Movie Reviews & More

I can’t find the source of how this website was found, (www.whysoserious.com/personalityprofile) but if you now go to WhySoSerious.com, you can continue following the viral campaign for The Dark Knight by taking Joker’s personality profile.

As you can see, on the personality questionairre I scored a “Belly Buster”. I tried to answer all of Joker’s questions how I thought he wanted them answered, but I still few a number of notches short from the top.

The imagry for the Dark Knight movie is right on, just look at the style and the subject matter, such awesome ideas to get people involed and excited.

It was asked if anyone has gotten “A Scream” on the profile test, and if anything happens. I haven’t found anyone who has, and it appears right now as if this is just a fun test. So many other viral websites are popping up that it appears this is just one more cog in the whole campaign wheel that adds to the fun, not something you solved for an additional clue. Hence the “Send to a friend”. They want you to get other people interested in the Dark Knight movie to get involved in this hype.

I checked “Hollywood Chicago” earlier today, in what has been a regular checkup since last Saturday / Sunday. Usually they are good about breaking any news related to “The Dark Knight” viral campaigns.

The last viral campaign for the movie was “Rory’s Death Kiss.com”, a website dedicated to taking photos of Batman fans dressing up a Joker’s and taking photos of themselves all over the world. From group photos of Joker’s to single Joker’s, there were a ton of submissions, and a lot of them were really fun. The whole Dark Knight campaign was to end at 11:59 on November 17th, the last time anyone could submit a group Joker photo. So everyone anticipated that on the 18th, something new would happen. Well, I was up at Midnight, and there was a message on the website. Those Joker photos that were chosen as the best would be receiving something in the mail. Regular mail.

Today, I finally heard what that object was. It was a fully mocked up “Gotham Times” newspaper! How lucky for those Batman fans. I had thought about trying to submit something, and now I wish I had.

So, photos went online of the “Gotham Times” newspaper that the fans got, with a message saying that the new www.thegothamtimes.com website would go online today, November 23rd.

I just check five minutes ago, and it is now online. I should be doing something else, but I will be reading this 4 page Batman Dark Knight newspaper first! Viral marketing is awesome, this has taken some great creativity.

I am sure the main point of interest in the Batman themed newspaper is the next charge for those who have participated in the campaign up to this point. There is an ad in the newspaper that reads;

Correction
A classified ad in our last issue was incorrect. It should have read:

Charming, handsome man with dazzling smile seeks amateur clowns for discreet encounters. No previous sense of humor necessary. Criminal record a plus. Interested? Write to humanresources@whysoserious.com in the full understanding that we have your email address and might send you alarming, disturbing, or annoying material at any moment.

Hollywood Chicago reports when e-mailed, the following auto-reply message is returned:

See you found my little message. So, do you think you have what it takes to be a part of my circle of friends?

Are you a backstabbing, self-promoting, ambitious clown who will do anything to prove yourself to me?

If so, the first step of your application process awaits … if you know where to look.

In the style of the other websites, there is a tear you can pull back on the front page of the Gotham Times. It has a bunch of “Ha Ha’s” written underneath. Seems odd to me that there is only one Joker touch that I could find, but maybe that will come to light in the next couple of hours.

~Edit www.wearetheanswer.com is now online as well. The Gotham Knight newspaper mentioned this website, and it wasn’t online at all until the paper went online. The website is dedicated to Harvey Dent’s crusade to take back the corrupt Gotham Police Force, offering this website as a annoynomous website to submit your tips through.

Also now online, an IMAX featurette on The Dark Knight 7 minute prologue debuting in front of I Am Legend on December 7th.

~Edit - 2:20 I sent a letter to the email address for “Letters To The Editor” (letterstotheeditor@thegothamtimes.com), a section in the Gotham Times. Here is the automated response I got back;

Dear Contributor:

Thank you for submission. Although we cannot run all letters we receive, please be assured that we read all letters. If we do use your letter in an upcoming edition of The Gotham Times, we may edit it for space considerations. We appreciate your letters and hope that you will continue to submit to us. And thank you for your support of The Gotham Times.

Sincerely,

The Editors

I also sent a tip through the wearetheanswer.com website. I didn’t get the automated response back that was mentioned above. That is promising.

There will be some clues in the newspaper about the next campaign. I have noticed some asterisks above random letters that may spell some sort of Dark Knight themed message. Will I investigate it all? I doubt it. I am done time wise for now. It also could be some website being launched about Gina Tortericci. Who knows. I just know I want to be involved in the next viral thing, and not miss out like I did on dressing up like the Joker.

