#but nolan is arguably the best written part of the comic

[crismakesstuff]

i feel bad for everyone saying nolan can’t get a redemption arc or that he’s gonna be some big final antagonist

his redemption arc is a huge part of the plot of the comic guys they can’t not do it. Doesn’t mean anyone needs to like him or anything but yea don’t worry he’s gonna pay in his own blood for his crimes. mark got his proneness for getting his ass beat from his father

[denimbex1986]

'When Cillian Murphy took to the podium during Sunday night’s Golden Globes, his nose smudged in his wife’s lipstick, it was as if a door had opened on this Hollywood Neverland and an ambassador for the real world had stepped through.

Accepting the Best Actor in a Drama award for Oppenheimer, Murphy wasn’t so much un-starry as stonkingly everyday. Here was a normal person who had somehow beamed into peak Tinseltown and, if pleased, was also clearly a bit perplexed by it all.

The Oppenheimer win has made Murphy a frontrunner for the Oscars. In all likelihood, he will be up against a creepy Barry Keoghan in Saltburn, an overblown Bradley Cooper in Maestro, and a fervent Leonard DiCaprio in Killers of the Flower Moon. With the arguable exception of the grandstanding Cooper, all would be worthy winners. And yet, underdogs everywhere will be cheering for Murphy. He’s spent the past 20 years negotiating Hollywood on his own terms and has rejected Tinseltown’s showiness in favour of staying grounded and playing the long game.

Murphy always wanted to be an actor rather than a star. Such a choice could easily have condemned him to a lifetime of supporting roles. Or a hiatus in TV, to which he seemed exiled when he settled in for a long run as Tommy Shelby in Birmingham noir Peaky Blinders.

But his decision to turn away from flashy parts has proved inspired. He is that rarest of things: an experienced A-list actor who comes to the Oscars without baggage. Unlike DiCaprio, he hasn’t had to overcome a past life as a teen pin-up. Nor does he have to justify a lucrative stint in comic book films, as Cooper has with his time as Rocket Racoon in Guardians of the Galaxy.

Above all, Murphy goes into Oscar season as an antidote to the “look at me!” culture of the social media era. In an age when fame is regarded as the ultimate commodity – more important than awards or critical acclaim – Murphy would rather let his work speak for itself. He lives humbly in suburban Dublin with his wife and two children – and his great passion outside of acting is music, as demonstrated by his semi-regular presenting slot on BBC 6 Music.

That’s lifetimes removed from Hollywood, with its self-mythologising and turbo-charged fakeness. It is also of a piece with his career since he broke through playing a survivor of the zombie apocalypse in Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later. Ever since, he has chosen his jobs thoughtfully. In so doing, he has assembled a body of work of which he can be proud.

He hasn’t been above popcorn. He was a memorable villain in Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, where he played the Scarecrow as a trippy nightmare. But even when shooting for the box office, Murphy has been studiedly un-starry. Careful to keep his ego in check, he’s often happy in an ensemble – hugging the background in A Quiet Place II and settling for an extended cameo in Nolan’s Dunkirk, where he was content to let Harry Styles and Tom Hardy hog the spotlight.

Hog it they did – yet it was Murphy who proved to be in it for the long road. Because he could go into Oppenheimer without a Hollywood aura, he disappeared into the role. If hardly obscure, he nonetheless assimilated fully into the part. Throughout that film, you were aware of its stars. Florence Pugh and Emily Blunt doing their best with under-written female characters. Robert Downey Jr trying to pretend he hadn’t spent a decade as Iron Man.

Murphy, by contrast, split the acting atom. He vanished into Oppenheimer with a performance that exuded humility and sincerity. Bookies have now installed him as a favourite for the Best Actor Oscar. If he wins, it would be a victory for knowing who you are and what you stand for and believing good work has value beyond short-term acclaim. Above all, his success shows that it is possible to stay grounded while scaling Hollywood’s giddiest heights.'

[dweemeister]

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)

In American animation outside of Disney, no other studio inspires as much reverence as Warner Bros. The Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes shorts precipitated into worldwide recognition for those series’ stock characters. Despite this success, Warner Bros. did not release an animated feature until the musical Gay Purr-ee (1962), in association with United Productions of America (UPA). Animators at Warner Bros. from the 1930-1960s knew they were not making high art, nor were they pretending to. Warners, since the 1930s arguably the most financially stable of the major Hollywood studios, has historically seen little need to bankroll animated features. With that in mind, it might come as less of a shock that Warner Bros.’ first in-house animated feature is Eric Radomski and Bruce Timm’s Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. Originally intended as a direct-to-home media release, Mask of the Phantasm – based on and made by the production team behind Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1995) – transcends those modest intentions. It is among of the best superhero films ever made.

In the wake of Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992), Batman: The Animated Series, unlike Burton’s efforts, affords time to characterize Bruce Wayne rather than surrendering ample screentime to thinly-written but scene-stealing villains. For that and many other reasons including the looming, vertical art deco-inspired production design of Gotham City; the distinctive and moodiness of its black paper backgrounds; and its balance of dark and lighter tones, BTAS remains a high-water mark among Batman fans – perhaps the best adaptation of the character there is. Mask of the Phantasm builds upon that foundation, in addition to crafting its own unique contribution within the DC Animated Universe (DCAU). As tired as origin stories are, Mask of the Phantasm is part-origin story for the Dark Knight – something largely avoided in BTAS – and somehow integrated here without distracting from the present-day scenes. Rarely is any Batman media a character study of Bruce Wayne, but Mask of the Phantasm proves itself a wonderful exception.

One evening, Batman/Bruce Wayne (Kevin Conroy) attempts to stop a gaggle of gangsters led by Chuckie Sol (Dick Miller) from laundering counterfeit money from a casino. Amid the scrum, Sol escapes from Batman, but immediately confronts a shadowy figure later known as the “Phantasm” in the parking garage – Sol dies in the confrontation. Batman receives the blame for the killing and the concurrent property destruction from Gotham City Councilman Arthur Reeves (Hart Bochner), who just so happened to be profiting from Sol’s racket. Across the film, Bruce reminisces about his courtship with Andrea Beaumont (Dana Delany), their breakup, and the lead-up to the creation of his Batman alter-ego. Juxtaposing Bruce’s past and present, we see how he channels his regrets and profound loss into being Batman. The past haunts him still, overhanging the high roofs of Wayne Manor and the ledges of Gotham’s skyscrapers. Back in the present day, the Phantasm has murdered another crime boss; a third murder involves the Joker (Mark Hamill), initiating an emotional dénouement that, because of the intricacies of motivation that the film develops, elevates the film beyond what might otherwise be sloppy storytelling.

The dramatis personae also includes crime boss Salvatore “The Wheezer” Valestra (Abe Vigoda); Andrea’s father, Carl Beaumont (Stacy Keach); the Wayne family butler, Alfred Pennyworth (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.); GCPD Commissioner James Gordon (Bob Hastings); and GCPD Det. Harvey Bullock (Robert Costanzo).

The screenplay by Alan Burnett (producer and writer on various DC Comics films and Hanna-Barbera productions), Paul Dini (head writer on BTAS and Superman: The Animated Series), Martin Pasko (a longtime DC Comics writer), and Michael Reaves (head writer on BTAS and 1994-1996’s Gargoyles) keep the film’s attention on Batman/Bruce Wayne, despite the introduction of various subplots and Joker – whose somewhat-questionable presence might seem to indicate a project going off the rails. Shadow of the Phantasm’s placement of flashbacks stems the awkwardness that Joker’s inclusion brings, assuring that the film stays grounded into Batman’s psychology. In past Bruce we see a charming young man with time, money, and looks to spare. His romantic side with Andrea is an element of his life, one that connects – inevitably, tangentially – to the trauma his parents’ murder. His most personal motivations – that which a younger Andrea could never see, and privy to only Alfred – are stuck in the past, circulating around that childhood loss.

The occasional reflections from Bruce Wayne on what his life has become make Mask of the Phantasm the most introspective piece within the BTAS continuity, freed from the constraints and expectations inherent of episodic television. No BTAS episode forces its eponymous character to confront himself to such extents. What Bruce Wayne and Batman have become in the present-day treads perilously close not to his style of vigilante corrective justice, but vengeance. The tragic paradox that lies at the heart of this tension is the soul of the Batman mythos. Anyone with the most basic understanding of who Bruce Wayne/Batman and the Joker are will at least have a glimmer of understanding of that paradox. This portrait of what Batman stands for is more maturely handled than any of the twentieth century live-action Batman films, and with less sensational filmmaking than Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder could produce. But with the film’s screenplay and Kevin Conroy’s iconic voice acting as the Caped Crusader, it becomes an inquest into Bruce Wayne’s tortured soul.

If Mask of the Phantasm ran longer than its seventy-eight-minute runtime, Andrea Beaumont, too, might also have received similar character development as Bruce Wayne here. Even within those seventy-eight minutes, Andrea – with a great assist from Dana Delany’s voice acting (Delany so impressed Bruce Timm here that she was given the role of Lois Lane in Superman: The Animated Series) – is a nevertheless fascinating character. In a cruel irony, her ultimate role in Mask of the Phantasm is to be an incidental mirror to the violence that occurs in this film. Her decision is not an imposition, whether conscious or unconscious, from someone else, but hers and hers alone.

In this drama fit for opera, this Batman occupies a world of operatic proportions. The background and character animation are not as pristine as the best examples of BTAS due to some scattered bits of animation outsourcing. The animation of BTAS might seem stiff and janky to modern viewers expecting Flash hand-drawn animation or hand-drawn/CGI hybrids. However, Mask of the Phantasm retains the gravity-defying art deco of the animated series that somehow does not clash with the ‘90s-influenced and futuristic elements it integrates. Its primary inspirations are of film noir and the Metropolis seen in the Fleischer Studios’ Superman series of short films (1941-1943). The black paper backgrounds provide Gotham’s street corners and rooftops a nocturnal menace, immersing the viewer into the city’s seediness.

