activism" and bike safety helmets.  Back in the day, nobody wore bike safety helmets, and it toughened everybody's skulls.  Also, these days when young people are at a demonstration and someone gets tasered, they don't rebel!  Instead, they obey the authorities and can't wait to get home to watch the guy get tasered on YouTube!  Colbert claimed that he was hiring interns - for the guys, positions would go to those who could scream his name the loudest.  For the ladies, positions would go to those who could scream his name the loudest with the most desire.  When the females in the audience yelled, it ended up sounding like something getting killed, and everyone cracked up.  Colbert also had fun with the Canadians in the audience and talked about moosehead beer.  He said something like, "It tastes exactly as it sounds, moosehead, like when you're giving a moose head."

Colbert went into his take on current politics and the Presidential candidates.  It was especially funny because it was combined with a slideshow to back up his statements.  He had a picture of Dick Cheney looking surly as usual.  Then he had a picture of the villainous Mole Man from Marvel Comics, and the resemblance was...striking.  Several of the Republican candidates who looked older, dressed all proper, and all smiles reminded Colbert of creepy uncles who like to hug you just a little too much.  He talked about the debate over the exact event at which the Republicans sealed their own fate to lose Congress in 2006 - well, the list of screw-ups is long!  He made fun of Mitt Romney, about how he's so handsome and attractive, and would take just about any position to appeal to anyone, enough that Colbert himself would be willing to get things on with Romney.  Colbert felt that Ron Paul (the most popular Republican among the audience) was given short thrift by everyone.  He also said that Ron Paul supporters are those who go to YouTube and blog sites to post replies that run for about a page.

To Colbert, Dennis Kucinich always reminded him of some little magical forest creature hanging out with Hobbits.  As for Clinton vs. Obama, Obama definitely had the most support in the SUNY Buffalo audience.  Colbert said that Clinton was tenacious, and if Obama got the nomination, Clinton would probably burst out of Obama's chest at the nomination speech like in Aliens.  The powerpoint slide that went with the joke was hilarious, cartoonish, and bloody, ha ha.  Colbert, being from the Carolinas, also did a spot-on impersonation of John Edwards.  Then Colbert ended his talk with The Word, where he went on a nonsensical, word-twisting, your-leaders-are-always-good rant.

After the formal talk, Colbert took questions from the audience.  He also kidded around with the sign-language interpreter on stage and sat on her.  When asked about what flavor ice cream would be named after Jon Stewart, Colbert mused that it would contain gummi bears and matzos, and would be called Chewy Jewy.  Colbert also took a pump and shot out some t-shirts into the audience.  He ragged on the SUNY Buffalo football team, "Come on, you guys are named after the most shootable animal in America!"  He talked a bit about his Presidential bid, about how he was genuinely disappointed by being left off the ballot.  He was also asked if he would run for New York Senator if Clinton vacates.  Colbert said he couldn't because he lives in New Jersey.  But then he was told that apparently all you have do to qualify to run is to have a mailing address in New York.  To which Colbert joked, "That's it?  You're shitting me!  That idea is SO stolen!" 

Thoughts about Tibet, Asian thinking

So I've been paying attention to the crap going down in Tibet.  The situation really sucks and my sympathies are definitely with the Tibetan protesters.  The PRC government is idiotic...they think the way to deal with a problem is to suppress it, rather than to just give people what they demand.  For me it's an obvious thing.  Reading around various websites, I find it truly disturbing that there are numerous people - many who are Chinese, and some who are Westerners - who actually take the Chinese government's side.  But the arguments are easy to pick apart.

They think that condemnation against the Chinese government's harsh response in Tibet is somehow an attack against the Chinese race and culture.  They don't understand that the criticism is really about how the Chinese government can treat people like crap then get away with it, whether the people are Han Chinese, Tibetans, etc.

They defend the actions of the Chinese government as being in the interest of social order and stability.  But this just shows that the Chinese government doesn't respect people enough to be stable and orderly on their own.  In contrast, you never hear the US government talk about the American people in such a disdainful and patronizing way.  The Chinese government ultimately views the people as being lesser and lower. 

Then they try to use moral relativism reasoning - "Well, if the US can go into Iraq, then why can't China do whatever it wants?  This is yet another example of Western imperialism blah blah...trying to keep China down blah blah..."  They don't get that in a free nation, the government can be corrected by the people.  You can change your leaders if you don't like the stuff they're doing - which is exactly what happened to many elected officials in the US 2006 midterm election.  It's also going to be a big issue in the 2008 election.  And also, in a free nation like the US, when bad stuff happens, the real truth ALWAYS comes out sooner or later - it never gets suppressed by government controlled media blackouts and the like.

Although there are many aspects of Asian culture that are cool, I think this whole thing highlights a couple of shortcomings in Asian culture which are completely annoying.  I'm allowed to say this because I have an Asian background.  The first shortcoming, I find it troubling that many Chinese, and actually many Asians in general, have this weird mindset that you have to obey your superiors and seek their approval, whether the authority figure is a parent or a government official.  It really is indoctrinated into the culture in many subtle ways, whether they realize it or not.  It leads to a top-down system of authority.  People start defending and making excuses for authority figures, as a way to fit into the status quo in hopes of getting some piece of the pie.  My parents have often said that many Asians have a mentality where they look up to those with money, status, and power, and look down upon the common people. 

The second shortcoming is the total obssession with "order" and "stability", a topic I mentioned above.  It ends up as a cheap way for those at the top to justify any actions imposed upon people who are supposedly their subordinates.  Everything is done in the name of order and stability.  It actually starts in the family setting, where parents feel like they are allowed to force their kids to go into certain careers for the sake of "stability".  On a political level, a government like China's regularly states that it imposes rules and laws for the sake of "stability".  As far as I'm concerned, this way of thinking is backwards.  It ultimately treats the country's people or the family's child as being lower and lesser, and incapable of deciding what's best for themselves.  And I'm not talking about a two-year-old toddler - I'm talking about teenagers, adults, and groups of mature people who can make their own decisions.  The real way of stability is the other way around, where the government listens to the people and the parent listens to the child.  It's just healthier that way.

Hopefully one of these days Asian culture will wake up and become more progressive.  We'll see.