~Edit - 6:25 I did end up getting an answer from wearetheanswer.com. It was just a confirmation email to make sure that I wasn’t posing as someone I wasn’t. I tried to write some really creative things, alluding to former Batman artists and the facts that were presented in the paper. I imagine everyone will get a response either way, whether they were creative or not…

Since earlier in the afternoon, the dedicated individuals at Hollywood Chicago.com have uncovered (as I figured they would pick everything apart) a number of other website launches. They are;

• http://www.thehahahatimes.com
• http://www.gothamnationalbank.com
• http://www.gothampolice.com
• http://www.rememberinggina.org
• http://www.gothamcityhall.com (Under Construction Still)

I was right about the website about “Gina”, just couldn’t find the address. The best site is probably the Ha Ha Ha Times website, with is just a copy of the Gotham Times website, with Joker’s special touches:)

I read about 60% of the paper, but apparently missed the phone number, 866-237-6480. If you call it, I guess it just directs you to visit The Gotham Times website. I will have to try it later.

~Edit - 11/24 10:45 AM - Got an email back today from wearetheanswer.com Tips line. I had used a cop with the name “Bolland”, just for a test, as a tip to the well known Batman comic artist Brian Bolland. This is what I got back;

The District Attorney’s office is not aware of an officer by that name.

Please be assured that the Gotham City DA takes all information seriously and confidentially.

Thank you for doing your part in making Gotham City better, safer, stronger. Together, We Are The Answer.
Reply

Thanks to Matt! for the great tip on entering in the cops names from the Gotham Times at wearetheanswer.com, should have been obvious….I will have to try and see if I get the same message.

Late last week I had seen posts about Why So Serious.com pop up on my radar. If you remember, this is the website that has had a couple of different “Dark Knight” viral marketing campaigns.

The newest addition was a Joker Jack-o-latern, with a creepy grin and a burning candle. I visited the site and didn’t think too much of it.

But then, the Joker pumpkin’s candle kept burning further and further down, and it was obvious something was going to happen. What new inside bit would we see about The Dark Knight movie coming up.

Well, on Friday and over the weekend, the pumpkin started to rot! I know it sound stupid to get so excited, but for a Batman geek this is a big deal. All of us are excited about Christopher Nolan’s treatment of Batman, and all of the photos of the movie we have seen so far. We’ve already seen the joker, and Heath Ledger looks awesome. But what about an image of Aaron Eckhart as Two-Face?

Here are some progression images showing the original pumpkings, and then the pumpkin rotting on only one side. The pace of the changes makes it appears as if the final reveal will take place on Halloween. How cool, something for the geeky comic book legions to look forward to!

(I know this is mostly re-regurgitating information from a ton of blogs, like HollywoodChicago…but not all of my readers visit those sites:)

According to a couple of sources, including “Batman On Film”, the filming of The Dark Knight in Chicago has wrapped. They finished sometime in early September, don’t really have the time or the inclination to search for an exact date.

Kind of bummed. I had intentions to get up there to try to see something from afar, but the cost of gas kept me home. I will always probably be “I wish I would’ve”. I was kind of hoping to tie a trip to Chicago to try to catch Dark Knight filming with a couple of others things:) But they didn’t shoot long enough.

Well, now I guess I’ll just have to look forward to December for the trailer. It should be attached to Will Smith’s “I Am Legend”.

Were these leaked? Probably. It makes me a little sad to look at them, but I can’t hide my excitement either. I don’t want to have to wait until December to see something big.

~Edit - You can also view them at John Bierley’s Flickr page if Warner Bros starts taking them down from either site.

Who’s in it

Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Thomas Hayden Church, Topher Grace, Bryce Dallas Howard, James Franco, J.K. Simmons

Should you see this movie?

Maybe. That is what I will cautiously say. Right before I left, I read a couple reviews for the movie, with the critics being so-so on it. Most of the reviews said it was campy, and there was too much crying. Not phased by reviews usually, we went, and I will say that as a fan I was so out of my mind excited for the treatments for the villains. However, I thought the movie totally sucked through the middle and was completely campy, especially through that point, and, yes there was too much crying. That is the short review, now to pick it apart as the fan boy.

