Finding full length shows on youtube.

Today I stumbled upon a really great history of comic books in America, which I’ve seen before and is still awesome.  If you’ve got an hour and a half to watch/listen it’s a pretty fascinating look at the business and culture of comic books and also the culture surrounding comics, which have always been one of the best mirrors for society.

There’s also a show on the psychology of Batman and his villains which is a little shorter and pretty fun.

Both are from the History Channel.

I think I wrote the only review of ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ on the internet that didn’t name check Heath Ledger.

Seriously, the only one.

‘The Dark Knight Rises’ Midnight Show

The most anticipated movie of the summer doesn’t disappoint.  The scope of The Avengers was pretty incredible but somehow, the massiveness of TDKR feels even more impressive.  It doesn’t enter other dimensions like the hugely enjoyable Marvel film did.  Instead it utilizes real human people and very little computer animation.  It grounds the loud, comic-book action with real fire and explosions making each set piece stronger than it might have been if handled differently.

On the flip side, the direction was pretty disjointed and the editing sloppy at times.  It’s something you might not be likely to hear about because at the end of the day it feels inconsequential.  The movie is a big ol’ blast that covers a lot of ground and gives us some great surprises along with some fully satisfying not-so-surprises.  The call-backs to Batman Begins are different and exciting enough to not feel like re-treads of covered ground and it all moves along at a swift enough pace (not unlike The Dark Knight) so that we don’t even really notice when the story isn’t quite fluid.  

Is The Dark Knight Rises the movie we need?  Or the movie we deserve?  Nolan has said this will be his last Batman film but he has created something here that really warrants continuation.  What I want, is another one.