Seen for the First Time

• The Big Lebowski – I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t this. It should have been funny, but was just tedious.
• Slumdog Millionaire – Fascinating, both in its exploration of poverty in India and in the theme of showing how seemingly small and unrelated events can all contribute to someone’s future.
• Superman/Batman: Public Enemies – Had its moments, but overall was pretty much a standard superhero film.
• Clerks 2 – Kevin Smith seems to hit about 50/50 with me. I loved the first Clerks, hated Mallrats (except for the “Jedi Mind Trick” payoff), liked Chasing Amy and Dogma, but Jay and Silent Bob was mostly annoying (though it had its moments). Clerks 2 was mostly gross-out humor wrapped around a Broken Aesop in which the happy ending is for the indecisive guy to let the a—hole make his decisions for him.
• Battlestar Galactica: The Plan – They did a decent job of trying to pull together a consistent story from elements that were originally unconnected, but it still ended up playing too much like a clip show — especially the segments in the Colonial fleet. The segments on Caprica worked much better, though I did find it interesting that they re-cast the Cylon infiltrators as a tiny, isolated guerrilla force rather than the tip of an iceberg of espionage. It relied way too much on the audience remembering what happened in the series.
• Liar, Liar – Pretty much what I remember from the previews, except longer. Funny. Worth seeing at least once.
• Synecdoche, New York – A metafictional examination of living life vs. imitating it that doesn’t quite live up to the scope of its ambition…but then, part of the point of the movie is that it can’t. (Note: not a good choice for watching while eating.)
• Evil Dead 2 – Nice camera work, but I’m not a horror fan. Also, this makes absolutely no sense as a sequel, but works just fine as a remake. You can explain Ash’s actions at the beginning with evil-enforced amnesia, but the timeline with the professor’s discovery of the book just doesn’t mesh with the first movie. I posted some thoughts on Army of Darkness last week.

Rewatched

• Up – Second time, watched in a second-run theater. Holds up, even without 3D. Bring tissue.
• Batman & Mr. Freeze: Subzero – still a better Mr. Freeze movie than Batman And Robin. Not that it would be hard.
• Coraline – Third time, but first time on small screen or in 2D. Still works, though of course not nearly as impressive visually. Still, great animation & story. Kind of like Up in that way.
• Conan the Destroyer – The first movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger was very good and holds up well almost three decades later. This one was almost self-parody.

“Obviously, he’s a ta’veren!” Katie said. I laughed for a second, but then remembered an interview I’d read about Infinite Crisis. It actually fits.

Ta’veren is a term from Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time that refers to a person who forms a focal point for history (or, from another perspective, destiny). Threads of probability bend around them, and the unlikely becomes likely. Babylon 5 referred to the concept as a nexus. “You turn one way, and the whole world has a tendency to go the same way.”

Well, just before Infinite Crisis #1 hit the stands, Newsarama did an interview with Dan DiDio:

NRAMA: …Back towards the build-up a little – a seed that has been sown and is fully bearing fruit now – when Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman aren’t on the same page…can you explain a little of the ripple effects and resultant instability of the DCU? Are there specific events that can be pointed to because the three weren’t standing strong, that allowed the villains of Infinite Crisis to gain a foothold where they wouldn’t have had one, previously?

DD: That’s a big “wait and see” since it’s a big part of the story.

NRAMA: Do the three realize that they are the root of the current instability?

DD: At the start of the story, no. They do not realize how much their problems are affecting the heroes around them.

This aspect of the story forms a key scene in issue #1, in which the DC Trinity are standing in the ruins of the JLA’s watchtower and arguing over who and what is at fault. Yes, the three most important characters in DCs pantheon, not trying to battle the chaos besetting the world, but arguing. And the world sinks further into madness.

It seems that in some ways Infinite Crisis, like The Wheel of Time, is about a trio of ta’veren facing the end of the world.

(via Cognitive Dissonance)

Tonight’s premiere of Batman Begins marks the sixth in the series. And that’s only counting the “modern” era of Batman flicks, dating from 1989’s Batman from director Tim Burton.

Sixth? Are they including the cartoon Batman: Mask of the Phantasm? If so, why not Batman: Sub-Zero? (Curiously, the table on page two only indicates five Batman films.)

And where do they get four Lord of the Rings films? I suppose they could be counting the Bakshi cartoon, but what about the Rankin-Bass Return of the King and The Hobbit.

Where are they getting their numbers?