Composer Shirley Walker (orchestrator on 1979’s The Black Stallion, conductor and orchestrator on 1989’s Batman) was one of the few women composers in Hollywood at the turn of the twentieth into the twenty-first century. A pianist (she played with the San Francisco Symphony as a soloist while still in high school) who studied music composition at San Francisco State University, Walker would later become one of the first female film score composers to receive a solo credit for composing the music in John Carpenter’s Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992). But it is her work in the DCAU that distinguishes her – of particular note is her arrangement of Danny Elfman’s theme to 1989’s Batman for BTAS and a wholly original main theme for Superman: The Animated Series. Though Walker could adjust her style to suit a more synthetic sound, she specialized in composing grand orchestral cues. That style was apparent in BTAS and is adapted here from the opening titles (the lyrics here are actually gibberish and are the names of Walker’s music department sung backwards). The foreboding brass and string unison lines seem to reverberate off the animation’s skyscraper-filled backgrounds. Numerous passages in Walker’s score, as if taking hints from Richard Wagner, elect not to resolve to the tonic – setting up scenes where tension escalates alongside the music, forestalling the dramatic and musical release.

One stunning exception to Walker’s ominous, atmospheric score is the gentle cue “First Love”, an interplay between solo oboe and synthesizer. Bruce’s flashbacks are not only a balm to the grimness of his present situation, but a musical reprieve from the intensity of the action scoring. That Walker can navigate between such differing moods exemplifies her compositional dexterity and overall musical excellence. Walker, who cited Mask of the Phantasm as her personal favorite composition for any film or television production, was one of the DCAU’s greatest under-heralded contributors. And how I wish she was given more chances to score different sorts of films.

Warner Bros.’ last-minute reversal on Mask of the Phantasm’s release strategy – abandoning the direct-to-home media debut for a theatrical release – meant minimal marketing for a low-budget film that made barely a dent at the box office. The film’s home media release would more than make up for the film’s theatrical release failure. Upon the success of BTAS and the critical acclaim lavished on Mask of the Phantasm, Warner Bros. kept the DCAU on television for another thirteen years, with infrequent direct-to-home media movie releases as recent as 2019.

For numerous DC Comics fans, the DCAU is an aesthetic and narrative touchstone. The limited animation is sublime for this period in animation history. In addition, one will overhear fans remaking that a certain superhero’s definitive portrayal might be thanks to the DCAU. The superhero benefitting the most from the DCAU’s characterization and storytelling is unquestionably Batman. And justifiably so, as Mask of the Phantasm shows due respect for Batman and Bruce Wayne – what molded them and how each persona intertwines with the other. The mythos behind any superhero is found not in fight scenes. Instead, it resides in the psychology and rationalizations that forces a person to directly confront another’s wickedness. Mask of the Phantasm realizes that such confrontations test Batman/Bruce Wayne’s remaining vestiges of humanity, and braves to ask moral questions that too many figures of superhero media would rather not think about.

My rating: 8.5/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog (as of July 1, 2020, tumblr is not permitting certain posts with links to appear on tag pages, so I cannot provide the URL).

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

[ultrahpfan5blog]

Rewatching TDK Trilogy

Easily my favorite superhero trilogy and arguably one of my favorite trilogies of all time. I think in terms of superhero trilogies, Captain America is the one that comes closest because I love all three movies, but they aren’t a trilogy in the normal sense in that Civil War is essentially Avengers 2.5 and neither Civil War nor Winter Soldier can be understood without having watched Avengers and Age of Ultron. But even putting that aside, I adore TDK trilogy and it still ranks as my favorite superhero movies. The trilogy, obviously starting with Batman Begins, is what put introduced me to Nolan. I hadn’t seen Memento and Insomnia till then so Batman Begins was literally my first introduction to him.

I was always a big Batman fan as a huge follower of the DCAU cartoons with Kevin Conroy voicing a really badass Batman throughout the 90′s and into the early 2000′s. While I enjoyed the first 4 Batman movies as a kid, yes even B&R, I always wanted to see the more somber version from the cartoons. Batman Begins hit me at the perfect time where I started to have longer attention spans and wasn’t just looking for the next action scene. Rewatching the movie, it amazes me that Batman doesn’t show up for half the movie. I think that was a really brave call given pretty much all previous Batman movies introduced Batman almost immediately. I genuinely love all the prelude to Bruce becoming Batman. I liked that we got to see his training extensively and we are introduced to the city and see the dynamics of the rich and the poor, the police, the mob, the lawyers etc... It really gives Gotham a very grounded personality. I think Nolan really killed it at the casting level. By getting Caine as Alfred, Freeman as Fox, and Oldman as Gordon, he created a superbly acted support structure around Bruce/Batman, so we aren’t just always waiting for Bruce to show up. On top of that, they had Liam Neeson as Ra’s, who is effortlessly compelling, as well as other strong supporting actors like Cillian Murphy as a scene stealing Scarecrow, Tom Wilkinson as Falcone, Rutger Hauer as Earle etc... All giving personality to a difference facet of the city and Bruce’s life. But this truly is Bale’s movie. I didn’t know him at all prior to this film, but I have been a fan ever since. He carries the movie on his shoulders and he delivers the ferociousness of Batman and the humanity of Bruce Wayne effortlessly. If there is someone who doesn’t make a big impression, its Katie Holmes. I didn’t find her terrible, but rather the character isn’t exactly well written which bleeds into the next movie with Maggie Gyllenhall as well. My favorite Batman performance. Rewatching, what surprised me the most is the amount of humor in the movie. This is actually reflective of the entire trilogy. The movies deal with darkness and death, but there is actually plenty of humor sprinkled throughout these movies which prevent it from being dour. There have been a lot of superhero origin stories, but this still remains the gold standard of superhero origin stories. A 9/10 for me.

There is nothing I can say about The Dark Knight that hasn’t been said a 100 times over. It quite literally is the best comic book movie of all time. But it basically is at heart a drama about Gotham. Whereas BB acts as a character centric piece, this film is about all the characters living in Gotham. Arguable, the character that has the biggest arc in the film is Harvey Dent. Again, the casting department knocked it out of the park with the casting of Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent. Unfortunately, Eckhart never really capitalized on his performance here because he really was terrific in the film, both as Harvey and as Two-Face, to the point where you wished you had more of Two-Face. Gary Oldman gave his best work in the trilogy in this movie. The desperation as the situation spins out of control is fabulous. Freeman also has a very meaty role in the movie and continues to add a lot of weight to the scenes as well as plenty of humor, as does Michael Caine. Christian Bale continued to be terrific. There were some complaints about his voice, which I feel have been overexaggerated over the years. I definitely think his Begins voice is better, but barring one or two scenes, I never really had an issue with Bale’s voice in this film. He delivers a very nuanced performance. Maggie Gyllenhaal took over from Katie Holmes in TDK and while I think she is a far better actress than Katie Holmes, I think the character itself is not very well written. In both movies, Rachel comes off as very judgmental. Whereas in BB I can understand her reason in being so, given Bruce was ready to commit murder and later was out being a playboy in front of her for the sake of appearances, in this movie she is judgmental towards Bruce even though she knows what he has been doing to help the city. Also, she did come off a bit flaky in the whole Bruce/Rachel/Harvey triangle. And then there is Heath Ledger. There are very few performances that I consider perfect. This is one of them. I think every choice Ledger makes in this movie, be it intentional or unintentional, works amazingly well. Like him licking his lips to keep the make up on. It just adds a creepy quality to his character, even if it is completely unintentional. There are so many ticks and quirks in Ledger’s performance that make this a phenomenal performance. I don’t see any villain performance having matches that since 2008. I think the closest I have seen prior to that is Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs. It really is a performance that adds such a big extra edge to the movie. I love that Nolan sticks to certain details such as Bruce never actually drinking alcohol and throwing it away at the part and then Joker showing up and taking a glass and him spilling almost all of it. It gives a lot of personality to the characters. If I have any complaint about the movie, it is that Bruce does at times feel like a stationary character as he does not have as big of an arc as a Harvey Dent. And if you want, you can pick apart the holes in the series of events that happen that cause the chaos. But the drama of the film is just so intense that you forget all of that behind. I give it a 9.5/10

The Dark Knight Rises to me is the film that gets often maligned just because it isn’t TDK. And that is a crazy yardstick to compare it to. But as a movie on its own, its pretty damn awesome. TDKR is where the film truly steps away from being a version of the comics to being an Elseworld story with Batman having been absent for 8 years and then Bruce retiring and leaving Gotham at the end of the movie. But I don’t think there was any way for Nolan to close out his trilogy without it becoming an Elseworld story and it really didn’t matter because I always figured that as long as Bruce is out there, if Gotham needed him, he would come back. Its not as if there aren’t existing comic book stories of Bruce having retired or left being Batman behind. Again, there is some superb new casting. JGL ends up being surprising integral and he is terrific. Tom Hardy is awesome as Bane. He manages to provide a terrifying presence. I actually loved his voice. I love that a terrifying brute of a man has a polite, gentlemanly sounding voice. It gave him a unique personality. Marion Cotillard is pretty good as Talia/Miranda. She has an awkwardly filmed death scene but she’s good throughout the rest of the film, particularly during the reveal scene. But the casting of the movie for me was Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle. I knew Anne Hathaway mostly from the Princess Bride movies till then even though she had gotten an academy award nomination by then. But I really didn’t envisage her as Selina Kyle but she blew me out of the water with her performance. She was seductive, yet very likable. I love the clever costume design of her goggles looking like cat ears when she puts them up. I also love Nolan’s version of the Lazarus Pit. Certainly Bruce’s climb out of the pit is one of the most compelling scenes of the movie. You truly feel the emotion. The film also has one of the best acted scenes I have scene between Michael Caine and Christian Bale in the hallway. Its the scene I remember first whenever I think about TDKR. Oscar quality acting by both in that scene. The returning cast is all terrific but Michael Caine has a few gut wrenching scenes, including this one and the scene at the funeral at the end. Oldman and Freeman continue to be stalwarts throughout the movie, I really admire that Nolan did not waste these actors and given them very substantial roles in all the movies and all these actors really respected the material to not sleep walk through the roles. I think Bale’s performance here rivals his performance in Begins. Particularly in the scenes in the Pit. You get to see a full range of emotions, from pain, to despair, to anger, to hope. Its a superb performance. The film isn’t flawless. Its just a tad too long and there is some clunky editing at times. None of the three films can be said to contain very memorable action sequences because Nolan is not known to have great action sequences in his film until more recently, but the drama in the action negates that. Like, the Bane vs Batman fight where Bane breaks Batman, isn’t the greatest action scene in terms of fight choreography, but there is a lot weight to these characters which is what makes it incredibly compelling. Same is true to an extent for the climax at the end. When Batman beats Bane, I felt a sense of satisfaction after what I had witnessed in the previous fight. Overall, I genuinely feel that I love the last act of TDKR the most out of all three films. The Batplane, Batpod, and Tumbler chase scene was thrilling and it was cool to watch all three Bat vehicles in operation. The ending montage also ends the movie on a real uplifting note for all characters, which is very satisfying. I really love the movie. A 9/10.

