Nerd Rating

Category: Media

  • New Hobbit Posters Give Every Character A Chance To Shine

    Seventeen New Posters For Us To Enjoy.

    The Hobbit is fast approaching an we are now in the full fledged marketing blitz. Today has seen the release of character posters for every major player in Peter Jackson’s return to Middle Earth. Leave it to The Hobbit and go big over every other movie and release seventeen posters at once. It makes Harry Potter look like an indie film. Take a look below and let us know which are your favorites.

    I am personally going with Dwalin. And why does Thorin look like he has joined the Night’s Watch?

    The Hobbit releases on December 14th.

     

     

  • Review: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 1 (Blu-Ray)

    Can This Animated Film Stay Faithful To Frank Miller’s Legendary Work?

    To say that adapting The Dark Knight Returns is a daunting task may be an understatement. Frank Miller’s 1986 classic is considered by most to be one of the greatest Batman graphic novels (along with Miller’s own Batman: Year One and Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke) ever published. DC Animated has already adapted Year One and did a good job of it but The Dark Knight Returns is a different beast. The “futuristic” dystopian feel of a Gotham fallen back into a state of hopelessness ten years removed from the last sighting of Batman has such an identity in the comic as well as involving a group of Batman’s and DC’s most iconic figures you begin to think that this could become a lost endeavor before you begin to watch.

    The movie opens just as the comic does with Bruce Wayne involved in a horrific wreck while racing F-1 cars in Gotham and right off the bat I am thrown off by the lack of internal monologue. It plays such a huge role in Miller’s work that it will take a few minutes to get past the exclusion of it especially if you know a lot of the source material by heart. But after a few minutes you become involved with the story that you know so well that it becomes an afterthought.

    As Commissioner Gordon prepares for his retirement, Gotham is being overrun with a string of murders, rapes, kidnappings and robberies by a gang known as the Mutants. Their leader broadcasts their hatred for the law and that the will kill Gordon and take the city. Thankfully for the purists the Mutant gang’s weird speech type has been left in tact as well as their distinct look.

    The smartest thing that DC did was to split this feature into two parts. The story is such a large event that it would have felt bastardized trying to fit it into 75 minutes. Even with two parts there is still so much story to digest in part one. Harvey Dent’s release from Arkham with a new face and new lease on life that doesn’t last that long, Carrie Kelly taking it upon herself to pick up the mantle of Robin and prove herself to the returning Batman, all of the interspersed news coverage showing the political and cultural overtones of Batman and what he represents to society and the caped crusader’s pair of fights with the hulking Mutant leader. It is all handled well in the movie with a few slight changes to the story that are subtle and only will be noticed by avid fans but none of them really had me cursing at the screen yelling ” YOU RUINED IT!”

    The animation is on par with every other DC release over the past few years. It’s mostly clean looking but sometimes feels like a little more care could have been given to it. I was excited to see what they could do with the look of Gotham considering the source material but was left feeling disappointed when it looked like a mostly bland city instead of the dirty, neon filled streets from Klaus Janson’s art style. The look of the characters is mostly intact with the only noticable difference being how young The Joker looks when you finally see him full frame at the end of the movie.

    The voice cast is good, not great. Gordon’s light undertone voice takes a few minutes to get used to but Carrie and the Mutant leader are pretty close to how I imagined when reading the graphic novel. Robocop himself Peter Weller has the opportunity to voice Batman and it is a mixed bag. During some scenes he seems to just be reading lines as Peter Weller, with no inflection or emotion at all but then will deliver one of the classic lines from the story and have you thinking “so that’s why they hired him”. Don’t worry Kevin Conroy, you still have nothing to worry about.

    A few minutes into the movie I was beginning to wonder if this movie could attain the lofty goals it set for itself by taking on such a beloved and legendary work. But the more I watched, the more I became engrossed in the story that I have read time and time again and by the time Batman gives his “This isn’t a mud pit. It’s a operating table” line near the end of the movie I was sold that despite a few missteps the animated department at DC took a chance and it paid off with a good feature that does have me looking forward to the second part.

    Well that and wanting to see an old Batman completely kick the s*** out of Superman.

    Nerd Rating: 8/10

     

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  • Review: Dredd

    Karl Urban Brings New Life To The Man Of The Law

    Dredd_Movie_Wallpaper_hd

    First off let’s go ahead and get the blasphemy out of the way. I liked Sylvester Stallone’s Judge Dredd. It is a guilty pleasure for me. Like Demolition Man or Cobra, it was a big dumb action movie that promised a lot of explosions and Stallone overacting and it’s exactly what you got. It doesn’t apologize for it’s shallowness and it really doesn’t need to for an action movie. Now that we have that out of the way how does the 2012 version stand up to the mostly reviled 1995 flick? Dredd takes it’s predecessor out back and judges it guilty then puts one clean in the head.

    The judges are the police force in Mega City One, a massive concrete jungle with a population of almost a billion people. After a brief introduction to Judge Dredd complete with motorcycle chase and harsh judgment of a trio of criminals, Dredd is called back to the Hall of Justice where he is given a rookie to give his assessment on in the field. But this rookie is unlike any others because she is a psychic and despite being on the low end of testing is believed to be worth a badge because of her abilities. The two go to investigate a murder call at Peachtrees which is a “megablock”, a huge building that houses thousands of people and here is where you spend the rest of the movie.

    Dredd Hard?

    Peachtrees is under control of Ma Ma, a woman who controls the manufacturing of the newest hit drug on the street known as Slow-Mo. Not wanting to let the judges leave nice and quietly Ma Ma has the building locked down and sends all of her men hunting after them. One of the reasons Dredd works is that it keeps the action confined to enclosed spaces. In essence, it goes Die Hard with the action. Dredd and his partner are on a track to mow through every criminal from floor one all the way to two hundred. If this movie had tried to be a spawling sci-fi, futuristic epic it would have lost some of it’s appeal.

