Grantblings

Not that it matters…My Problems with The Dark Knight Rises or Heath Ledger’s an ass.

I was able to finally get to THE DARK KNIGHT RISES this weekend and I thought it was a great movie. I really did. I felt it was a great cap to the previous two films and was a fun ride from start to finish. That being said I did a few minor quibbles with it and this being the internet, I’m going to put those quibbles out in the universe.

If you haven’t seen the movie, don’t read on. I’m going to try to be as vague as possible, but at least one of my problems will feature a spoiler.

– I understand that Christopher Nolan wants his Batman world to exist on its own. It was never meant to be some sort of set up film for a Justice League movie or anything and I get that. I would have just liked one little nod to the rest of the DC Universe. I’m not saying he had to reference Metropolis or Superman or another hero. But would it have killed everything if the other team the Gotham Rogues were playing is this film were the Central City Marauders instead of the Rapid City Marauders? Something like this in the film would have been awesome. Just a little acknowledgement that Batman is part of a larger universe in a form that no one but true geeks would have understood.

– Heath Ledger is an ass! Seriously, screw him for dying. Okay, I’m not serious, but I would have loved to see what little cameo The Joker would have had in this film, because you know he would have had one. Cillian Murphy was great in this film. Really, he was. But could you imagine Legder’s Joker in the role of the judge? Or just shots of the Joker causing havoc in a Gotham City free from any law. Yeah, screw you Heath Ledger for dying.

– SPOILERS AHEAD – My biggest problem with the film is the ending. Before I state it let me say I know that this is/was Nolan’s last run with Batman. I get that. He wanted an ending. But I strongly feel that we should have not seen Bruce Wayne and Selna Kyle at the end of the film. I feel a much better ending would have been Alfred looking across the cafe, catching someone’s eye. Smiling and then the screen goes black and credit roll. I just would have preffered that ending over what we got and I think it would have made the film just a little more fun.

As I said at the top, I loved the film. The above are only very minor quibbles. I look forward to seeing where the franchise goes from here and I hope that Gary Oldman is always Commissioner Gordon. To me he’s set the standard and no one else can play him. Not that it matters.

“Yeah, but it’s only Wednesday.” – Happy 4th of July!

It’s July 4th here in the United States .  As is my tradition on the 4th, i listen to Stan Freberg’s History of the United States of America.  Specifically the ‘Signing of the Declaration of Independence’ track.  This was the first track I can remember hearing by Stan Freberg and I fell in love.  To me this was just about as perfect piece of comedy you could create.  It was a HUGE influence on Dr. Floyd and Did This Happen.

I’ve online been able to find the version below online and it has a few skips in it.  This is also the whole side of the album, but the Declaration of independence part is first.  It still makes me laugh.  Even after hearing it hundreds of times.

Happy 4th of July America!  From me and Stan!

And while searching for the above clip, I came across this relatively new animation from the same album.  Fun stuff.

It’s come to this…

So, I’m seriously contemplating deleting, or at the very least deactivating, my Facebook account.  The site has lost it’s usefulness to me and just seems to be a growing source of frustration in my life.

There’s been several news reports as to how Facebook can cause depression.  I can honestly say, at least in my case, I believe this is true.  There’s been more than one instance of me getting ‘bummed out’ because of something I’ve seen on Facebook.  Another example is that, to this day, I still have not seen The Muppets because of Facebook.   Several people who worked on it, who were Facebook friends of mine, were so over the top promotional about the film when it was released it completely soured me on seeing the film.  I’ll see it eventually, someday I guess.

It would seem that someone in my position, a content creator, MUST have a Facebook account in order to have a Facebook fan page to promote this and that.  Thanks to recent changes in the way Facebook works, even when you post something on your fan page, not all of the people who ‘Like’ your page will see the posts.  If you want to reach EVERYONE, you have to pay.  Gotta make up for that IPO somehow I imagine.

Finally there’s the ‘drama’ factor.  I hate that Facebook has become this THING that people live and die through.  It’s a website.  A way to communicate.  An easy way to share pictures.  It is NOT real life.

So, to get to the point, I’ve been thinking a lot recently about deleting my Facebook account.  I just no longer see the point anymore.  I find Twitter a much more useful social network and prefer it’s short messages to the drama that is Facebook.  So, if you are a friend of mine on Facebook and you go to send me a message and find I’m not there.  Fear not.  I’m right here.  My Twitter handle, email address, website info, is all over the web.  Email me.  Tweet me.  Call me.

You may just not have Grant Baciocco to poke around anymore.