The Hard Truth of Rubber Suits

I wasn't surprised to read to-day that the Synnns Fykshyn Chynn1 has decided to cancel Caprica. I haven't seen the newest couple episodes, but although I think it's a decent show, it does lack the urgently paced action sequences and the pretext of hard-ass military relationships Battlestar Galactica had. People do like the soap opera stuff, but they need it from characters like Starbuck and Commander Adama, who act like they're above it. Though I guess the characters were generally listless and spread a bit thin on Caprica--everything felt a bit conceptual, there were rarely any scenes of two characters having grounded, plain conversation. All the best stuff was sort of arch, lofty, and cold, not the kind of thing that captures most audiences, and then there was the sort of muddled statement on terrorism. It had a good cast, and was nicely shot, if studiously mundane. I'm sorry to see it go.

I'm not really wowed by the news that the new Batman movie's going to be called The Dark Knight Rises. Sounds sort of like a comic book themed penis drug, or like some kind of badass cake. Maybe The Rise of the Dark Knight would've been better, though I guess then we wouldn't have the lean towards Frank Miller-ish titles they're obviously going for. It wouldn't surprise me if they tried to retroactively rename the first film The Dark Knight Begins.

I've no particular feeling about the news that the Riddler definitely won't be in the movie--I am hoping Catwoman will, though I doubt she will be in the capacity I think she needs to be. The movie I envision, that I think thematically needs to follow The Dark Knight, would be something like The Lightening Up Knight. Really play the cat burglar aspect up, and make the movie feel a little bit like To Catch a Thief. But also, Catwoman, as both love interest and adversary, should be a teacher for Batman, should help him appreciate life's moral complexities. Almost taking the Joker's perspective, but slightly more constructively and benevolently towards Batman. If this is to be a trilogy, as Nolan has said, this being the final film, such a story would complete the Bruce Wayne character arc introduced in the first two films.

I had to pick my sister up to-day after she'd been in a car accident--a girl had pulled out of a parking lot and hit the side of my sister's car. Fortunately, neither by sister or the girl in the other car were injured. There are a lot of real morons driving cars out there--I was waiting for a pedestrian to cross the street the other day when a car honked its horn behind me--a similar thing happened to me to-day, and I'm always seeing people in an angry rush to get nowhere in particular. I connect this with the fact that I see more and more people entering movie theatres late and that the Tea Party has no particular constructive platform. There are a lot of angry nitwits out there.