The Dark Knight Rises Gets Bigger with Batwing

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Batman Begins showed off the Tumbler.  When the Tumbler wrecked in The Dark Knight we got the Bat-pod.  Now the Dark Knight will take his chasing into the air with the Batwing.  Footage of the Dark Knight Rises shot in Pittsburgh has been all over the internet.  Recently, amateur footage of the film’s downtown shoot revealed a giant Batwing being used for a chase scene.  Anchored to the ground by a crane, it rolled down a street slowly, and then turned a corner.  With other footage showing Catwomen hanging out on the Bat-pod, it’s easy to assume Batman is flying the thing. This, in addition to leaked footage of a Heinz Field scene and a fight between Batman and Bane’s army has revealed the epic scale of the final Batman.  The trailer promised an ‘epic conclusion’, and it seems certain to deliver on that promise. 

Christopher Nolen has to pull all the exhilarating punches he can throw for this last film.  The Dark Knight Rises has to bigger than anything ever.  Plot and details aside, it’s bound to be. Heinz Field destruction is big.  Batman in the air is big.  It’s clear the action in The Dark Knight Rises is going to rise to a new level.  The anticipation for the film alone is unprecedented, and it’s release is barely less than a year away.               

Actually Scary Horror: The House of the Devil

I wouldn’t recommend the 2009 film The House of the Devil to everybody, but it’s a surprisingly great horror movie.  There’s a sequence in it where the main character dances alone in a strange house listening to The Fixx hit song “One Thing Leads to Another” on her portable tape player.  In the film it seems one bad decision just leads to another, until she’s trapped in what feels like the creepiest house on the planet.  The main character, college student Samantha, takes a one night babysitting gig for an old couple in the middle of the woods.  It also happens to be on the night of a full lunar eclipse.  She needs some fast cash in order to pay her first rent on her new apartment.  When she arrives at the house, the babysitting job doesn’t exactly turn out to be what she thought.  Samantha has to ‘babysit’ a reclusive elderly mother.  She takes the job anyway, even after her best friend urges her not to.  The situation, the house; they are all just too strange.         

To reveal anything past this point would spoil the fun of this truly dark horror movie.  The secrets of the house are what nightmares are made of.  Although calling this movie ‘fun’ would be a stretch.  Watching it is like an exercise in pure masochistic movie viewing.  You know things can only get worse and worse for our main character.  Director Ti West (who also wrote and edited it) knows that the impending doom, and suspense surrounding the house is what will truly frighten viewers, and it does.  The movie accomplishes what good horror movies should accomplish.  By the end you’re so frightened, scared, or plain old creeped out that you forget you’re just viewing a movie.  For most of House of the Devil, I was in awe of its filmmaking, and use of build-up suspense.  For about the last 20 minutes, I was legitimately frightened; I forgot I was watching a movie.  There are 3 moments that thoroughly made my body jump, and then one moment when I just wanted to faint.  I feel like a wimp.      

Our main character actually does faint at one point in the movie.  If you’re in a house you think might be haunted, whatever you do, try not to pass out.  The character of Samantha is perfectly naive.  She makes every ‘innocent girl in a horror movie’ mistake. 

1. If a one night $400 babysitting gig appears too true good to be true, then it’s too good to be true.
2. If the house is in the backwoods, middle of nowhere, you should drive your own vehicle.  Depending on a best friend to get you home is always a mistake.
3. If you find out the couple you’re babysitting for only needs one in order to view a lunar eclipse, you should probably bolt right away.  
4. Never open closed doors, peek in closets, or look behind shower curtains. (that should be obvious)       
5. Again, whatever you do, don’t pass out!

I was actually scared watching this movie.  Many horror movies these days promise to scare, but mainly only deliver laughs, mostly unintentional.   The film is a throwback to a different type of horror film; one where what is not seen is scarier than what is seen.  It even feels like a movie from way back.  It is set in the 1980’s, and is ripe with 80’s stylings and music.  The House of the Devil is astonishingly scary and astonishingly great filmmaking.   

2011: The Good and the Bad of Superhero Origin Stories

If there was ever a summer of origin story overload, 2011 is it.  We’ve already had Thor and X-Men: First Class, and Green Lantern and Captain America are coming soon.  So be ready, because we’ve also seen the good and the bad of origin stories.  Thor was a disappointment.  X-Men: First Class was a surprise.  On the surface, Thor could have been a cool movie.  A.) We have a superhero from another planet B.) Natalie Portman hot off her Academy award and C.) Anthony Hopkins is in it.  The opportunity to take advantage of the other-worldliness is lost.  The outer space painted in the film would be fit for a Saturday morning T.V. show.  The cheesiness is glaring on the big screen.  And then they made Thor look like a whining and weak son to his powerful father, played by Hopkins.  It’s sort of hard to root for a superhero when that superhero just acts like a spoiled d-bag.  And then there’s the villain, or what villain is more like it.  Oh yeah, it’s his angry brother or something.  Not that it matters, his only purpose is as set up for the epic battle at the end.  What epic battle?  Oh yeah, the one drowning is cheese-ball special effects that you probably won’t remember.  There’s also an Earth storyline, which I guess is for the purpose of witty one-liners, none of them memorable.  Thor is basically just going through the motions of origin superhero movie’s that came before it.  Not worth seeing. 

X-Men: First Class, on the other hand was actually kind of awesome.  Director Matthew Vaughn (Kickass) brings freshness to the franchise that was lacking.  After the last two X-Men films, adding another one would seem like a mistake.  Instead, First Class may be the best of the X-Men series.  A couple of things made it good.  1.) Great villains.  The main villain, played by Kevin Bacon, basically wants to take over the world.  Or destroy the world, he’d probably be fine with both.  Bad guys out for world domination are always gold if they’re in the right movie, and this is the right movie.  2.) Magneto is Bond-like.  His pursuit of his Nazi captor Sebastian Shaw (Bacon) has a slickness and coolness right out of a Bond film.  This early storyline could almost be its own film.  And the scenes have a gritty music background that only enhances them. 3.)  Great montage scenes.  There is an early montage that features Xavier and Magneto rounding up fellow mutants to join them.  A Wolverine cameo stands out, and gets a giant, well deserved laugh.  Then there is the montage of the mutants perfecting their powers.  It is the “first class” if you will.  This sort of training montage cumulates in Xavier helping Magneto find his inner strength.  Professor X might want to take that lesson back if he could.

The great thing about First Class is that we have heroes and villains who know where they stand, and what they’re fighting for.  And then there are characters like Magneto who seemingly tread the line between both.  The movie even has the guts to change the account of the Cuban missile crisis (don’t let Sarah Palin see this film!)  It makes sense, because superheroes have to fit into world events somehow.  Thor is a bore, while First Class is a thrill ride.  I guess origin stories can be either one.