It has to be said that Zimmer’s score across all three films contributes enormously to these movies. All in all, these set of movies are still my favorite superhero movies and my favorite Nolan movies till date.

[gothamcrusaderarch]

🔥 + Now YOU talk about the live action depictions of Batman!

Send me a “ 🔥 “ for an unpopular opinion.

Sit down, we’re gonna be here for a while.

I honestly don’t remember much of the 1966 Batman (I haven’t seen it in years) but I do remember thinking that A.dam W.est did a good job as Batman.  For the specific era of Batman comics being represented here, the Silver Age era, I think A.dam W.est does a good job at selling the core of the character while also feeling like he fits into this particular Gotham City.  His Batsuit is very simple but I think it’s also very effective, even if the eyebrows are a bit silly but I don’t mind it that much.  This is a shorter passage, since I don’t remember much from the 1966.  If I ever rewatch the series, I’ll update this portion of the post.

M.ichael K.eaton’s Batman is, I think one of the better versions of Batman out there, and I think what sells this version of Batman is the physical acting present in the character.  Whenever he’s playing the role of Bruce Wayne, K.eaton feels uncomfortable as Bruce Wayne.  It looks like having to pretend to be normal makes Bruce feel ill in those films.  However, whenever he’s in the Batsuit, he feels more natural, despite how restrictive the suit feels.  I also like how he plays Batman as more of a menacing character.  I also like how whenever Batman is speaking, it’s more in the form of a hateful whisper than a scream.  That sells the creepier Batman in my opinion.  I do think that his killing takes away from his portrayal of Batman, but honestly all but one live-action version of Batman has taken a life so I can’t be too harsh about that.  Personally, I’d love to see K.eaton come back for a live action adaptation of Batman Beyond.

I don’t really like V.al K.ilmer’s Batman.  I feel like he tries to mimic what’s going on with K.eaton’s Batman, but rather than coming off as emotionally distant from the world, he just comes off as bored.  I don’t really have more to say than that.  He just feels bored to be Batman.

Unpopular opinion #1: I like G.eorge C.looney’s Batman.  It’s not my favorite depiction of Batman, but it works as a much campier version of Batman.  In addition, he also has the charisma to make the role work in his favor, especially whenever he’s Bruce Wayne.  I don’t know if I’d say he should get a second shot or I’d like to see him come back, but his biggest problem is that the script he was given was weak.  He wasn’t a terrible Batman, but I also acknowledge he wasn’t the best Batman.  Bonus points for being the only live-action Batman to have never killed anyone in his portrayal of Batman though.

Unpopular opinion #2: I fucking hate C.hristian B.ale’s Batman.  I have a lot of problems with the Nolan Batman films in general, and a lot of them have to do with how B.ale plays Batman.  The thing with Batman which B.ale’s misses the most is that Batman is born out of tragedy.  That entire mission and persona is born out of fear and tragedy.  His parents dying is the strongest motivator for Bruce to become Batman, because Batman is a response to tragedy.  I don’t get that with B.ale.  I think his becoming Batman is more contingent on Rachel than anything else, and his Batman is more romantic than tragic.  And this is the biggest flaw.  Batman’s romances never work out because his mission complicates them.  He is so driven by his mission that he seldom makes room for romance in his life.  Conversely, it feels like B.ale’s Bruce doesn’t want to be Batman.  In the Dark Knight, he keeps on talking about how Harvey will be what makes him realize Gotham doesn’t need Batman anymore, so he can retire and be with Rachel.  The thing though is that Bruce would never consider his work done.  Not while people can still slip through the cracks.  B.ale isn’t a bad actor, but I think that his Batman is very weak.  Also, I just gotta say it: I don’t like his Batman voice.  I get what the aim was but that doesn’t make it suck less.

I’mma keep it real, I dipped in Gotham not even halfway through season 1.  D.avid M.azouz was a good Bruce Wayne, but IDK if he gets better or worse later on since I dipped on that show early.

B.en A.ffleck’s Batman is another favorite of mine, though I will freely admit that I am biased since BvS is a comfort film of mine.  He certainly plays a darker take on Batman, which makes sense based on the stories his Batman takes inspiration from.  In terms of physical acting, I think that he does a fantastic job of being a menacing figure.  I also really like how driven and obsessed he is.  This is a Batman who has clearly been through a lot of shit, and has just fully accepted the all-consuming darkness of Batman.  I’m also just a sucker for any version of Batman who uses a voice modulator since that makes him sound ten times creepier.  I also like how the main suit we see Batman in is arguably one of the most comic-accurate Batsuits in film.  I do wish that we got to see a kinder side to this version of Batman, but I’m hoping that ZSJL will show that.

I didn’t watch Titans, so no comment on I.ain G.lenn as Bruce Wayne.

Fun fact, K.evin C.onroy played Batman once in live-action.  Unfortunately, it was in a part of the CW’s Crisis on Infinite Earths and it shows with the writing, but he gives it his A-Game so I can’t fault C.onroy for that, even if I wish this version of Batman were written better.

And while his film isn’t out yet, I’m looking forward to P.attionson’s turn as Batman.  Based on the trailer, it looks like we’re getting a younger and angrier Batman, which is different from all the above so I’m very excited to see where that goes.  I do like the way his suit looks though, and all the different influences in it.  I also like his voice, and how it echoes K.eaton’s in the sense that is a hateful whisper more than a loud growl.

Overall, these are my thoughts on all the live-action Batmen.

[aion-rsa]

Did The Dark Knight Really Influence the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

https://ift.tt/2QyP40k

In 2008, there were two seismic events in the superhero movie genre so close together that you’d be forgiven for thinking they signaled the same thing. Over the span of a few months, Marvel Studios launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) via Iron Man, and director Christopher Nolan changed the perception of how seriously to take these movies with The Dark Knight. Both are credited as watershed moments for how audiences and (more importantly) the industry approached such stories; and The Dark Knight is specifically singled out as the gold standard by which all other masked crimefighter films are measured.

However, was Nolan’s haunting vision—one in which a lone avenger is the last, best hope for a major American city on the verge of collapse—really that influential on its genre? The Dark Knight certainly had a monumental impact on the culture, then and now. You saw it when Heath Ledger’s searing interpretation of the Joker made him only the second actor to win a posthumous Oscar, as well as when the film’s exclusion from the Best Picture race changed the way the Academy Awards handled its top prize. And just last year, The Dark Knight became only the second superhero movie inducted into the National Film Registry.

Yet when a friend watching last week’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier premiere told me Marvel was returning to the “realistic” approach of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and by extension The Dark Knight, I couldn’t help but disagree. The new Disney+ series may have a slightly more grounded aesthetic than the last time we saw these characters (back when they were fighting space aliens over magic stones in Avengers: Endgame), but the medium-blending existence of the series belies the idea that Marvel took anything significant from the insular and self-contained Dark Knight Trilogy.

The Dark Knight vs. Iron Man

It’s interesting to look back at just those 2008 films since at face value they bore minor similarities. They both were focused on fantastically wealthy billionaires using their fortunes to fight wrongdoing on a potentially global scale; each movie was directed by filmmakers with indie cred thanks to Nolan helming Memento (2000) and Jon Favreau writing and starring in Swingers (1996); and each starred unexpected casting choices with Ledger as the Joker and Robert Downey Jr. jumpstarting a career comeback as Tony Stark.

But their goals and approaches were worlds apart. The obvious thing to note, besides The Dark Knight being a sequel to Batman Begins (2005) and Iron Man being an origin movie, is that Iron Man had an slyly hilarious sensibility, and The Dark Knight fancied itself an allegory about post-9/11 America. The former’s success was engineered in large part by Downey’s gift for comedic improvisation and freestyle. Indeed, co-star Jeff Bridges said in 2009 that he, Downey, and Favreau were essentially improvising their scenes from scratch every day during primitive rehearsals. “They had no script, man,” Bridges lightly complained with his Dude diction.

By contrast, The Dark Knight appears at a glance to be an exercise in self-seriousness and lofty ambition. Every scene, written by Nolan and his brother Jonathan Nolan, appears like a chess move, and each character a pawn or knight who’s been positioned to put contemporary audiences in a state of pure anxiety with War on Terror imagery and dialogue. Of course this clocklike presentation is itself another Nolan illusion, as smaller players like Michael Jai White, who portrayed gangster Gambol in the movie, have been quite candid about. As with almost every film, there is still a level of fluidity and workshopping on Nolan’s set.

Ultimately, the bigger difference between the Nolan and eventual Marvel approach is what each is hoping to accomplish with the film they’re currently making. More than just offering a “realistic” vision of Batman, The Dark Knight attempted to tell a sweeping crime drama epic that would stand alone, separate from its status as a Batman Begins sequel. Rather than being “the next chapter,” The Dark Knight was meant to be a cinematic distillation of Batman and Joker’s primal appeals writ large. With this approach, the film also broke away from the superhero movie template Batman Begins followed three years earlier, and which nearly all superhero films still walk through the paces of.

In essence, The Dark Knight showed that superhero movies could be dark and mature, yes, but they can also be subversive, unexpected, and genuinely surprising. Nolan’s previous superhero movie, as good as it is, followed the beats set down by Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie nearly 30 years earlier. They’re the same beats trod by Iron Man and pretty much every other superhero origin movie, including a large bulk of Marvel Studios’ output. The Dark Knight, by contrast, reached for a cinematic vernacular separate from its specific genre. The movie’s not subtle about it either. The opening scene of Nolan’s epic wears its homages to Michael Mann’s Heat on its sleeves, and the story’s structure has more to do with Jaws than Jor-El.

The approach shook audiences in 2008 after they’d come to expect a certain type of movie from masked do-gooders. In The Dark Knight, superhero conventions could be subverted or obliterated when love interest Rachel Dawes is brutally killed off mid-sentence, or stalwart Batman is forced to claim a pyrrhic victory over the villain by entering into a criminal conspiracy and cover-up with the cops. The thrill of novelty was as breathtaking as the movie’s allegorical elements about a society on edge.