I knew going in, that the movie seemed to have a little much going on. Somehow the movie was going to accomplish these things;

• Continue the conflict between Peter Parker and Harry Osborn, where somehow Harry was going to be turning into a super villain
• Peter was going to try to ask Mary Jane to marry him
• Flint Marko was going to be established as the real killer of Peter’s Uncle Ben as well as turned into the Sandman
• Introduce Gwen Stacy, as a character and then a competitive love interest
• Introduce the symbiote suit from outerspace, what it does to Peter, and how he gets rid of it
• Introduce Eddie Brock, establish him as a character and then give him motivation to hate Spiderman
• Introduce Venom as a character
• Keep all of the small sub threads going simultaneously

Wow! What a lot of stuff. From what I read, the direction Sam Raimi was writing the new script with Sandman as the villain, and possibly someone else when Avi Arad came to him and told him he wasn’t listening to the fans, that the fans want to see Venom. I thought the plot made sense, and it flowed together fine, not like it was an afterthought. But I do think when you cover so much ground, lots of things get left on the table.

The first half of the movie is highly segmented. There is a short scene showing Harry Osborn stepping out of the chamber with the green smoke, and although you get that he is strong now and probably didn’t need to go into detail, it felt so quick and unnerving a little bit. It started to remind me of latter Bat-man’s, where the creation of a villain was whimsical, like there were no consequences for the villain themselves or those around them. They were just there to destroy the hero.

We did see the introduction of the symbiote. It comes down in a meteor from outerspace, and crawls onto Peter’s bike. I don’t mind that they needed to update this a little. Someone Peter needs to get it, and I don’t know what the best answer was here, but didn’t think it crawling onto Peter’s bike was the best solution. The Symbiote is attracted to aggression, there was none at the time, so you can’t even justify that as the reason it would crawl to the moped.

The scene above the city with Peter fighting Harry, you’ve seen it in the previews, but that doesn’t matter. Awesome! They did an awesome job, just like the rest of the action in the movie. High intensity, never before seen stunts, it will keep you mesmerized. For me, Harry Osborn’s treatment as a villain was logical. I never liked the Green Goblin treatment, so for this I put the comic geek in me aside and didn’t care about the Hobgoblin and his story. If Harry was to create a villainous identity, one on a hoverboard with a retractable mirrored mask makes sense.

There is a scene with an out of control crane on top of a building, that swings a beam into another building destroying a whole floor. Pretty cool idea, gives way for Spiderman to save Gwen Stacy. I loved the action of the falling pieces of the building and Spiderman dodging through them. I did notice Sam’s treatment of the falling debris as being his trademark, and a little weird. I also thought the CG on the exploding glass looked a little strange too.

Then, to continue the story, it gets into Peter’s room, and in one stormy night where Peter has strong aggressive feelings, it attaches itself to his costume. This didn’t bother me as much since now it was in the room. But, immediately they cut to Peter hanging from a building, talking to himself about the suit. Again, segmented, jarring, and stupid. Why don’t they explain this? Too much going on, and too little time of course. Or so I thought.

This is getting long, I’ll try to make these points shorter. The Sandman is created. The sign on the fence Flint Marko jumps says something to the effect, “Stay Out Text Particle Facility”. Seriously? They couldn’t have done that someway else? I also though the CG treatment of Marko initially after the accident didn’t look that great, looked kind of generic, and didn’t fit with the rest of the CG later in the movie. But no big deal.

The introduction scene of Marko as the Sandman, nice job, solid and interesting. The fighting scene between Spiderman and Sandman in the sewer - Awesome! The fact that Sandman can just particalize and float through the whole city on the wind, majorly stupid. I don’t care if this was comic book related or not, it seemed like an easy solution to how he would get through the city so quick, and it was a bad one.

Then comes the middle of the film. Raimi tries to establish that Peter is a bad guy now, talking back to people, doing things he may have thought of doing before, but didn’t have the guys. Talking back, treating people poorly, dressing in black and wearing a Good Charlotte Emo haircut. I get that the general audience doesn’t understand the suit, and you have to show the power it has, but seriously, snapping your fingers down the street and looking coyly at women. The singing and dancing in the bar? Was all of it necessary? I think you cut this section way down, and flesh out the other disjointed sections just a little more. The section of the movie was just as bad for me as sitting through the whole fourth Batman, I just cringed in my seat.

However, the scene with Peter fighting Harry as a badass, and throwing a bomb back at his face, very cool. Keep the action, this was the strong suit of the whole movie. All of it was top notch.

Finally, he hits Mary Jane, and we see, oh, the suit is bad for him. And, the movie hits a turning point, and sans all the cry baby crap in the end, the movie is the best of any of the any movie’s from here on out.

