The Dark Knight

Great movie! I saw the midnight showing last night and I loved it. I'll probably go again sometime when I'm more awake.

This was a worthy successor to Batman Begins. Batman did what he does best. Heath Ledger was amazing as the Joker. He could have been in a sequel at some point if things in real life had turned out differently. Christian Bale was as good as ever. Switching out Katie Holmes for Maggie Gyllenhal wasn't as distracting as I thought it would be.

The movie starts off exactly where the previous one ends. Bruce Wayne is living in a penthouse in the city since Wayne manor is under construction. Instead of the Batcave we have some big Garage. The movie has much more that takes place during the day than the previous one. It was also grittier and more realistic in many ways than Batman Begins.

I'm trying to thing of anything negative about the movie, but I can't think of much. There's some cell phone stuff at the end that is kind of unbelievable, but I didn't think it really detracted from the movie. I guess that the only thing I could say disappointed me was the previews before the movie. Generally with a movie this hyped the previews seem to be tailored for the audience. The only preview I would say really fit that description was the one for "Terminator:Salvation".

Anyone who liked the first one should go see this movie. I give this two thumbs up, 4.5 out of five stars, my personal seal of approval, whatever measuring scale you want to use, it was good. What did you think of the movie?

Top 7 comics cameos I'd like to see in a movie

With the cameos that they've placed in the Iron Man and Incredible hulk, I started thinking about other cameos I'd like to see in future comic book movies.

1. Spider-man - I don't want to see Tobey Macguire getting screen time on the set of avengers (unless he's one of them of course), but any Marvel superhero movie set in New York could have Spidey just swing by in the background. Don't even have the camera focus on him, just something like you'd see out of the corner of your eye. The Marvel Universe is supposed to be all connected. (As an aside, if you haven't seen it yet check this out)
2. Superman - Same thing as above but for a DC movie. Just a blue/red streak flying overhead. Probably not in the Batman movies they're currently making, but if they ever get around to a Wonder Woman or Flash movie it would be awesome.
3. Punisher in a Spider-man Movie. Now they could probably make a great movie based on the concept - after all Punisher's first appearance was in a Spider-man comic book, but even just a cameo of a Punisher watching spidey swing away would add points to the movie in my mind.
4. Legion of Superheroes on Smallville. maybe not really a cameo (and not really a movie either), but it would be a great plot device.
5. Shocker - actually any lesser known villain, but if any of you have read Ultimate spider-man you know what I'm talking about. A movie generally has to concentrate on just one or two villians, otherwise you get camp like "Batman and Robin". It could be cool to have some more obscure or wimpy villian get owned in just a few seconds. This could be in any comic book movie sequel.
6. The Leader - I know, he was already in the latest hulk movie, but I'm hoping that he doesn't have a big part in the next movie. Just a shadowy figure thay we find out is observing and manipulating events that won't come to a head until a future sequel. Foreshadowing can be a good thing.
7. A skrull - in a Marvel movie it could start all kinds of hype and speculation if there were someone - just an extra maybe - who just flashed that familiar green face and chin for just a second.

So there you have it, my top 7 cameos. Who did I miss? is there anything that you would change?

The Incredible Hulk

OK, so I just went to see The Incredible Hulk. Good movie. I'm glad that Marvel finally decided to make their own movies. Iron man was Excellent and Hulk is more like I'm used to in comics.
So here's what I liked and didn't like about the movie.

Liked:

• References to the old TV show - Both Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno had a cameo in the movie. How can that be when Bixby has passed away you asked. They briefly used some TV footage for a scene when Banner (Ed Norton) is flipping through the channels. Ferrigno was a security guard just like in the 2003 movie. The other awesome TV reference is that at one point they used the "lonely man" song from the TV show as part of the score of this movie. I love the nods to the history of the character - as long as they're subtle.
• Hulk Smash - yes, this is the comic and cartoon hulk. The one that you have to willingly suspend your disbelief for. Oh, and in reference to nod's to history look for some things that they got from the game "Hulk - Ultimate Destruction". Hulk smash indeed.
• Ed Norton - Norton did a great job as Banner. He was believable as a guy on the run, you believed his pain at seeing Betty with another guy. The best thing about it was that you could buy that he was just some scrawny scientist before his world went down the drain. Other people who have done banner just didn't have that scrawny look. Bana looked like he'd done some working out. Bixby looked like an ordinary guy, but still not the geeky scientist with the troubled past we get in the comics.
• Avengers - that's right, just like with Iron Man we get some great teasers of things to come. Including a cameo from Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark.
• Dynamic protagonist - Banner's relationship with himself as the hulk changes somewhat as the film goes on. I'm looking forward to a hulk film that has some of the other incarnations of the hulk, in addition to the ever popular raging Hulk.
  

Didn't like:

• Origin story - Yeah I know that it isn't really believable for a man to survive a nuclear blast and turn into a big green guy, but there's just something poetic about the Hulk being born in an explosion. After all, he's portrayed as a walking bomb waiting to happen. I never did like the whole medical experiment thing, even back with the tv show. Give me my Gamma Bomb Hulk.
• Teaser shots. Some of the material shown in the teasers, such as the conversation between Banner and Leonard Sampson were absent in the movie. In fact I didn't see much use of the Sampson character at all other than as a nod to comics.
• Abomination - yeah, I liked the character, I liked the fights, but I didn't really see the need to change his appearance. I want things to stay true to the source material whenever possible. It's a small thing though, like the movie Spider-man's organic webshooters.

Overall I liked it. At the end of the movie it seemed that it had gone to quickly. I never felt like I was waiting for it to end. I think marvel learned some good lessons from the 2003 movie. One thing left to say - Bring on the sequels and tie-ins!