And even with The Dark Knight’s open-ended finale, it stood as a singular cinematic experience, complete with then-groundbreaking emphasis on IMAX photography. Nolan was so adamant about making this as self-contained an experience as possible that he jettisoned his co-story creator David Goyer’s idea of setting up Harvey Dent’s fall from grace for a third movie. Dent’s fate, as that of everyone else’s, would be tied strictly to the events of the movie you’re now watching.

“We Have a Hulk”

In Iron Man, and then more forcefully in Iron Man 2 (2010) and the rest of its “Phase One” era, Marvel Studios demonstrated a wholly different set of priorities. Similar to how Batman Begins paved the way for Nolan to do what he really wanted with that material, Iron Man 2 came to encapsulate Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige’s grander designs for the type of movies he was making. Where The Dark Knight was singular, unconventional, and two steps closer to our world than its comic book origins, Iron Man 2 was episodic, entirely crafted around audience expectations for a sequel, and even more like a comic book world than our own.

In other words, the first Iron Man gently submerged audiences into the fantasy by beginning with contemporary images of Tony Stark in a Middle Eastern desert; Iron Man 2 then made sweeping strides in defining what that MCU fantasy is as quickly as possible: Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) is introduced solely to establish the superspy who will be vital to The Avengers two years down the road, and the central narrative about Tony Stark fighting an old rival is put on pause to reintroduce the character Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) as a supporting, and superfluous, side character. The post-credit scene even arbitrarily introduces literal magic with a glowing hammer that has absolutely nothing to do with the story you just watched. Still, it’s a hell of a teaser for Thor which was due in theaters a year later.

With the release of Iron Man 2, Marvel Studios’ emphasis became diametrically opposed to the driving concept behind The Dark Knight Trilogy. Rather than each film being an insulated, standalone cinematic experience like the Hollywood epics of old, Marvel’s movies would be interconnected episodes in an ongoing narrative saga that spanned multiple franchises and countless sequels. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Unlike Nolan after The Dark Knight, Feige and his stable of writers always know where the next movie (or five) is going, and have a better idea of what the overall vision is than any single director working within this system. Ironically, this returns power to the studio and producer as the seeming authorial voice of each movie. Like in the Golden Age of Hollywood, directors are more often hired hands than influential auteurs.

However, this means the aspects Nolan really valued on The Dark Knight beyond a gritty “realism”—elements like spontaneity, subversion, and a distancing from superhero tropes—became antithetical to the type of movies produced by the MCU. For at least the first decade of its existence, the Marvel Cinematic Universe flourished by creating a formula and house style that is as predictable for audiences as the contents in a Big Mac.

When you go to a Marvel movie, you more or less you’ll get: an ironic, self-deprecating tone, a story that often revolves around a CG MacGuffin that must be taken from the villain, and a narrative in which disparate heroic characters come together after some amusing, disagreeable banter. In fact, more than Iron Man, it was Joss Whedon’s The Avengers (2012) which refined the Marvel formula into what it is today.

There are of course exceptions to this rule. Black Panther became the first Marvel movie since Iron Man to arguably tackle themes significant to the real world, in this case specifically the legacy of African diaspora. It also became the first superhero film nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture as a result; James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy movies might follow the narrative formula of most MCU movies, but they’re embedded with a cheeky and idiosyncratic personality that is distinctly Gunn’s; and in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and Captain America: Civil War (2016), directors Joe and Anthony Russo, as well as screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, attempted to inject a little bit of that “realistic” aesthetic from The Dark Knight. But only to a point.

Particularly in the 2014 effort, there was a push by the Russos to rely on in-camera special effects and cultivate what they often described in the press as a “1970s spy thriller” style. Ostensibly, the hope may have been to make The Winter Soldier as much a spy thriller as The Dark Knight was a crime epic. In this vein, there were even attempts to graft onto the story very timely concerns about the overreach of a government surveillance state, which had only grown in the decade since the U.S. PATRIOT Act was passed, despite a change in White House administrations. However, all of these ambitions had an invisible ceiling hovering above them.

Despite having overtones about the danger of reactionary if well-intentioned government leaders, like the kind personified by Robert Redford’s SHIELD director in the movie, Captain America: The Winter Soldier couldn’t become too focused on the espionage elements or too far removed from the Marvel house style. The story still needed to interconnect with other Marvel films, hence Redford’s character turning out to be a secret HYDRA double agent, and it still needed to give audiences what they expected from a Marvel movie. Thus how this “1970s spy thriller” ends in a giant CGI battle with citywide destruction as Captain America inserts MacGuffins into machines that will blow up HYDRA’s latest weapon for world domination.

It’s easy to wonder if the movie was developed a little longer, and didn’t have to play by a certain set of rules and expectations, that instead of backpedaling into comic book motivations, Redford’s character would’ve been a well-intentioned patriot amassing power “to keep us safe,” and in the process destabilized the institutions he claimed to revere.

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A Universe Without End

The Marvel method breeds a heavy need for familiarity and comfortable predictability, as opposed to disorientation and discomfort. Yet both methods are valid. While Nolan achieved near universal praise for The Dark Knight, his attempt to replicate it with the even more ambitious The Dark Knight Rises—an unabashed David Lean-inspired epic that took more from A Tale of Two Cities and Doctor Zhivago than DC Comics—left fans divided. It also was a narrative dead end for the corporate/fanbase need of an ongoing franchise. Nolan instead reached a final, artistic, and emphatic period for his cinematic interpretation of Batman mythology. By comparison, Marvel Studios has created a new cinematic vernacular that only ever uses dashes, semicolons, and commas. There is always more to tell.

Nolan reflected on these changing circumstances for superhero movies in 2017 when he said, “That’s a privilege and a luxury that filmmakers aren’t afforded anymore. I think it was the last time that anyone was able to say to a studio, ‘I might do another one, but it will be four years.’ There’s too much pressure on release schedules to let people do that now, but creatively it’s a huge advantage.”

This lines up with what Jeff Bridges said about the evolution of the Marvel method way back in ’09 after the first Iron Man: “You would think with a $200 million movie you’d have the shit together, but it was just the opposite. And the reason for that is because they get ahead of themselves. They have a release date before the script [and they think], ‘Oh, we’ll have the script before that time,’ and they don’t have their shit together.”

Bridges’ unhappiness with the new process notwithstanding, Marvel was rewriting the playbook about how these types of movies were made. Nolan’s approach of one at a time and years-long development processes created three distinctly different and relatively standalone Batman movies. But Marvel has shifted the idea of not just what a franchise can be, but also what cinematic storytelling means.

Instead of three movies, their rules and structures have generated dozens of well-received and adored entertainments, that when combined can produce experiences as unique as Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019): two movies that were more like a two-part season finale on TV than individual stories. And the latter became the highest grossing film of all time.

The success of this approach is further underlined when one considers competitors that tried to emulate both Marvel and Nolan’s approaches, relying on a lone auteur to build a shared cinematic universe—while also arguably taking the wrong lessons from the “dark” in The Dark Knight title. In the case of the DC Extended Universe, that approach collapsed on itself after three movies, leaving the interconnected “shared” part of its universe in tatters, and fans and studio hands alike divided on how to proceed with the franchise.The Marvel Cinematic Universe took a narrower road than that of The Dark Knight. But it turned out to be a lot smoother and much, much longer.

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The post Did The Dark Knight Really Influence the Marvel Cinematic Universe? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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Top 10 Superhero Films of All Time

Everyone has their own lists, and everyone will have their own opinion. This list includes films that not only have a good story, staggering box office numbers, and mystifying visual effects but also a strong international appeal, even a global cult following, and most importantly, a strong villain. Here are our top ten superhero films of all time.

Captain Marvel

2019 was a big year for Marvel. Not only were they able to garner over $3 billion at the box office, but they also introduced their first female superhero-Captain Marvel.

The Brie Larson starrer was a film that preceded the Avengers: Endgame and sort of had a similar job that Black Panther had for Avengers Infinity War.

No question about Larson’s acting prowess but there are very few who consider the film better than Wonder Woman. Even Marvel fans weren’t too excited about Larson, someone like Emily Blunt would have certainly made them appreciate the film more. Furthermore, Larson’s endeavor to connect the film with her activist movement didn’t help the film’s PR strategy. As a result of this, there isn’t much excitement about the sequel of Captain Marvel.

Man of Steel

Zack Snyder’s 2013 film was pitched as a film that will reinstate Superman as the most powerful superhero in pop culture and announce the arrival of the DCEU (DC Extended Universe), aka Justice League franchise, at the box office. The film was reasonably successful because of the visual spectacle, Henry Cavill’s persona, and Hans Zimmer’s deeply engaging soundtrack.

However, lackluster villains, no proper planning, and abysmal editing in film’s sequels led to the eventual downfall of DCEU.

DC is in the rebuilding phase after the shocker of the Justice League and is looking forward to bringing the franchise back on track.

Thor: The Dark World

The second film in the Thor franchise was the final film that Natalie Portman did with MCU before she parted ways citing creative differences.  However, she will return as Jane Foster almost after a decade with the fourth installment of the Thor franchise (Thor: Love and Thunder)

The film gives more insights on Asgard than the first film, and although it could be criticized for utilizing scientific annotation in a wrong way the cinematography, action, and the acting of the ensemble cast makes the film worth a watch.

Wonder Woman

2017 blockbuster directed Patty Jenkins remains to this day arguably the best film of the DCEU franchise, and before that, there wasn’t anything really substantial in terms of fan appeasement. However, DCEU has been in the rebuilding phase, and with recent films like Shazam and Aquaman, there is so much to look forward to.

The Gal Gadot starrer also has a sequel in line, which is gearing up for the October the 2nd release date.

Avengers: Infinity War

It broke the record of Avatar in a matter of days and remained the highest-grossing film of all time until, of course, its sequel was released. Avengers: Infinity War is famous for his powerhouse of stars, visual effects, and Josh Brolin’s dominance as Thanos.

The climax of the film is very dark and arguable will remain the darkest moment in Marvel film history for a long time. I mean, how dark can Marvel get? It’s not DC. This should be the threshold.

Infinity War is an insane film, and I mean the literal word-insane. Ten years before, if somebody had mentioned an idea like this, he or she would have been called nuts. The film should have been impossible to make, but it happened, and for it to happen, several blockbusters had to be made in order to set up the events in Infinity War.