We see Peter get rid of the suit in an awesome CG scene, and Eddie Brock become Venom. The part where Venom meets Sandman and is crawling on the wall looks a little weird, but that is the only part. The news clips of Venom are frightening, and Eddie Brock’s face transformation, and the suit pulling back just looked amazing. I will say I had my reservations of a younger, thinned Brock. But it makes a lot of sense as “the evil Peter Parker”. Similar build, just didn’t have the moral core to handle power like Peter did. It is a more logical transition that having Eddie Brock be a middle aged body builder like he is in the comic. And, Topher Grace put on some 20 plus pounds for the part and whether or not they beefed him up in CG in the suit, or if it was all him, he was a good size I thought without being too crazy huge.

The whole end sequence. Amazing, Amazing, Amazing. Possibly the most amazing thing I have ever seen. How the did Venom, he was as scary as he should be, and acted just as he should. Loved the hanging taxi in the black webbing over the city, the enormity of the webbing was just fantastic.

The accumulation of the plot between Harry and Peter comes to a head here, and the general feel good audience member liked that Peter and Harry team up to fight the end two villains. Kind of sappy probably for a real comic geek, but something I liked to see, for the sequences if nothing else.

Sandman here in the end, you get to see why he is no two bit part villain. He is truly fearsome, and here in the end we are all glad there are two villains kicking the crap out of Peter. You can’t imagine Peter fighting The Sandman only as the final to the movie, and you can’t imagine him fighting Venom and Sandman without Harry’s help. To watch Sandman rise up over the city as this huge monster was just amazing, and to watch Harry throw bombs at him and turn him into glass, and then shatter pieces of him was really awesome too. How else do you really stop a man made of sand?

Venom, Venom, Venom. Loved it. They did an awesome scene in getting Brock out of the suit by banging hollow tubs on the ground, then sticking them into the cement in a ring around the symbiote. This whole section gave me goosebumps. The symbiote separates itself, but not before you see many a scene of Venom turning his head and screeching like a monster from hell. For writing this character in towards the end, they just couldn’t have done a better job.

Then the end, Brock is blown up with the symbiote, Harry dies saving Peter, and Sandman, cries and floats away on the wind. The crying by everyone, a little much, but probably needed for a main screen movie for the general public. It was the least of my worries in the parts I hated for this movie.

So, a terribly long review. But a lot to say. As you can see, for the geek in me, sometimes you have to sit through crap to see the good stuff, and the second half of the movie made all of the middle bad stuff worth it. As a comic fan, you have to see this movie! But you have to turn off the super geek and try to enjoy the big idea. The small plots and accuracies will tear you apart if you don’t. The general public, that is hard for me to say, and that is why I say maybe. I think you will be taken for a ride in the CG. Venom might scare you to the point of non-enjoyment, but I think for something so out there you have never seen before, you will get that satisfaction from this movie. It is also a nice close to the three movies if they were a trilogy, so I think for some of those plots, and especially the close to Peter’s relationship with Harry.

I think you should go see it, just know you will see it because you are invested in the story for the others, you want great special effects, but parts of it, you won’t like.

Who’s in it

Edward Norton, Jessica Biel, Paul Giamatti, Rufus Sewell

Should you see this movie?

Yes. Sarah thought this movie was predictable, and me being the usual “enjoyer I don’t think too much” at movies didn’t see anything happening before it did, therefore I was surprised. A story about a man that creates amazing illusions, kind of like magic but much more, and the woman he loves. They are childhood lovers but are separated by class, but are reunited later in their lives in different circumstances. The acting here is solid, nothing to win an Oscar for, but you really watch this for the ideas and the suspended belief in the truth of whether something is possible. I think most people may like this, unless you are trying to predict how it will end like Sarah, then pass on this. But truly a different and interesting movie set in an interesting period and place.

Who’s in it

Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Scarlett Johansson, Brian Cox

Should you see this movie?

No, skip it. I don’t know too much about Woody Allen as a director, and I shouldn’t have expected any less of this movie from the previews, but this movie is depressing, you hate the main character, and the story spirals out of control to the worst end possible. Meyers is this creepy, charming, driven young man who takes it all from the rich lifestyle, but has an affair with his brother in law’s ex fiancee. After she gets pregnant a chilling set of events happen that he miraculous survives, but has to live with the guilt. I watched the clock the whole time during this movie, and although Scarlett is good in the movie, attractive, the previews make it looks a little different. The subject matter isn’t something I would recommend to most, but you insist on seeing it for Scarlett, she is the only redeeming qualilty of the movie, unless you like twisted stories about affairs.