Well it’s 11:30 at night (as I write this) and I got nothing.  I haven’t been to the movies since I last saw Prometheus.  Nothing really interesting has come out.  I flirted with the idea of seeing and review Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, but to be honest, I didn’t see a point.  It looked dumb, and it even seems to KNOW that it’s dumb.  I can’t go see a movie solely to complain about it if the entire point of it is to be over the top and stupid.  There’s no point.  To me, I don’t think that I would have had anything worthwhile to say about it.  It doesn’t look good, but it also doesn’t look bad enough to where I could even rant about it.

I also thought of seeing Brave, but without someone to accompany me I would just feel weird, as an adult, walking into a family feature alone.  I mean I could walk in with a pad of paper and a pen and say “Yeah, I’m here not because I’m really into this kind of movie, but because I need to take notes and rant about it on the internet…that’s why I’m here alone…”.  So, that one may still be in the cards.  Also, now that the first season is wrapped up I’ve also thought about maybe doing a recap and review of the first season of Legend of Korra (yes, I know it’s a little hip on the tumblr sphere right now, but who cares) but I wanna wait a little so that more people have a chance to catch all of it so I don’t have to be as careful about accidental spoilers (I would ask who would’ve thought that a “Saturday morning” cartoon could have such a tight continuity, if it wasn’t for the fact that we were given that answer with its predecessor series).  But guys, long story short, for the time being, I’ve got nothing.

So I feel that I can lighten up the silence with my thoughts about the upcoming Dark Knight Rises.  I gotta say, I am really pumped up for this one, for a variety of reasons.  I’ve always loved Nolan’s spin on the Batman universe, and I feel that he has come closer to matching the elements of the comics than most other film adaptations, even with his trimming the proverbial fat that is the more outlandish elements of the franchise.  I love these films, and it fills me with anticipation that we’ll now be getting the thrilling conclusion we’ve been waiting for since the last film. 

The part that really has me most excited is the same that thing that has captivated me since Batman Begins: the casting.  I love the actors.  Christian Bale is the best live-action Batman since Michael Keaton, and is surpassed really only by the amazing voice acting of Kevin Conroy for the animated series.  Heath Ledger was of course amazing, and again only outclassed by his animated predecessor, Mark “Skywalker” Hamill.  Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, and Michael Caine also deliver top notch performances that perfectly match the personalities of their respective comic characters.  And now, it looks like they’re continuing the trend.

In Rises, we have multiple new actors.  And by “multiple” I mean the entire cast of Inception, sans Leo DiCaprio.  Tom Hardy is playing a very threatening Bane, which has me excited.  For those of you who don’t know, Bane is one of the most physically intimidating members of Batman’s Rogues Gallery, as well as one of the few villains mentally on par with the Dark Knight himself.  In his first appearance, Bane broke open Arkham Asylum and used the ensuing chaos to correctly deduce Batman’s identity and ambush him at Wayne Manor.  He then broke Batman’s spine, leaving him wheelchair-bound for a year.  Based on the new trailer, it seems that elements of this story arc are making their way into this movie.

We also have Anne Hathaway playing Catwoman, and it seems from the trailers that this is going to be the first live-action portrayal to finally get the character right.  Catwoman is very hit and miss outside the comics, with works tending to focus too much on either her sexuality or her mental state, and never the strange balance of both mixed with her sense of reluctant altruism that is present in the comics.  Again, some of the only works to really get her right have been the animated series from the 90s and her incarnation in Arkham City, which is still essentially her animated personality.  But in film, the two most notable examples are Halle Barry (Catwoman in name only) and Michelle Pfeiffer, who hit the nail closer to head but still wasn’t quite right.  I love the character, and look forward to hopefully seeing her given proper justice.

And we have the entire supporting cast.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marian Cotillard are playing all new characters, so I’m looking forward to seeing who they’ll be.  Cillian Murphy is returning as Scarecrow/Jonathan Crane, and being one of my favorite villains, I wonder how he’ll factor in (probably just as another short appearance as a supposedly threatening character that gets reduced to a punchline).  I’ve also heard that Ellen Page might be appearing;  I am sincerely hopeful for that.  I loves me some Ellen Page…

So that’s pretty much all I have to say.  I know that this was really just a long wall of text talking about who’s playing what, but I feel that this should get some of the readers out there who aren’t paying as close attention as I am—which probably means that you guys all have lives.  I hope that this has helped, as both some new content and as an explanation for why I haven’t posted anything in a while.  Keep your eyes peeled thought for Amazing Spider-man, I am definitely seeing that and I will definitely review it.