The sheer audacity and the strategy involved to create a franchise like this is nothing short of a work of genius.

Doctor Strange

It was the second film in phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and starred Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch in the titular role.

Doctor Strange possessed both magic and intelligence, and this origin film firmly established Cumberbatch’s prominence in Marvel’s plans for the future. He is arguably the frontrunner, along with Brie Larson, to take the place of Robert Downey Jr as the face of the franchise.

Batman (1989)

Tim Burton’s film was the first installment in the Batman franchise, which slowly but surely lost its way with its sequels.

The film had Michael Keaton starring as Batman and Jack Nicholson as the Joker. The film explored Batman’s early days (which Matt Reeves is also planning to do) and his rivalry with the supervillain Joker.

The film was critically approved and attained commercial affluence. Despite the likes of Christian Bale, Ben Affleck, and Robert Pattinson donning the caped crusader suit years after, Michael Keaton has remained one of the most beloved Batman actors.

But as a fun fact, there were voices at that time that said nobody could surpass Jack Nicholson’s Joker. Not to doubt Nicholson’s virtuosity, but the voice turned out to be wrong…the point, which we will address with the first ranked film in our list.

The Dark Knight Rises

Although it is regarded as one of Christopher Nolan’s weakly written scripts, the soundtrack, cinematography, sequence, and the acting done in the film are top-notch.

Nolan reluctantly agreed to do this film and finally bid adieu to the Batman franchise as a director. The film perfectly ended the story of Bruce Wayne and gave the possibility of continuation through Robin’s character, but the franchise hasn’t been touched upon ever since.

It ranks on 12th position in the highest-grossing films of all time and is Christopher Nolan’s highest-grossing film ever.  Nolan co-wrote the script of the film along with his brother Jonathan and David S. Goyer. Just like its prequel, the focus was mainly on the visuals and the story and less on the action.

V for Vendetta

It’s not so much of a superhero film, but it is one of the rare films ever made. V for Vendetta was a DC film based on the 1988 storyline of a limited series of the same name from DC Vertigo comics.

The film starred Hugo Weaving and Natalie Portman in lead roles. The film is filled with symbolic significance, acting brilliance, and powerful dialogues. Portman won a Saturn Award for this film and it is one of her best performances.

The Dark Knight

The 2008 film directed by Christopher Nolan is arguably one of the best films ever made. The film is always held in juxtaposition with the vintage film Godfather but the most surprising thing is that it wasn’t even nominated in the best film category at 2009 Oscars.

The film holds the pedigree of not being just the best superhero film ever made but also the best crime thriller ever made.

The ensemble cast of Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Heath Ledger, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, and Aaron Eckhart delivered a performance that is unfathomably difficult to recreate if not impossible to surpass.

Conclusion

So, here were our top 10 picks for the best superhero films of all time. There can be few honorable mentions that you would argue should have been there in the list itself such as Avengers: Endgame, Logan, Wolverine, Deadpool, Superman Returns, etc.

Source-Superhero Films of All Time

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25 Best Movies on Netflix Right Now (September 2019) | ScreenRant

While Netflix remains far and away the most popular streaming subscription service out there, it's fair to say that their selection of movies isn't quite what it once was. Netflix is opting more and more to focus on their own original content, and while much of that content is good, it doesn't do much for those looking to take in a great movie that Netflix didn't produce.

Reduction in library size aside, Netflix still plays host to some truly great films, ranging all the way from relatively recent superhero adventures to bonafide Oscar-winning classic dramas. Here are the 25 best films on Netflix that you can watch right now.

NOTE: This list is updated regularly - to ensure availability of the movies listed. Also, the list isn't ranked from worst to best, so a lower number is not meant to denote higher quality. It's just a list of 25 great movies.

Last updated: September 5, 2019

Related: Netflix Stock Hits All-Time High, Now Worth $130 Billion

Before the list proper, there are some notes to be made. First, Netflix offers a different selection in every country it services, and this list focuses solely on films available to U.S. subscribers. That said, those outside the U.S. are encouraged to still check their country's line-up, as some of these picks may also be available to them. Secondly, these 25 films are available to stream as of this writing. If and when included titles are removed from Netflix, this list will be updated with new selections.

25 Monty Python and the Holy Grail

A feature-film offshoot of the classic sketch comedy series Monty Python's Flying Circus, 1975's Monty Python and the Holy Grail is regularly cited as one of the funniest comedies of all time, and is also one of the most influential movies in history. Monty Python and the Holy Grail is the film that launched a thousand memes, and anyone who watches it for the first time on Netflix is likely to come away in awe at how many common pop cultural references they now understand. For those who can't get enough, Monty Pyton's Flying Circus' full run is also available to stream.

24 Tucker & Dale vs. Evil

One of the lesser-known movies on this list, 2010's Tucker & Dale vs. Evil only received a limited theatrical release, but that doesn't make it any less a great option for a night of Netflix viewing. Directed by Eli Craig, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil stars Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine as the titular duo, mild-mannered hillbillies living in West Virginia. Tucker and Dale are nice people, but resemble the type of backwoods villains seen in many a horror movie, and a series of comic misunderstandings lead a group of young friends to believe the two capable of murder. A lesson in not judging a book by its cover, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil is a great blend of slasher and comedy.

23 Pulp Fiction

Director Quentin Tarantino's resume boasts many terrific films, but 1994's Pulp Fiction is still arguably his signature work, decades after it took pop culture by storm. Boasting a star-studded cast of acting greats - John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Ving Rhames, and more - Pulp Fiction is one of the slickest, coolest crime thrillers to emerge from the 1990s. Chances are most reading this have seen it, but those who haven't owe it to themselves to give it a watch on Netflix.

Related: All of Quentin Tarantino's Movies, Ranked

22 American Psycho

While landing the role of Batman in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy may be what cemented Christian Bale as an A-list star, just a few years earlier, the actor drew raves for his portrayal of yuppie serial killer Patrick Bateman in director Mary Harron's American Psycho. An adaptation of Brett Easton Ellis' controversial 80s-set book, the recently added to Netflix film excises some of Ellis' more upsetting sequences, but still manages to craft one of the most fascinating horror films of its decade. For his part, Bale is a revelation, exuding both undeniable menace and his own odd charm.

21 Hellboy

While it's sad that director Guillermo Del Toro and star Ron Perlman never got to finish their Hellboy trilogy, there's no reason not to go back and watch their original 2004 effort again on Netflix. Hellboy only did decently at the box office, but was critically acclaimed, and earned a big enough cult fanbase to receive 2008 sequel Hellboy II: The Golden Army. The Hellboy franchise will soon be rebooted with David Harbour in the lead role and Neil Marshall behind the camera, but to many, Perlman will be always be Big Red.

20 Moonlight

Directed by Barry Jenkins, 2016's coming-of-age drama Moonlight will - for better or worse - probably always be known as the movie that won Best Picture only after the award had been mistakenly given to La La Land. That aside, Moonlight deserved the awards love, and is definitely in the top tier of Netflix's movie selection. The film follows three stages in the life of Chiron Harris (Alex Hibbert, Ashton Sanders, and Trevante Rhodes), a young black man trying to both make his way in the world and come to terms with his sexuality, despite dealing with homophobia and his drug-addicted mother. Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Janelle Monae, and Andre Holland also star.

Related: Where Does Moonlight Rank Among Recent Best Picture Winners?

19 Groundhog Day

Bill Murray is generally regarded as one of the most beloved actors of all time, and boasts a resume most performers would be jealous of. Truly one of his best turns came in 1993's Groundhog Day, playing acerbic weatherman Phil Connors. To call Phil a huge jerk would be putting it mildly, but fate has decided to make him relive the same titular day over and over again, until he learns to be a better man. A critical darling, the film was directed by Murray's old Ghostbusters pal Harold Ramis, and is a top-tier Netflix addition.

18 Platoon

While director Oliver Stone is most closely associated nowadays with his penchant for conspiracy theories and being outspoken politically, that doesn't mean his films aren't still by and large brilliant, and worth checking out on Netflix. One of the best is 1986's Platoon, which is based on Stone's own experiences serving in the Vietnam War. The cast is loaded with talent, including Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Keith David, Forest Whitaker, and even Johnny Depp in an early role. War truly is hell, and Platoon presents that reality more vividly than the vast majority of movies.

17 Taxi Driver

Often cited as one of legendary director Martin Scorsese’s best films, 1976’s Taxi Driver also features one of the greatest performances to come out of the long acting career of Robert De Niro. Written by Paul Schrader, Taxi Driver stars De Niro as Travis Bickle, an already tightly wound Vietnam veteran who finds himself slowly becoming more and more disillusioned with society after witnessing the rampant crime and corruption in New York City. Bickle of course eventually snaps, going on one of cinema’s most infamous violent rampages. Any serious film fan needs to have seen this film, and Netflix is a great way to do it.

Related: Martin Scorsese's 10 Best Movies, According To Rotten Tomatoes

16 Raiders of the Lost Ark

Directed by legendary hit-maker Steven Spielberg, 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark introduced the world to one of the greatest action/adventure franchises in cinematic history, and also one of cinema's greatest heroes. Harrison Ford stars as Indiana Jones, a university professor professionally, but a crusading archaeologist and adventurer in his off time. In his film debut, Indy outruns giant boulders, punches out giant Nazis, and quests for the fabled biblical artifact known as the Ark of the Covenant. All three Indiana Jones sequels are also now on Netflix.

15 V for Vendetta

Many pieces of dystopian fiction have taken a look at what the residents of a so-called democracy will tolerate in the name of security, and V for Vendetta treads that well-worn path to an extent. Based on a graphic novel written by  comics legend Alan Moore though, the Wachowskis' film manages to inject new life into the idea of a dystopian future. Set in an alternative UK ruled by a neo-fascist regime, V for Vendetta stars Hugo Weaving as the titular enigmatic revolutionary, and Natalie Portman as Evey, who (initially unwillingly) gets sucked into his crusade. This movie is more than worth streaming on Netflix, even if it isn't the 5th of November.

14 Black Panther

After making a celebrated debut in Captain America: Civil War, T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) got a movie to call his own with colossal 2018 hit Black Panther. To refer to director Ryan Coogler's new to Netflix film as a success would almost be a disservice to just how well it performed, hauling in over $1 billion at the box office, and earning critical raves (97% on RT). While T'Challa was snuffed out by Thanos' snap near the end of Avengers: Infinity War, it's obviously only a matter of time until the King of Wakanda returns.

