The Dark Knight

So I saw The Dark Knight in IMAX on Saturday. The movie was amazing! The acting, script, effects and everything else was great. I have since been really wanting to see it again. I'll probably see it tomorrow. I had a question about if the movie was worth seeing in the dollar theater. It is worth seeing in the expensive theater. IMAX was incredible. If you just want to go to an ordinary theater that would be fine also. I wouldn't wait for the dollar theater on this one.

*Spoiler Alert - I will discuss themes from the movie and am going to spoil things if you haven't seen it yet*

A lot of people have been talking about what to do with future films. One of the strengths of these films is that they are around themes so the films work as a whole. So I was thinking about the themes in the movie. It had a lot to do with opposites and specifically good vs. evil. Here are some pairs:
Gotham's White Knight (Harvey) : The Dark Knight (Batman)
The Joker : Batman
The two sides of Two-Face
The two sides of Two-Face's coin
Boat of convicts : Boat of ordinary citizens
The hostages at the end were reversed (clowns and doctors)
Batman being liked by police and citizens (even to the point of copying) : Batman being hunted at the end

There are of course other pairs. Using Two-Face strengthened the theme of opposites and opposition.

Escalation was another theme with the Joker doing more and more violent and destructive things.

I could go on - but I'm not going to. The movie was great and I definitely need to see it again.

Batman

I am really excited for The Dark Knight, which is coming out on Friday. I'll be seeing it on an IMAX screen on Saturday. I was thinking about the great Batman villains that could show up in future movies (Nolan serious type). Here is my list:

Already appeared:
R'as Al Ghul
Scarecrow
Joker
Two Face
R'as is now dead (although he was immortal in the comics, still he probably shouldn't come back) His daughter Talia could come into the story, except that her character is best with R'as involved. Scarecrow could make another appearance in a film. Joker probably won't because Heath Ledger is dead. I'm betting the third movie will be all about Two Face.

So for future movies we have:

The Riddler
Catwoman
Mr. Freeze
Harley Quinn (Joker's accomplice)
Poison Ivy
Penguin
Mad Hatter

Yes there are a lot of others but these looked most promising. The riddler would be good if he was done as a serial killer taunting the police with riddles. Catwoman would be excellent because she's in a gray area - sometimes good and sometimes bad. Mr. Freeze is one of my favorites, but he would be really hard to do in the current series because his transformation and weapons are a stretch scientifically. I think Mr. Freeze would be great for a Batman Beyond movie set in the future. Harley Quinn could be cool but you probably need the Joker to be around for her to work. Poison Ivy would be cool if she wasn't done too much as fantasy. She just needs to be sort of a green peace-ish ultra tree hugger gone killer. She should have a plethora of poisons made from plants. I would not have her able to manipulate plants. Penguin is supposed to be an elegant criminal who robs places in a tuxedo. If he was done this way it might work, but I'd probably not make a movie with him. The Mad Hatter could be good. I remember that he did a lot with computers and tried to control people's minds. This might work in the new movies but the director would have to be careful.


There are several other possible villains that I didn't know about until recently. They might work. Here are two of them:

Black Mask - a criminal who hated Bruce Wayne, not Batman and led the group False Face Society. He has a black skull mask

Firefly - He's basically a pyro.

Ducks

I like ducks. A bunch of them swim in the canal behind my apartment. They are a lot of fun to watch. A few weeks ago a few of them flew over to us and obviously wanted to be fed so we got some bread and fed them. It was great.

Another great thing about ducks is that you can EAT THEM! Go to a Chinese restaurant and order some. I actually had duck curry at a Thai restaurant. It was delicious!

So in conclusion, ducks are cute, fun, and delicious.

The Supreme Court

I am one of those people who enjoys the time of the year when the U.S. Supreme Court rules on various cases. For a while I wanted to become a lawyer before later deciding to be an engineer. I like how the court reasons about the constitutionality of laws. Many people get mad that the court doesn't support this or that, but the court isn't supposed to support anything. It is not for the judges to decide that they don't like how a law has been written and thus strike it down or to decide that they like a law and decide to keep it. They are only to decide if a law is valid constitutionally whether or not they agree with it. This is usually followed.

Recently the court ruled on judicial rights (writ of habeas corpus) for detainees at Gitmo. They also did a ruling regarding campaign finance laws which I think was good in that I think most campaign finance laws are on shaky constitutional ground, although I must admit that I haven't looked at the law in question in great detail. They also struck down a ban on handguns anywhere in Washington D. C. (including homes) while stating that some weapons can be limited and there can be limits in churches, schools, etc. Their other major controversial ruling was to strike down laws giving the death penalty to child rapists.

This last ruling made a lot of people mad, yet I agree with it. I certainly don't agree with what child rapists have done, but I don't think the death penalty should be given to someone who hasn't killed someone with the lone exception of for treason (which is specifically spelled out in the constitution). I don't have a problem with the death penalty for murderers, although I wouldn't mind if we gave them life sentences instead. I think the justification for the death penalty is that someone killed someone else so the state has the right to kill them. It is basically an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and by extension a life for a life. I think that giving the death penalty for any other crime puts the penalty on really shaky ground. Put these horrible people in prison for life instead.

Now, while I generally liked the rulings I was disappointed with the split in the court. I believe all of these rulings were 5-4. The conservatives and liberals were in the majority and dissent depending on the case. This means that in my view neither the conservative or liberal justices were doing their jobs right. At the same time it shows that there is a pretty good balance on the court.