Best Shows of 2022

Best New Shows of 2022

5. Our Flag Means Death (HBO Max)

4. Peacemaker (HBO Max)

3. The Rehearsal (HBO)

2. House of the Dragon (HBO)

1. Andor (Disney+)

Best Finished Shows of 2022

5. Ms. Marvel (Disney+)

4. Animal Kingdom (TNT)

3. Westworld (HBO)

2. Tuca & Bertie (Adult Swim)

1. Better Call Saul (AMC)

Best Movies of 2021

10. Those Who Wish Me Dead

9. The Matrix Resurrections

8. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

7. The Suicide Squad

6. Spider-Man: No Way Home

5. Luca

4. Dune

3. Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

2. Judas and the Black Messiah

1. No Sudden Move

Batman: The Killing Joke

The Killing Joke is possibly the most famous Joker story ever printed, and was an influence on both Heath Ledger's performance and the recent video game. It was published over twenty years ago, but still works today as an interesting look at a truly deranged character, especially after artist Brian Bolland went back and recolored it to match the right mood for the story (i.e., not bright reds and oranges). The deluxe edition features bonuses like an introduction by Tim Sale and glimpses of test drawings, but the focus is obviously on the comic itself. It's a pretty short story, only the length of about two normal issues. Still, it manages to do quite a lot.

It explores the strange relationship between Batman and his greatest nemesis, a possible origin story for him (while still making it clear this is only one of many possible reasons why the most insane man ever is the way he is), and changes the character of Barbara Gordon forever. It's impressive how Alan Moore can craft such a disturbing tale without really going beyond what's acceptable in a comic that kids might be allowed to read, as the psychological torture he places his enemies in is as brutal as any normal violent act he could want to perform. It didn't totally amaze me or anything, but it was part of the late 80s transition for Batman into something more serious and interesting than the campy old TV show or even Tim Burton's film adaptation, which was partway there but still too Burtony to really work for me. It's thanks to books like this that we have the great stuff we've seen from the franchise in recent years, and for that I'm glad it was made.

Watchmen

Much like 300, Watchmen is Zack Snyder's faithful take on one of a comic book icon's original stories; in this case, the most celebrated and influential graphic novel of the last 25 years. Obvious comparisons aside though, despite sharing some similar flaws, it's a more involved and interesting story, and he does a pretty solid job telling it. The movie is far from a perfect adaptation, although it's pretty legitimate to say that a lot of the reasons for that stem from the very nature of the comic itself. It's simply not structured like a film. It was originally released as a series of twelve issues, and several of them focus on a single character's background instead of really advancing the central plot forward. A truer translation would have been a miniseries instead of a theatrical release. But there's probably no way you get them to do that with a large enough budget to really pull off the story, and a compromise like this is the best we can really hope for. The script probably could have used a bit of tweaking to account for the different way a movie would flow, but except for a few segments to explain character that almost completely halt momentum, it worked out.

There are a few things that can be blamed on less than amazing filmmaking, though. It's clear from his comic work and Dawn of the Dead that Snyder does not have an ounce of subtlety in his being. The comic certainly didn't shy away from violence, being fairly grisly in places, but there's a difference between a panel showing something and a film lingering on it for several seconds. The fights are far crazier, and while I thought the choreography was actually pretty good and don't mind the speed ramping effect nearly as much as a lot of people, it was a big feeling of cognitive dissonance to see the heroes kicking people across rooms when the whole point of the story seemed to be about the fact that (except for Dr. Manhattan) these were just normal people who fought crime in costume for a living. I didn't mind a slight increase in vulgarity, but one of the sex scenes was really over the top too, not aided by the absurd choice in music. It wasn't the only occurrence of this either, with a lot of the choices either being too obvious or just seeming out of place with what was happening. I would have preferred an original score most of the time.

Not that the movie was all bad. I thought the entire relationship between the second Nite Owl and Silk Spectre was pretty laughable, and Veidt was pretty horribly miscast, but other than that the main cast did solid work despite there not being a big name among them, and in places excellent. Jackie Earle Haley's performance as Rorschach was 100% spot on, and just like in the comic, he easily stood out as the best character. It was very interesting to see the audience react more and more favorably to him as his actions become more and more psychotic. The Comedian also worked very well, and Carla Gugino was nice to see again even though most of the time she was covered in crappy "old person" makeup. There were a few other issues with makeup actually, especially the film's version of Richard Nixon, which was too comically out of place to take any of his scenes seriously. The changed ending actually seemed to work better within the existing plot and definitely would go over with a normal audience better, so I didn't mind that change terribly. All the little changes, missteps, and successes added up to a very long and divisive film, one that in general I liked but wasn't completely satisfied with. Still, an interesting experiment.

Batman Begins

I haven't been posting lately, mostly because I've been rewatching some old movies. No reason I can't talk about them, though.

Somewhere in between its release in 2005 and seeing The Dark Knight, I forgot that the first Christopher Nolan-directed Batman movie was as good as it was. I still think Knight's better, but Begins is damn solid in its own right. What's impressive is how he manages to make films that capture the coolness of Batman and comic books in general without having particularly good action scenes. They're a big part of what makes the Spider-Man movies (at least the first two) great, which is the only super hero movie franchise I've enjoyed on the same level as the revived Batman, and usually what carries action movies in general, but they really aren't what makes Batman good. Sure, the fights are there, but they're pretty poorly filmed; lit too dimly, shot too close, and cut too fast. This is partly a stylistic choice to make Batman more secretive and menacing, but it doesn't make for particularly entertaining sequences. Both movies have had decent car chases, but it's really the characters that drive the show, and that's what makes them so much better than the other riffraff.