Related: Black Panther’s Success ‘Emboldened’ Marvel To Pursue More Diverse Movies

13 Gremlins

It really says something about the enduring popularity of director Joe Dante's 1984 hit Gremlins that there's seemingly always talk about a new addition to the franchise, despite no films being made since 1990's Gremlins 2: The New Batch. A seamless blend of comedy, horror, and Christmas, Gremlins introduced the world to the adorable Mogwai known as Gizmo, as well as the malevolent titular creatures that spawn when the rules of Mogwai care are violated. Produced by Steven Spielberg, Gremlins was also one of the films that pushed the limits of the PG rating, leading to the creation of PG-13. It may not be December, but Gremlins is a great year-round Netflix pick.

12 The Sixth Sense

While director M. Night Shyamalan's career hasn't quite lived up to what most expected, his 1999 breakout hit (85% score on RT) The Sixth Sense made such a great first impression that he's arguably been riding its wave ever since. Bruce Willis stars as Dr. Malcolm Crowe, a psychiatrist trying to help troubled young boy Cole (Haley Joel Osment), who is burdened with the ability to see and interact with ghosts. For those wondering, no, the big twist won't be spoiled here, for the small subset of Netflix subscribers who aren't already aware of what it is.

11 Rain Man

One of the many triumphs to come out of the 1980s from director Barry Levinson, Rain Man tells the unlikely story of slick, fast-talking hustler Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise, in one of the early roles that proved to audiences that he was capable of far more then headlining popcorn fare like Top Gun), who's shocked to find out his father’s sizable estate is being passed on almost entirely to autistic savant Raymond (Dustin Hoffman), an older brother he never knew he had. A critical darling, Rain Man picked up four Oscars, including Best Picture, and Best Actor for Hoffman. It's a great addition to the Netflix catalog.

Related: Tom Cruise's 10 Best Movies, According To Rotten Tomatoes

10 The Conjuring

One of the creepiest films to grace Netflix, director James Wan's The Conjuring impressed both fans and critics, earning an 86% RT score and making a truckload of money. The Conjuring has since spawned its own cinematic universe of sequels and spinoffs, including about the possessed doll Annabelle. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga star as real life "demonologists" Ed and Lorraine Warren, while Lili Taylor and Ron Livingston play the heads of the family beset by demonic forces.

9 Avengers: Infinity War

Arriving on Netflix just in time for Christmas 2018 is Marvel Studios' MCU blockbuster to end all MCU blockbusters, Avengers: Infinity War. Well, at least until the story continues in 2019's Avengers: Endgame. It's hard to imagine anyone reading this hasn't seen Joe and Anthony Russo's $2 billion-grossing, critically acclaimed hit, but that doesn't mean there''s no reason to stream it again. Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Chris Pratt, Josh Brolin, Tom Holland, Scarlett Johansson, and more fill-out Marvel's most star-studded project to date.

8 Schindler's List

An Oscar-darling - winning seven awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Steven Spielberg - Schindler's List (97% on Rotten Tomatoes) is widely considered one of the greatest films of all time, and it's now on Netflix. However, it's also one of the hardest to watch, as the subject matter is just so incredibly sad. Liam Neeson stars as Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who effectively saved the lives of over a thousand Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories. Ben Kingsley and Ralph Fiennes also star.

Related: Our 10 Favorite Modern Black and White Movies

7 All the President's Men

Considering the modern day scandal surrounding the American presidency, there's never been a better time to revisit the 1976 classic All the President's Men on Netflix. Directed by Alan J. Pakula, All the President's Men shines a spotlight on the real story of reporting duo Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman), whose work helped expose the truth behind the infamous Watergate scandal, and bring down president Richard Nixon. The film earned eight Oscar nominations, winning four.

6 Thor: Ragnarok

One of the most recent entries into Marvel Studios' MCU canon, director Taika Waititi's Thor: Ragnarok represented a major shift in tone and style from the prior Thor films. Thankfully, this new, sillier version of Thor went over well with the masses, and is an excellent choice for Netflix streaming. Critics also loved it, with the sequel sporting a 92% score on RT. Ragnarok sees Chris Hemsworth's Asgardian hero set out to save his home from Hela (Cate Blanchett), aka the Goddess of Death. Assisting him in this quest are Loki (Tom Hiddleston), the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), and Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson).

5 Rocky

While all the sequels don't necessarily live up to the greatness of the original, inspirational sports dramas don't really get more inspirational than 1976's Rocky, the movie that made star Sylvester Stallone an icon. Stallone also wrote the script, which concerns small-time boxer Rocky Balboa getting an unexpected shot at world heavyweight champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers). Rocky would go on to win Best Picture at the Oscars, and give birth to a franchise that still continues via the Creed films. Rocky II through Rocky V are also available on Netflix.

Read More: All 8 Rocky & Creed Movies Ranked: From 1976 To 2018

4 Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Since 2016, Peter Parker's live-action film incarnation has been swinging under the auspices of Marvel Studios' MCU franchise, but last year, Sony did something outside those bounds, creating an Oscar-winning animated masterpiece called Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Featuring the voice of Shameik Moore as Miles Morales, Into the Spider-Verse sees an experiment ordered by Kingpin go awry, and rip a hole in reality that allows Spider-people from various alternate universes to journey over to Miles' world. It's then up to the group of heroes to close the rift, and get everyone back to the dimension they belong in.

3 Jackie Brown

The third feature film by director Quentin Tarantino, Jackie Brown is an adaptation of author Elmore Leonard's 1992 novel Rum Punch, and stars blaxploitation legend Pam Grier in the titular role of a stewardess who runs afoul of a crime lord. In many ways a tribute to Grier's classics like Foxy Brown, Jackie Brown's star-studded cast also includes Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster, Bridget Fonda, Michael Keaton, and Robert De Niro. While not as highly regarded as predecessor Pulp Fiction, critics still loved Jackie Brown, and it’s a prime Netflix pick.

2 Scream

After ruling the 1980s, the slasher subgenre of horror had fallen off big time by the mid-1990s. That was until director Wes Craven came along in 1996 to revitalize it, just as he had in 1984 with A Nightmare on Elm Street. In addition to being a brutal slasher flick, Scream is also one big love letter to horror fans, taking pleasure in both pointing out the cliches of the genre and still indulging in many of them. Scream is also a damn good murder mystery, keeping the viewer guessing as to the identity of the masked Ghostface killer. Those wanting to binge the franchise are out of luck though, as the only sequel Netflix offers is Scream 4.

1 Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Easily one of - if not the - most controversial and divisive entries in the entire Star Wars canon among fans, director Rian Johnson's Star Wars: The Last Jedi was nevertheless a huge hit with critics, earning a stellar 91% score on RT. The sequel also earned huge bank at the box office, hauling in over $1.3 billion worldwide, and easily topping the list of the highest-grossing movies of 2017. Whatever one thinks of The Last Jedi, it's impossible to deny that the film is worth a Netflix watch at least once, in order to be part of the ongoing cultural conversation surrounding it.

More: The 25 Best Movies on Hulu Right Now

source https://screenrant.com/netflix-best-films/

[seriouslyhooked]

False Alarms (A CS AU) Part 11/12

Modern AU where Emma is a Boston police detective and Killian is a firefighter. They both get called to a fire in progress but it ends up being a false alarm, however there can be no denying the sparks between them. Includes fluff and my usual attempts at humor as well as a touch of fake-dating and meddling friends. Inspired by the song ‘False Alarm’ by Motoma and Becky Hill. Rated M.

Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six,Part Seven, Part Eight, Part Nine, Part Ten ; On Fanfiction Here.

A/N: Okay all so thank you for being so patient in getting here. I am so happy that I’ve finally written this AU’s wedding, and it comes bearing not just my usual fluff but also some honeymoon smut as well. After all, I need more scenes of tropically bound CS enjoying each other and a break from the world, and what better time to have that than in the final chapter of a fic like this? Anyway hope you all enjoy and thanks so much for reading!

As far as last minute shifts in wedding days went, Killian couldn’t imagine stumbling upon a better one for him and Emma. Everything had come together in the less than twenty-four hours since Emma made her decision to move up the ceremony, and through the hard work of so many people who loved him and his bride to be Killian was standing in the midst of a fully formed and actualized wedding that he knew Emma would love.

Every element had manifested today so effortlessly, from the weather that was mild with only enough clouds in the sky to make for a gorgeous sunset in a few minutes time, to the change in venue that had to come with the sudden shift in plans. Despite trying her best to reorganize with the owners of the club where things had been planned for months, Emma’s mother hadn’t been able to bend things to her will, but it felt almost divinely crafted in the end. For now, after some ingenious planning on both Mary Margaret and Elsa’s parts, Emma and Killian were getting married at Anna and Kristoff’s Arendelle Estate and tying today back with the first date they’d shared many months ago. It was incredibly poetic, and somehow perfect even though none of this would have happened were it not for the twist of fate they’d faced yesterday.

In the times before when Killian had visited here he’d always admired the beauty of this piece of property and the lushness of this land so near the sea, but he never could have imagined it as it was now. In a matter of hours the place had been totally transformed and now the spacious grounds bore not only delicate floral designs and twinkling lights under a huge white tent for the reception, but a tasteful and elegant setup on the beach for the actual ceremony to take place. This would be the sacred spot Killian would always think of when he reflected on the day his whole world changed, and in just a matter of moments it was where Emma and Killian would be saying ‘I do’ in front of all the people here to wish them well this evening.

The thought that those vows were closer than ever and that soon enough he and Emma would be man and wife meant everything to Killian, but it was arguably even more powerful given everything they’d gone through yesterday. It was impossible for Killian to not still be effected by what had happened, and though he’d had hours to spend with Emma since then and a night wrapped up in her despite the old tradition of separation most couples kept, it wasn’t quite enough to wash away the memory of the fear he’d felt.

“I’m here, Killian,” Emma had promised him more than once as her hands roamed over his body or her mouth trailed kisses along his skin. “I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere.”

It had taken a little time to believe that despite Killian’s constant ability to trust the woman he loved, but finally it did sink in and his heart was secure enough in her safety to let go of most of the pain, but the memory of it would always remain with him. For though Emma might have been the one to take the hit of that bullet, Killian felt the impact of the trauma right down to his bones in an undeniable way. This was because for all intents and purposes their lives were already tied together, and a risk to one was a risk to both that could injure unlike anything else in the world.