    I think I would define the shootouts in the film as beautifully gory. Blood flows freely and often complete with exploding heads and visceral slow motion bullet piercings. It easily earns it’s R rating and some folks may find it gratuitous but I felt it holds true to the character’s comic roots. Anything less would have seemed like a cop out by the film makers and thankfully there were no compromises made.

    One problem many had with the Stallone version was he spent half the movie sans helmet in an attempt to humanize Judge Dredd. Karl Urban had gone on record while they were filming that you would never and should never see Dredd without his headwear and they have stuck to their guns here. All you see is a black visor and Urban’s grisled mug scowling the whole movie. Urban, over the past ten years has carved a niche by taking over roles and making them completely his. From Eomer in The Lord of the Rings to his amazing turn as Dr. McCoy in Star Trek and even to lesser extent as “Reaper” in Doom and now with Dredd Urban keeps adding to his bada** character profile. Hearing him say “I am the law” should put a devilish smile on any fans face.

    Dredd-1

    Olivia Thirlby plays Dredd’s rookie psychic partner Anderson with an emotional strength that shows a few cracks but never breaks and Lena Headey is almost unrecognizable as the scarred up drug queen Ma Ma. Past that the rest of the cast should be filed under gun fodder, simply there for our twisted viewing pleasure.

    Dredd is a dirty, bloody and borderline NC-17 violent movie that keeps the spirit of the almost 40 year old character alive and well. Fans of the character, comics in general and utter gruesome violence should go and see this. And see it quickly.

    Nerd Rating- 8.5/10

  • Review: The Dark Knight Rises

     

    Let’s just go ahead and answer everyone’s question right up front. Is The Dark Knight Rises better than The Dark Knight? No it is not. But that in no way is a negative judgment against Christopher Nolan’s last Batman adventure. Not a lot could top The Dark Knight. It was a force of nature four years ago and still is today upon repeated viewings, so if you go into the theater expecting a better movie you may leave a little disappointed. What you will get is a long, ambitious epic that puts a perfect cap on Nolan’s Bat trilogy.

     

    It has been eight long years since Harvey Dent went a bit on the crazy side and tried to kill Jim Gordon’s family while Batman took the fall for the fallout so that the city could hold up Dent as their savior and use his death to pass an act that has cleaned up the city. With major crime effectively under control Bruce Wayne has retired from being the Caped Crusader to become a recluse who nurses his battle wounds and lives in regret over the death of his love, Rachel Dawes.

     

    But like with any hero Bruce cannot escape his need (or want) for Gotham to have the Batman again. When he is robbed by a lovely cat burglar named Selina Kyle, played very capably by the scene chewing Anne Hathaway, he begins to slowly come out of his shell eventually getting back into the cape and cowl despite his butler Alfred’s insistence that he should stay away.

     

    As happenstance would have it, the return of Batman comes about at the same time a new big bad known as Bane is setting his master plan in motion to take over Gotham and complete Ra’s Al Ghul’s vision. Bane is viciously played by Tom Hardy who is not as scene stealing as Heath Ledger’s Joker but is much more of a physical threat to Batman. This is one thing that helped the movie immensely. While Batman Begins had Ra’s and Scarecrow and The Dark Knight has the Clown Prince of Crime, none really seemed like Batman’s physical superior. That is not the case here. Bane is a physical specimen and much more dangerously is just as smart as he is strong.  If you are read up on Bane’s history in the Bat universe then you know basically what is coming about halfway through the movie but the event is still powerful and brutal.

     

    I really had no problem understanding Hardy’s unique voice during the movie. With stories floating around since last December about his performance being lost in the muffled voice behind the mask I had a few concerns going in but it looks like Nolan did heed advice and clear up Bane’s dialogue which is great because Hardy’s nuanced performance adds so much to the story. It’s not just the voice (which yes does sound like Goldfinger) but the emotions he is able to convey with his eyes and body motions that complete the character.

     

    Now don’t get me wrong the movie is not without flaws. But most of them are so small that they don’t merit mentioning but one that I do want to mention is Gary Oldman’s Jim Gordon. He has plenty to do in this movie but after having him be such an integral part of The Dark Knight he does seem to get lost in the shuffle of the massive story and the number of characters that are given screen time. Oldman is still wonderful in his scenes but Gordon had much more of a meaningful role in The Dark Knight.

     

    Everyone else on the roster has brought their A-game as you would expect. Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s John Blake does not seem like a thrown in character. Much of the first half of the movie is from his perspective yet it feels completely at home in the Nolan Bat-verse. Morgan Freeman is his usual witty self and Michael Caine puts an exclamation point on the statement that he his the best version of Alfred ever, comics or film. Seriously, dude had me tearing up in two scenes. In a Batman movie.

     

    This is a big, robust movie that is like most of Nolan’s work. It gets so big with so much at stake that you feel that it may collapse on itself but in the hands of a great director it transcends just being another Batman story and speaks on many levels including political unrest, the loss of hope and how anyone can become more than a man.

     

    Where The Dark Knight felt as a stand alone movie this feels like a companion piece to Batman Begins while also bridging every character from all three films. It succeeds in bringing to a close the greatest super hero trilogy ever and avoids the pitfalls of most third films (see Godfather, Spider-Man) by giving a true emotional payoff for the characters that we have been investing ourselves in since the summer of 2005.

     

    When I look back I would probably say that The Avengers is still the greatest comic book movie ever made but The Dark Knight Rises may be the better movie.

     

    NERD RATING- 9/10