When Begins came out, origin stories were all the rage, and they still are to some extent, it's just that more properties are already established. A good origin story can be very compelling, the problem is they end up being similar and you can only see a guy accidentally gain powers and adapt to it over the course of an hour so many times before it gets boring. But that's what makes Begins interesting; not only is it a story we haven't heard before, it's one about a character's motives, not the magic MacGuffin that turns him into a freak. (Note: I intentionally misused the movie term "MacGuffin" here, because the next several films I'll be talking about are directed by a man who has no idea what it actually means. Guess who it is!) Showing Bruce Wayne's slow transition into Batman, one he makes because he comes to feel a true need to help people and not because he's strong enough to throw trucks now, is a truly interesting one, and then we get to the second half, which is a pretty darn good crime story besides the somewhat ludicrous doomsday device. The cast is obscenely good, with nearly every significant part played by a well-known talent, and despite the hate she got I think even Katie Holms was competent. Liam Neeson plays a good mentor, but he shows here that he can do other things as well. Besides the fights, the film's only failing in my eyes are the attempts at humor later on, which seem somehow more frequent as the drama builds and usually fall flat. Gordon's racing to get into place with the new Batmobile and stop the bad guys from destroying the whole city, do we really need a cutaway to a random bum telling him he likes his car? In any case, it's not perfect, but it's exactly the reboot Batman needed to fit into this era of a more serious super hero.

The Dark Knight

Batman Begins was one of the better releases in the now quite popular comic book/super hero movement in modern action movies, although it wasn't perfect. The Dark Knight isn't either, of course, but it is probably the best comic book movie I've ever seen. I'd be lying if I said a big part of that wasn't Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker, but the movie wasn't one-note either, as it excelled in most areas. A problem with Begins was the action scenes themselves. The movie completely captured the grittier, darker mood that the Batman franchise took in the 80's, but when people were getting violent it often got confusing because darkness and the trendy shaky camera conspired to muddle what was actually happening. The Dark Knight still isn't perfect, but it's generally easier to see what Batman's doing as he pounds faces in. There are some excellent vehicle sequences as well, which were amplified in intensity by the great and incredibly loud sound design, with my seat in the theater actually rumbling when huge trucks were barreling around. It's not restricted to loud moments - there are plenty of times, usually involving the Joker, where it's impressive how well they got across the characters sickly violent nature without ever breaking the PG-13 rating.

Most of that though is all Ledger - the guy really dove into the character and created one of the most unnerving performances I've ever seen. Every tick, every line shows you the depth of his psychosis. Although I thought it was more impressive, the job he did really shouldn't be compared to Jack Nicholson's in the 1989 film, because they're very different. Nicholson's Joker was perverse and hilarious, Ledger's is just perverse. There are times when he will make you laugh, but that isn't really the goal. I haven't seen any of his other work, but his passing is truly unfortunate. He had quite a talent that we won't have seen enough of. Not that he was the only good member of the cast. Bale's Batman voice is still a little weird, but he does a good job of handling both ends of the character. I haven't seen Eckhart do much serious stuff, but he is great portraying the downfall of Harvey Dent. Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, and Michael Caine don't stretch their talents that far but are solid playing familiar characters. I don't like how they had to recast Maggie Gyllenhaal in Katie Holmes' old role, but she probably does a better job than Katie would have. Nolan really impressed me with Memento, and whether he does another Batman or moves on, he's one of the more talented directors working right now. There were some surprises with how he handled all the different characters, but I thought they did a great job keeping everything in check and entertaining.

Watchmen

I've heard from almost everyone that Watchmen is superb, the pinnacle of comics as a medium, a work of art, except for one person whose opinion I respect, although he doesn't exactly appreciate the medium at all, so I took that with a grain of salt. My previous experience with Alan Moore was familiarity with V for Vendetta from seeing the movie (which he unjustly hated) and reading some of the book, with The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen from seeing the movie (which he also hated, considerably more justly), and with the fact that he looks like a psychopath who lives in the woods. With all of these conceptions jammed into my brain, I jumped into Watchmen, and proceeded to thoroughly enjoy, although not completely love most of it.

It's certainly not a normal comic, concerned more with developing its unique characters than setting up elaborate fight scenes. Throughout the entire twelve issue run, I can think of only one instance where large amounts of space were used only to visually express a scene, and that was at a point of great impact in the story. It's very dense with dialogue and information, although they do a good job of revealing things without just spelling it out the whole time or getting too expository. Each issue (or "chapter") except for the last ends with four pages of almost entirely text that enhances the story, consisting of documents or something that were written by characters within the fiction. While sometimes enlightening, I found these portions to be a little boring and sometimes only skimmed them if I was anxious to get back to the narrative.

The story has its twists and turns, and to be honest, what turns out to be the actual truth behind it all is quite a bit stranger than I was expecting. It all works fine, it's just weird. The focus is a bit less on plot though than it is on the characters, with Rorschach, Dr. Manhattan, and Silk Spectre II getting the most focus, although the Comedian is quite vital despite being dead at the very beginning. Rorschach is my personal favorite, which I think is true for most fans of the book. With Bioshock's success, objectivism has seen more attention in pop culture lately, but Rorschach was all about that years ago. He believes absolutely in his values and will do anything to uphold them. In addition to strong writing, the book is also quite interesting visually, not just because of the solid art, but the creative ways they transition between scenes and into flashbacks, that sort of thing. It's a good blueprint for a film adaptation, and they're filming one right now, with 300 director Zack Snyder at the helm. I'll be looking forward to how that comes out, although I'm sure Moore will hate that too.