Words were simply inadequate when it came to the descriptions of how it had felt to go through such a moment, and there was nothing else Killian had ever faced that could compare to the horror of believing his Emma was hurt. Not even in moments when his own life was in peril had Killian ever known fear like that, but in the light of a new day, and with the proof ever increasing that Emma was truly okay and that she would soon bear no physical scars of that day at all, he was slowly returning to that center of calm. Emma was proving, as always, to be his anchor, and he wasn’t ashamed to say that he depended on her. His life had swiftly become something better than he could ever have dreamed of because he had her, and so he’d been more than ready to side with her thoughts that they shouldn’t wait to cement their commitment any longer. No matter what the cost or what the process, the two of them wanted to be married, and thankfully they were nearly there with only a few more minutes left to go before they could truly be on their way to a forever spent together.

“I hardly have to ask given the look on your face right now, but I will anyway… are you sure you’re ready for this, little brother? It’s a big step getting married. Best to be totally certain.”

The implication from Liam that somehow Killian didn’t want to marry Emma and to spend his life at her side was equal parts ridiculous and comical because of how wrong it was. There was truly nothing in the world Killian wanted more than to be with this woman, and there had never come a moment since he’d known her where there had been any doubt on that count. Was he certain? No, he was so much more than that. He was undeniably devoted to the irrefutable truth that Emma Nolan was the one woman in the world for him and that he was a better man for having known her and loved her. But while Killian would have no problem stating that plainly for Emma, he didn’t feel the need in this moment of jest to give his brother the satisfaction of a grand profession.

“I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life,” Killian replied without hesitation, casting his gaze from the aisle where soon Emma would be appearing to find a look of total and complete amusement on Liam’s face and on the faces of Graham and Will, Killian’s two other groomsmen present today.

The expressions his brother and friends touted were more than smug, and for a moment Killian regretted having even selected a group of mates to stand here with him at all. This teasing was hardly new, and in fact Killian had been saddled with it all day between everyone poking fun at his impatience and then goading him on with the tiniest hints of how Emma was doing without granting him with any substantial intel. But underneath all of that there was real love and friendship from all of them, and on a day as special as this one Killian couldn’t think of anyone else he’d rather have by his side than these three men.

“Gotta tell you that’s good to hear, mate,” Will joked easily before nodding his head towards the seats in the front row that were reserved for Emma’s parents. “I don’t think the Chief would be at all amused with cold feet when it comes to his daughter.”

“It wouldn’t be the Chief Killian had to worry about,” Graham said with total seriousness. “He’s not the one packing heat. He leaves that to the missus.”

“Wait she’s armed?!” Will asked in total shock, his eyes scanning the crowd for Mary Margaret who was dressed as any mother would be for her daughter’s wedding, and the completely serious reaction had the rest of them laughing.

“No she’s not armed, you maniac. God, have you always been so gullible?” Liam asked before looking to Killian as if to say ‘what’s with this wanker’?

“Will’s typically a bit dense to be sure, but I think the quickness to believe is more thanks to a certain bridesmaid than anything else.”

Killian tried to muster as casual a tone as he could when he hinted at Will’s growing and totally obvious infatuation with one Belle French, but it was hard to keep the smile from his face. After all Killian had pretty much had a front row seat during the previous weeks of preparation to Will’s reaction to Emma’s friend from the station, and it had been anything but collected and calm. In fact it was almost shocking how little game Will seemed to have when he was really interested in someone, and though Killian wasn’t going to tell Will, he knew Belle was somehow receptive to it all the same. The attraction, luckily for Killian’s mate, seemed to be mutual, but what would be the fun in putting Will out of his misery so soon?

“You better keep your eyes off my wife, Scarlet,” Liam warned sternly and somewhat randomly given Killian’s purposeful implication, but when Killian and Graham realized what Liam was on about they both laughed before Graham filled in for Liam’s momentary obtuseness.

“He meant Belle, Liam. Don’t worry, no one’s looking to die today.”

Killian waited after Graham’s more blunt declaration for some kind of response from Will, and though his eyes remained cast in the direction from which Emma would be coming, Killian was surprised not to hear any push back from his friend. This was the moment when Will should be posturing or calling them all idiots. Instead he was surprisingly quiet which spoke volumes to just how right Killian and Graham’s observations had been.

“What’s the matter, Will? Cat got your tongue? Or maybe you’re trying to save up your words for your girl. You could have used them the last time she was talking to you. I mean that was just terrible,” Graham joked and though Killian heard the scuffle of Will shoving Graham’s arm and the whispered threat to ‘bugger off’ Killian was immediately pulled from that jesting by the sounding of the string quartet across the way as they began to play the wedding march.

“This is it, brother,” Liam said jovially, slapping Killian on the back before stepping slightly farther away. “Get ready for the best times of your life.”

There was no way that given his sudden surge of eagerness and excitement that Killian could respond. It felt like his whole world had suddenly spun back into its proper orbit, and the fleeting rays of light cast around them felt warmer and more prevalent now than ever. The sweetness of the music lilted over the beach, complimented nicely by the very subtle splash of waves at the shoreline, but then Emma’s bridesmaids stepped into view one by one and Killian’s hammering heart overpowered all the rest of it. He was so damn ready for Emma to be there, and it took everything in him to stay rooted to his spot when all he wanted was to get to her sooner.

Finally, after what felt like a small kind of eternity, his Emma appeared and words escaped him in that second when Emma finally came into view. It felt like the rest of the world was not so slowly fading away, like it was merely a distant memory of another time and place that didn’t bloody matter. The only room in his heart and mind was dedicated to the stunning woman walking down the aisle towards him on her father’s arm, and the rush of love and hope in Killian’s chest at the sight of her was almost more than he could bear, but he wouldn’t trade it for anything the world over.

A vision in white, that’s what Emma was right now, almost as if an angel had fallen just for him. She was at once delicate and graceful in the ivory lace of her gown, yet somehow she was strong and sure too, and though from outward appearance she was the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen, it was the brightness of her smile and the warmth of her love that shone through more than anything. It added a sparkle to her brilliant green eyes and it felt like all the light in the world was made for her and of her somehow.

All Killian wanted, all that he had ever wanted, was to feel a part of that light and right now he did more so than ever. It was unlike anything Killian had ever experienced before, this pull of complete and total bliss as he gazed upon his future wife, and all the promise of happiness and joy that charged the air around them crackled even more forcefully to life when Emma was just before him and her father placed her hand in Killian’s.

“Take care of my girl, Jones,” David said sternly, and it took everything in Killian to look away from Emma and provide her father with the respect he deserved. Killian nodded quickly, hoping to convey the sincerity he felt as he did.

“Always, sir,” he vowed before adding a truth that shouldn’t be forgotten. “Though I dare say Emma can handle anything herself.”

The Chief seemed to accept that answer, kissing Emma’s temple once more before returning to his seat and taking his spot just beside his wife, leaving Killian and Emma together and alone. Well except for the crowd of onlookers and the justice of the peace of course, but if it weren’t for Emma’s keeping him in the moment, Killian would have ignored all that and laid it all out on the line right then. Every word he’d thought up for his vows was on the tip of his tongue as well as so many more, and his instincts told him to pull this woman close and never let go, ceremonial structure be damned, but he couldn’t risk dulling the brightness in Emma’s eyes in any way, and so he contented himself with holding her hands in his and watching her through every part of the ceremony, soaking her in in all of her splendor.

Finally the moment came when most of the formalities and greetings had been completed and it came time to make their promises to each other, but it still required some waiting on Killian’s part, for his wife had requested to gift him with her vows first. At the time Killian had hardly considered that a problem, but then in the face of Emma’s words he was so overtaken that the vows he’d thought up himself seemed to fly straight out of his head, replaced instead with hers that he’d hold so much closer than any other words he’d ever received.

“Killian, I don’t think there are very many stories that start the way ours did, and if there are then I have never heard of them. The fairytales I read as a kid never said I’d find my one true love on a fire escape in the middle of a ridiculous false alarm, and they definitely didn’t stipulate that my mother and the mayor would meddle the way they did…”

“I didn’t meddle, I just pushed them together a little,” Mary Margaret said from the few feet away she was, pulling an eye roll from Emma and a smile from Killian.

“It’s alright, honey. Whatever you did it turned out all right in the end,” David promised, seemingly appeasing Emma’s mother and allowing Emma to continue on.

“But looking back on what we’ve found and all the good that came from those seemingly random and mostly crazy moments, I wouldn’t change a thing about any of it. Everything we’ve been through, every up and down has led us to this moment, a moment I never believed I’d see because I was too afraid to go there. Love and me had never been something that worked before, and though I always had my parents as a guide for what could be, I didn’t actually think it could happen to me, until I met you. It took meeting a man who was kind and gorgeous and loyal to the end to trust that love like this could be real, and I know in my heart that I needed you, Killian, and I will continue to need you always.

“Maybe that’s not the strongest thing to say but it’s true all the same, because the fact is I am stronger when I’m with you. I’m a better me with you by my side, and I’m a surer person because I know your love and I feel it every day without fail. I can do anything when we’re together, Killian, and I promise to always try and be the same for you. Whatever dreams you have, they’ll be our dreams together, and wherever life may take us, know that you’ll have me with you always.”

It shouldn’t have surprised Killian that in her vows Emma would have found perfection. Every word and every sentiment pierced through him almost to the point of pain, but in a glorious way, and with the truth of her feelings shining so bright, Killian knew she had to mean every word.  But now somehow he had to find words of his own, and though he’d headed into today prepared and believing that he had it all figured out, he spoke from the heart instead, granting Emma the same genuine affection she’d given him and hoping she’d feel them as much as he’d felt hers.

“I love you,” Killian stated plainly before diving into anything else, and the simple statement made Emma’s smile brighten even more before she bit her lip. “I love you, Emma Nolan, and before it happened, before I fell into this miraculous love with you, I didn’t truly know what those three words meant. I believed myself to be aware of what real love entailed, but you have shown me that was not the case. I was blind to so much of what could be and then one day I met a woman, a woman who was capable and fierce and too beautiful to be real who opened my eyes. You can imagine my alarm when I then tried to convince her that she should take a chance on me and she resisted my advances.”

