The Dark Knight Falls Short: Batman

I am a fan of Batman, but it seems that every movie, besides Tim Burtons Batman movies, borderline on tolerable viewing. The last three Batman movies did one thing right. Keeping it dark and serious where most of all the preceding Batman movies went for a more colorful and comic book type approach. But the movies were peppered with inconsistencies, over acting on Batman's part, and situations of extreme convenient coincidences. The type of coincidences that leave you immediately saying out loud, "oh really? that just happened to happen that way?" Take the Dark Knight Rises early scene when Gordon gets captured in the sewer. Number one, the commissioner isn't leading a team of rookies into the sewer anyway. And when Robin takes off, you kind of assume that maybe he is going to another manhole cover to try and rescue Gordon. Gordon is taken to Bane and rolls into the flowing sewer stream that could take him ANYWHERE. One of Bane's henchman even states that, too Bane. But never fear, when Robin took off earlier, he ran straight to the location Gordon just so happened to wash up, because his Robin senses had a feeling that Gordon didn't die in the explosion in the sewer, but would probably be taken to a villain who would have set up camp next to a spill way that Gordon would obviously use in an escape and lead him to the exact spot he was found...What a butt load of Crappy Coincidence. Like I said, a moment when you can't help but say, "Really!?!" And, I am just getting started. 

Ever notice that when major characters get into trouble, Batman conveniently is all over it. Sometimes showing up in multiple areas within minutes, navigating the entire city of Gotham? Damn he's good, except he always has trouble finding that villain. Which brings me to my next Peeve on the Dark Knight Rises movie. A series of events that was so poorly constructed, I was up half the night pondering it, which led to this review. Allow me to set it up for you. 

The Crap starts when Bane captures Fox and Miranda at the Wayne building. They go to the bomb, then Bane apparently lets them go. I say apparently because later, Bane re-captures Fox AT THE WAYNE BUILDING. And, Bane seems surprised that so many people would have been there. Why? The city is capturing upper class people, Wayne building would probably be a good place to start. And why let Fox go in the first place, just to catch him again? It is here that Fox also told the Special Forces guy that they had 23 days. Scene before that, it was said that the cops been trapped for only 3 months. 3 months and 23 days does not add up to 5 months. Whats more annoying is Bruce hasn't escaped yet. So we can only assume that he has less than 23 days when he does escape to travel his happy ass all the way back to Gotham. We do not know exactly where Hell on Earth is, but Alfred said it was in an ancient land, so we can assume it is far. Not implausible Bruce made it all the way to Gotham in time, but they decided to leave out how he managed to get into Gotham and, oh yeah, just so happened to know exactly where Selena would be. Here is where things really get F'd up. 

Miranda is captured with Gordon and both are taken to City Hall where Fox is. (when Gordon is being exiled, notice they are in the back of the room, NO PILLARS. When Bane asks for Miranda, Gordon's crew is more in the middle, and a Pillar magically appears to give Bane something to lean on) Bruce is captured and taken to Miranda and Fox. Bane's henchman know Bruce is the Batman. Bane calls him out in front of everyone right before he kicked his butt. But anyway, they talk, and Bruce looks right at Miranda and says, I wont forget about you. No more than a few hours later, Batman rescue's Gordon, at this point, between the 2 of them, Bruce was the last one to see Miranda. And Batman ask, "where are they keeping Miranda?"........HUH? What do you mean, "where is Miranda!?" You just saw Miranda a few hours earlier! Good job not forgetting about her Genius! Gordon's answer, at City Hall with Bane. You idiot! that is where you just saw Miranda, at City Hall, with Fox, right before you left her and said you wouldn't forget her. And, while I was wrapping my head around the ridiculous and painfully obvious script mistake, I was futher annoyed that Batman, in his time crunch, had the time to set up a flaming Batman sign on a bridge. A bridge that was probably heavily guarded since he was Johnny on the spot in saving Robin's ass in the very next scene. 

This whole sequence of events really ruined the movie for me. Especially the "where are they keeping Miranda" thing. It was so painfully obvious that I could not focus on anything else in the movie, and for a movie that had been getting such high reviews, I was surprised that there was such a disregard to attention to detail.  Some other small things that annoyed me would include:

     -Robin figured out who Batman was just by seeing an expression on his face...WEAK. real creative.

     -What was the point in Selena blowing open the tunnel? No one used it. 

     -Bane predicting that every cop in the city would eventually be sent to the sewers to look for him. Convenient

     -After they figured it was a trap, they had a whole Star Bangled  Banner song to get out. But instead of them showing 3000 cops running for the exit, they showed them patiently marching forward into the sewer. That was just annoying. 

So, that is it. There is more stuff that annoyed me about this movie. but the above sequence was just bad writing, bad editing and pure laziness. The Dark Knight Rises was poorly executed, being saved by another great villain, a good story, and a great twist. Doesn't make it un-watchable, but it does make watching it a little annoying. 

Thanks for reading. 

Taunting the Gators: Good Call

If you watched the LSU vs Gators game today, you would have noticed that the Tigers absolutely handled Florida. You may also have noticed the touchdown that came from a fake punt, then called back after LSU's  punter made a taunting gesture before entering the end zone. The call created some disbelief and was both criticized and joked about. Now, a lot of things is going on with football lately which some say is taking away from the game. New rules are always being implemented, changes are being made. Its a physical and emotional game in which many of the players know and understand the risk and the type of competition involved. There are some rules I disagree with and believe is taking away the very fabric of what makes the game great. However, the taunting call today on LSU is not one of the rules. It is a good rule and was a great call.

