Batman: The Killing Joke

First, I want to say sorry for my shotty attendance on the blog. I had to finish a project for my internship, but luckily I am finally done with it and can devote more time to what really matters: super heroes and video games. 

I understand that I might be a little late with this review, but... I'm going to talk about 'Batman: The Killing Joke.' First I'd like to say, if you haven't seen the movie I suggest that you go watch it, especially if you're a fan of the original graphic novel written by Alan Moore. Personally, I loved the movie. I enjoyed the opening act that focused on Bat-girl and, the Joker-esque, Paris Franz, because it shows just how special and unique the relationship between the Joker and Batman really is. The story further proves that there is only one person that can handle someone even remotely like the Joker, and if anyone tried to go up against as "Joker" they'd lose themselves in the process. So in that regard, I felt as though the opening act was perfect, and if they stopped just expanded on Batgirl's conflict with Paris Franz, then the reviews wouldn't have been so poor. But, to help give Bat-girl more relevance in the main story they decided to give Batman and Bat-girl some serious sexual tension. And granted we have seen stories where there is obvious sexual tension between the two, but it's never been so palpable that they actually have sex! I, like I assume most of you were doing, started yelling at the my computer screen: "No! You're supposed to be a bat-family! This is incest!" Then after I paused the movie and cried for about an hour in the corner of my dorm room, I decided to continue the movie, and it was amazing, practically a panel for panel replica of the original graphic novel, but better, because of Mark Hamill's performance as the Joker. The second half of the movie was almost enough to help me forget the atrocity committed in the opening act. 

Also, something I noticed during the film, but wasn't able to articulate until reading the IGN review (which I thought was a little harsh by the way), was the fact that DC really dropped the ball on establishing Bat-girl as a strong female character. Through out the entire first act of the movie she seemed less concerned with fighting crime for the sake of justice, and more concerned with impressing Batman, perpetuating the trend of over sexualizing female heroes in comic books. The worst part is that it really didn't add to the story it just seemed gratuitous and unnecessary. Honestly, if they left out all the weird sexual tension and focussed on the conflict between Bat-girl and Franz then everyone wouldn't be calling it a a 'bust.' But, unfortunately, that mistake almost completely overshadowed the rest of, what was an amazing movie. 

So, in our opinion we give the movie an 7.5, because despite the weird sexual tension and poor representation of Bat-girl as a super hero, Mark Hamill's joker is always amazing!

Wolverine 3: The Death of Old Man Logan

Wolverine 3 will be the last time we get to see Hugh Jackman play the role of Wolverine, the most popular mutant in the last decade. And while it is sad that there will never be another Hugh Jackman Wolverine, after 2017, it will be exciting to see how he goes out, and also whom they decide to replace him with, because there needs to be another brooding, anti-hero, bad-ass in the X-Men Cinematic Universe. 

It has been said that Wolverine 3 will take place in a time that we, the fans, have not seen before, in an X-Men movie, and the rumor has it, we might be getting a film based on Mark Miller's Old Man Logan series. When confronted about it a while back, Hugh Jackman said he could neither confirm nor deny the rumor, but recent photos from the set of Wolverine 3 show an aged Hugh Jackman and an even older Patrick Stewart.

In the comics Old Man Logan renounces his violent tendencies and travels across the country defeating various Marvel super villains. Hugh Jackman did also say that we would be able to see Wolverine's berserker mode, so maybe in the aftermath of the berserker mode he decides to renounce his violent ways. But, since Marvel owns the rights to many of the villains he fights in the series it is unlikely that we will see that exact story line. However, my theory is that we will see a mix of Old Man Logan and Charles Soule's Death of Wolverine.

In Death of Wolverine, Logan is infected with a virus from the microverse that causes him to lose his mutant healing factor, giving past villains and enemies a chance to finally kill him. Also after the end of this series the mantle of Wolverine is passed down to Logan's clone, X-23. The likelihood of seeing X-23 in Wolverine 3 is extremely high, considering what happens in the after credits scene of X-Men: Age of Apocalypse, and who is alluded to. For those that do not know (Spoiler Alert), in the after credits scene we see men in black suits take a vile of Wolverine's blood and put it into a case that said "Essex Corp." on it. Essex Corp. is owned by Nathaniel Essex, or better known as Mister Sinister. Sinister is obsessed with perfecting the human race through mutation, which is what leads him to cloning and splicing many of the strongest mutants. Even though X-23 is actually created by Dr. Sarah Kinney and not Sinister, it still makes sense to have him be the one who clones Wolverine, because he is such an integral part of the X-Men universe (and, because they did not have him be a part of Age of Apocalypse).

Fox may not know what to do with the X-Men as a team, but it seems they have figured out how to make successful solo movies starring X-Men characters. Considering  their recent success with 'The Wolverine' and 'Deadpool,' I am confident/hopeful that they will not ruin Hugh Jackman's last movie as Wolverine. Plus, it is always exciting to see major change in comics and the aftermath thereof, and with Wolverine possibly dying in the next movie, we may actually see a meaningful death in a comic book movie (Havok dying does not count).