Hello and Supercrapafuckarificexpalabullshit.

Hey there true believers!

The name's Will, another nerd breaking out into the big wide nerd world.  And plus, it's an exciting time to be a fan(atic), with the Marvel Phase 2 movies announced (seeing The Winter Soldier subtitle filled me with pure orgasmic joy.  Pure.), a gaggle of great video games on the way (ASS. CREED. III.) and TV as good as it's been in a while (Game of Thrones is a masterpiece of midget sex, violence, and nudity.  Also other people do those things too).

So let's jump right in: Chris Nolan's last Bat-flick opens on Friday (got my ticket!), and with hype levels rivaling The Avengers, expectations are high.  The Dark Knight was the only movie I had seen more than once in the theaters (before, oddly enough, The Avengers) and I was a big fan of the film as a piece of cinema...but not as a comic book movie.  Sure, it was engaging, riveting even, and Heath Ledger's Joker still stands, to me, as one of the greatest film villain performances of all time.  I've seen Burton's '89 Batman movie, and it would be a joke (no pun intended (no pun intended)) to compare the two.  But really, that's all the movie did for me.  The story was strong, the supporting cast was excellent, but Bale's Batman was just, frankly, wooden and boring, which is one of the reasons I dislike Batman Begins so very very much, aside from its patchwork plot and revolting batsuit (yes those things DO matter, thank you very much).

And according to early reviews, The Dark Knight Rises may suffer similar problems--a plot that's meandering at best and incomprehensible at worst.  Now don't get me wrong--stories often aren't a knock against my enjoyment of a movie, but on a film series that relies so much on the storytelling, this is a killing blow.

I'm also concerned with the sheer number of characters in this movie: Joseph Gordon Levitt as the new maybe Batman/Robin/Nightwing and we're adding (potentially) three new villains: Bane, Catwoman and Cotillard's Miranda Tate (read: Talia Al'Ghul).  Hhmmm...if I remember correctly, a certain Schumacher film had three villains, one of which was also Bane....





But somehow, I still am looking forward to this film.  Nolan is one of my favorite directors, and his Batmen have been really, really good, but still fatally flawed.  It seems a forgone conclusion that we're going to get none of the snappy pacing and economical filming style we get from the Marvel movies (two of the main reasons I LOVE THEM), with TDKR clocking in at butt-numbing 2 3/4 hours (ugh).

Well, I suppose all will be revealed on Friday, and I'll have a review up sooner rather than later.  But I guess it's saying something that I'm going to see The Avengers again on Saturday.