Shortly after the call, the announcers remarked that many coaches were pushing for and were in favor of the taunting rule. After the call was made, reports also had LSU's coach complimenting the referee on the good call. Despite that, many people still believed the call to be a bit much. Did the Punter really do anything wrong? Was it a little picky? Yeah, but he still did it, and the right call was made.

More and more, you notice Pro players taunting defensive players on their way to the end zone. This is just flat out bad sportsmanship and classless. It isn't needed, just get your ass into the end zone and let the score do the talking. Plain and simple. You spend most of the game getting knocked around. The one time you break away doesn't justify you acting like no one can touch you. And if a player has ever ran out of bounds, took a knee, slid or dove to avoid a hit, then you by no means ever have the right to taunt your way to the end zone, you wuss. Take that hit on, 100% of everytime! And, if your a punter, someone who can draw a flag by simply getting bumped into, you definitely have absolutely no room to taunt anyone because you scored on a trick play. Who are you Mr. Punter guy, to taunt two players that would light you up any day of the week if you weren't protected by 10 other guys and a crap ton of "protecting the kicker" rules. You wanna earn the right to taunt? Kick your punt, run your ass 40 to 50 yards, and lay the ball carrier out. Until then, don't even dream of delivering a taunt.

The rule seems touchy and lame, but is needed to keep players in a reality check, and keep the game great and out of the ridiculous. Old school players new what it was to go out on the field and let their helmets and shoulder pads do the talking, not their mouths. That is the way it should be, that is the way it should stay. Good rule, good call, for those who disagree, get over it. The coach agreed, you have no argument. This is football, leave your cocky at home.  

Review: LSU vs WVU 09/24/11

I have such mixed feelings about this game. I wanted to be mad about the performance of WVU, but all said and done, the game was fair and well played. LSU came into Morgantown and got the job done. The Mountaineers played great on both sides of the ball, regardless of the score, only to suffer from mistakes, Costly Mistakes.

I am going to defend the game play of the Mountaineers here. If you break down the stats, Mountaineers led in almost every category. Racking up over 500+ yards in total Offense, 28 first downs, and holding the tigers to 366 total yards and only 19 first downs. Mountaineers, with all respects, came and got the job done. Unfortunately the job came with some big holes. One of the biggest things the Mountaineers had to overcome the whole game was starting field possession. At one point, ESPN showed a stat that LSU;s starting field possession was around mid-field while the Mountaineers were around there own 14 yard line. I recall LSU's punter putting the Mountaineers within their own 10 and 5 yard line at least 3, maybe 4 times in the first half alone. A team like LSU can not get the ball around the 50 yard line every possession if the opposing team expects to have a chance. WVU's defense had their work cut out for them and after 3 quarters of play, they were handling better than anyone should have expected.

Saying that, another big problem WVU had most of the night was not wrapping up. Time and time again WVU had defensive stops only to give up yards to miss tackles. The last major problem, NO RUNNING GAME. Geno had an amazing, A-mazing game. But you can not come out and throw 40, 50 times a game with no run. And, it is not like the offensive line was not doing their job. The biggest problem with the run game, I noticed, was that the running backs have no perception of where to run to. They seemed to dance around when they needed to lower their shoulders, lower their shoulders when they should have been cutting, and just simply missing the holes that were there. The offense that WVU is running requires a RB with great vision and the ability to read and make decisions. With that being said, the offensive line and the RB's provided Geno with excellent pass protection.

This game could have easily gone down to the wire and even to the favor of the Mountaineers. Even though I feel 3 of the 4 turnovers were freak turnovers, they were still turnovers in which you can not have against an LSU team. And, I think everyone would agree that the Kick Off return following the touchdown to bring WVU within striking distance was the nail in the coffin. A return that showed a tired and poor arm tackling Mountaineer team.

And so, there it is. I am very disappointed in this loss because of the costly mistakes, but the Mountaineer team that showed up Saturday night is a very talented and capable team that should win the BigEast. Mountaineer fans should be happy with their team, and overall performance.  

The Movie "PAUL"

First off, I am a fan of the Simon Pegg and Nick Frost duo movies. "Shaun of the Dead" is a classic for most people and "Hot Fuzz" was great. To me, the duo bring good stupid humor into their movies with classy and creative dialog which is both entertaining and funny. Match this with an alien who is given the voice an Seth Rogan, you have a great conversational Trio that keeps your attention while they wittingly fire casual and discreet jokes at one another. To me, this was the highlight of the movie.

The movie itself was not action packed or visually astonishing (minus the alien, GREAT work on the alien and his mannerisms). It was not even "over the top" hilarious. What it was, was a great story, with great character development that was believable and entertaining. This is important because movies that are based around stupid humor always run the risk of being so over the top stupid, it isn't believable which ruins it for me. With that being said, The two supporting Agents in the movie came close to doing just that.

The biggest problem I had with the movie was a pair of agents named Haggard and O'reilly played by Bill Hader and Joe Lo Truglio. I love Bill on Saturday Night Live and was excited about his part in the movie. Unfortunately, his part and his partner suffered from the above mentioned. A character who's stupidity was so over the top that it almost ruined the movie. I will say that Hader's part was not as bad as Truglio. Could the dude try ANY harder to look stupid and be funny. It really did not work. In a movie where dialog and subtle actions made it funny, These two were sorely misplaced and I am grateful their part was minimal. It was almost annoying watching their parts in this movie.

All said and done, I give my own rating of 3 fingers. The three fingers that give you the OK sign. Mainly because of the agent's part in this movie. I definitely recommend it for a watch and I myself could watch it again. Mainly due to Simon, Nick, and Seth Trio.