Saturday of Batman, Bane and Olympic Scary, Fairy Tale Dreams

(Photo removed for reasons of copyright.)

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

I just got back from seeing The Dark Knight Rises. It was awesome! I'll admit that I liked the first and second of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy better, especially when I prefer the Joker much more over Bane since he's Batman's arch enemy and the most grotesquely psychotic of the Batman villains. Even so, out of all three of the movies, I like Batman Begins (the first in the trilogy) best simply because I'm one that believe's no sequel or remake can beat it's original (with very few exceptions). But Dark Knight Rises was good. It went further into Bruce Wayne's character and his interaction with the other characters, including Alfred the butler, Salina Kyle/the Cat Woman, and Commissioner Gordon. And Bane's character was chilling especially with that mouth mask that he wears which looks like a pair of an alien monster's jaws but is really an oxygen mask of some sort.

I was never really into the Batman  comic books that featured Bane since they came after 1985 sometime. (I can't remember the exact year or decade Bane made his first appearance). I wasn't as impressed with the post 1983  Batman comics as I was with the ones before that, especially of the '70s when Batman's character returned to its dark appearance with darker stories after being eclipsed by the campy craze that the preceding decade's TV series brought on. Not that the post 1983 Batman storylines weren't dark; they most definitely were dark. It's just that for me the Batman storyline headed too much in a different direction than the storline of the earlier decades. Post 1983 Batman stories turn Robin into Nightwing, bring in a new kid to take up the Robin role, and Batman becomes too romantic with the Cat Woman/Salina Kyle and so she loses her villainous appeal. But I have to admit, I did like Bane with that Mexican wrestler's mask with the huge red eyes in the comics; it was very menacing looking adding to Bane's destructive and evil appearance. But the mask he wear's in this movie definitely makes up for the one in the comics.

I'll do a review of the movie either during the upcoming week at Examiner.com or next weekend here. Right now it's nearly the witching hour and though I normally don't go to bed until way later (too much later, actually) tonight I have to turn into the coffin earlier because I have to be up early for a planning meeting for a sci fi/fantasy convention that comes to Sacramento a year from now: WesterCon 66, the West coast region's annual convention and I'm proud to say it will be held in my home area next year! Right on!

I still have to squeese in tonight some highlights of the Olympic opening ceremonies that I taped that I didn't get a chance to see last night because a writer's and artist's work is never done. I'm not a big sports fan, but the Olympics is one of the few sporting events I'll watch, Summer and Winter. And I especially like the opening ceremonies because all the nations' teams come together and bring all kinds of diversity to the spectators. I especially like the ceremonies because of the dramatic performances that depict the host nation's culture and history, including their folklore and mythology in which England did very well with these performances. One that I saw on NBC's website was a kind of fairy tale dream a little girl has which first starts off as a nightmare with black cloaked spirits and a giant evil sorcerer then ends with Mary Poppins, several Mary Poppins that is. You can see it at the link below. I was so impressed.

I'll leave you with that. Until next time . . .

(Photo removed for reasons of copyright.)
A convention attendee dressed as Bane from the Batman comic books, at WonderCon 2012.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/2012/opening-ceremony-olympic-bedtime-story.html