This comment pulled a laugh not just from Emma but from most of the attendees too, but Killian continued on, his thumb running against Emma’s wrist ever so lightly in a silent reminder that these words, even if they were being aired in public, were really just for her. Emma seemed to understand him too, for her smile slid back to that attentive sort of shape it had been in before, and he felt like as consumed as he was by her she was reeling from the exact same feelings.

“You were right before when you said that the going from there was unusual, but in all of the twists and turns, there was never a time when I regretted what we have and what we are. Perhaps our path has been different than others, but I believe it led us somewhere few people ever get to – a state of love so true it has no choice but to endure and to thrive in the face of anything. And I really believe that Emma, that we’ll always endure and have this come what may. I know that together you and I can get through anything, love. We can weather every storm, revel in every blessing, and seize the moments of each day, cherishing them as two people in love should.

“As for dreams, the truth is, Emma, that you are my dream, and the rest of it, the details of the life we’ll make will all be thanks to you. All I could ever ask for is to have you at my side, but I will stop at nothing to give you the world. We’ll find our way together you and I, and I promise that it will be a life worth living. And someday, years from now when we look back on what we’ve had, we won’t carry regrets. We’ll have no what-ifs, only the certainty that this was the happiness we were always meant to find, and that nothing could be better in the world than this love, right here.”

Before Killian could double guess anything he’d said or trace back over his declarations to see if they measured up, Emma showed him just how much she appreciated them by pulling him in for a kiss well before it was time. Killian was hardly off put by that either, but though she’d let the emotion of the moment get the best of her, it was Emma who broke the kiss just as quickly, blushing a rosy shade of pink at her outburst as she did.

“I just couldn’t wait for that,” Emma whispered and Killian’s face came to cup her cheek.

“I’m glad you didn’t. That’s what all this is about – we’ve no need to wait any longer. We have everything now.”

And as soon as their rings had been exchanged, their ‘I dos’ had been stated, and the justice had cemented them as man and wife, another kiss was had out there in the setting sun of a flawless, perfect day to celebrate that fact. For the wait truly was over, and a new chapter had dawned for both of them that was destined to be even better than all the ones that had come before.

……………

Emma didn’t know exact statistics about how often people had perfect honeymoons, but it was safe to say, on the last full day of her and Killian’s trip to this Caribbean island resort enjoying the sands and surf, that they had had one.

There was not one part of this trip, not the weather, or the accommodations, or the atmosphere of this tropical paradise that hadn’t been amazing, and yet Emma had to admit that she was a little biased. After all she was riding a real high from the whole marrying her soul mate thing and it was feasible that they could have ended up in any corner of the world and she’d have loved it as long as she was with Killian.

Today though, Emma had woken up to a prospect she was hoping for all trip that was finally possible. Though her injuries had been relatively minor given her being shot just two weeks before, the bruising through her vest had been less than subtle and as such she’d been forced to cover up a bit more of herself on this vacation so far. But finally, after two weeks of rest and relaxation and tender love and care from her husband Emma was back, fully recuperated without even the faintest trace of the wounds she’d faced. As such, she was eager to share a little gift with the man she loved, and the thought of his face when he realized her intentions had Emma grinning like an idiot as they got ready for their final afternoon in the sun.

“Can you believe it’s our last day here?” Emma asked once she’d finally gotten herself together and was back out in the suite with Killian, concealed by her cover up for the time being and pretending everything was totally normal. “Crazy how time flies when you’re feeling this happy.”

“Aye, love, it’s gone by quickly, but I won’t pretend I’m not a bit eager to be getting back. Going home again holds so much more promise now than it ever did before.”

The fact that Killian could say sweet things like that and it still sent a flutter through Emma spoke volumes to the lasting power of this love that they’d found together, but the craziest part was it was totally natural to him. Killian had always been the kind of man who spoke his mind. He never hid things from Emma or tried to spin himself into something that he wasn’t. What you saw was what you got with Killian, and what Emma got was lucky when he’d stumbled into her life all those months ago and made her fall in love with him.

“Agreed,” Emma said before pressing a kiss to his lips lightly and then pulling away just at the point where he was going to take things further. Not that she would mind getting wrapped up in her husband and never leaving this room, but the promise of the moment she could have if she just showed a little more patience was too strong a call to turn down. Instead she stepped back, running her hand along his chest and smiling. “But in the meantime, I don’t think one more day of sun could hurt.”

As Emma expected, Killian was eager to concur with her and enable anything he thought she might enjoy, and she was going to enjoy this final journey down the sandy path to the little cove that was all theirs during this honeymoon. It was exactly what any two newlyweds could want, totally private and intimately romantic, but try as she might Emma hadn’t been able to get her husband to take advantage of that isolation as of yet. Each time they’d gotten riled up and close to crossing the line he’d always whisk her back to their rooms and make love to her there, but this time Emma wanted to watch Killian so overcome with passion that he couldn’t fend it off. It would be, quite simply, the best way to end this trip, and she was one hundred percent confident that she’d get her way if she played her cards right.

“All right, all things consider I admit there are some things I’ll miss about this trip,” Killian admitted when they’d finally arrived at their loungers by the shore. “Namely the warmer climates and the fact that we’ve gone two whole weeks without a single interruption to our time alone. Home hardly boasts the same potential.”

“You don’t think my parents will be interested in granting us some ‘newly married’ privacy?” Emma joked, knowing for a fact that wasn’t happening. No sadly enough once they touched down in Boston again things would largely go back to the way they always had been, and while there was certainly comfort in that fact, there was also the inconvenience that being so close to family always seemed to bring.

“I think I’m damned glad I stole back your mother’s key again. Maybe if we give her the run around for a few weeks about having another made I’ll be marginally more forgiving of her intrusions. But that’s only if I have a little time alone with my wife first.”

“Moment crashing parents or not we have more than a ‘little time,’” Emma murmured seductively. “We’ve got forever, or had you forgotten that?”

“Hardly, love,” Killian said as he pulled her back in close stealing another heated kiss that threw Emma slightly off kilter before he pulled back and rested his forehead against hers, looking like he was working hard to keep from giving in to the heat of this embrace and the lust brimming underneath the surface. “You could say I’m totally dependent on that forever. I’d never make the mistake of taking it for granted.”

“You are way too charming for your own good, Sergeant. You realize that right?” Emma asked as she shook her head, watching her husband’s smile tip up to one side and his blue eyes fill with the light of good humor. But it wouldn’t last as long as he was probably anticipating, not when Emma had decided this was the moment of truth and she began taking apart the wrap she’d worn, revealing the barely-there bathing suit she was donning underneath.

For a few seconds it didn’t seem to compute for Killian. That same almost roguish smile remained, and though he watched her with that same attentive level of fascination that he always did, Killian was fixated on her motions more than her body itself. Eventually though that shifted, likely because there was suddenly far more of her bare skin on display than in days past, and in the instant her master plan dawned on Killian, his smile slipped and something so much deeper was revealed in its stead.

Whatever Emma had imagined the reaction would be from Killian in the times she’d fantasized about this eventual reveal it couldn’t compare to the actual response, which was simultaneously aghast and ravenous at once. There was this almost tangible sense of worry that she was so on display right now, though not in a way that undercut her authority to do as she pleased. Killian would never call that into question, but already Emma could see the gears turning in his mind about how he could convince her not to be so blatantly revealing for (what he thought was) the world to see. But more than that vein of protectionist thinking there was a hunger that Emma craved and wanted and that outshone all the rest of it when all was said and done. That look, the look like Killian simply couldn’t control his desire for her try as he might, sent a shooting pulse through her system and heated her substantially.

“Bloody hell,” he cursed to himself and Emma bit back her victorious grin, trying to play it off like she was oblivious to his thinking and probably failing miserably in her acting like this wasn’t totally planned.

“Do you like it?” she asked, turning around and giving Killian a view from the back as she moved to drape the cover up she’d worn over the arm of one of the chairs. In seconds Killian was there, his hands coming to hold her hips and bring her against him. It sent a thrill zinging down her spine and through every nerve to feel how hard he already was and how ready he was physically to give into her tease, but Emma didn’t retreat, instead arching just the tiniest bit closer to him to show this was exactly what she wanted.

“Like isn’t exactly the word, my love. I believe I’m right between love and loathe when it comes to this particular ensemble.”

“Loathe, huh? Sounds intense,” Emma whispered as his hand moved across her abdomen, his fingers tracing just above the bottom of the skimpy white suit and leaving goose bumps on her skin from the seductive chill it sparked.

“The thought that another soul would ever see you in this does not exactly sit well with me, Emma,” he growled and Emma smiled at that before moving her hand over his and looking back over her shoulder at him. “But at the same time I’m powerless to deny just how stunning you are.”

“Good thing there’s no one here to see me then,” Emma reasoned, her voice coming out with a breathy intone that hadn’t been there at the start of this talk and that only ever came when this man’s hands were on her body like so. “Consider this a present just for you.”

“Is that what this is? And here I thought it was a challenge, and a rather blatant one at that. You’re hoping I’ll lose all control and take you right out here, aren’t you, love?”

Words wouldn’t even form at that point on Emma’s tongue, not when Killian’s lips had found that spot just behind her ear and then moved lower as one of his hands came up to the flimsy and straining tie between her breasts that was keeping the mere scrap of material on her chest at all. With deliberate slowness Killian pulled at it, and just when it was about to give he stopped, waiting for her answer and chuckling against her skin.

“Tell me what you want, Emma. Tell me how you want your husband to take you right out here in the open. You know I’ll always give you what you desire, my love. All you need to do is ask.”

Emma’s eyes closed at the command and she had to work hard to cut through that underlying hum of need and want that had enveloped her. She was feeling so much because of the undeniable mastery Killian had over her body, but it also didn’t hurt that she was helplessly in love with him. Every touch was more than just a pleasurable sensation, but an affirmation that her world was completely and totally right. Part of her swore she had to be dreaming because no one could have this level of unbridled joy, but she did – they did – and all she had to do was tell Killian what she wanted and that would be highlighted even more in the most amazing way.

“You’re actually going to go along with this?” Emma asked, stunned that she’d formed a sentence at all, but slightly frustrated at the fact that she was stalling further from all that Killian was promising with those glorious hands of his.

“Is it what you want, Emma?” Killian asked, his other hand dipping below the thin material of her bottom piece and Emma nodded before finally uttering the word aloud.

“Yes. Definitely yes.”

“Then it’s exactly what we’ll have, love,” Killian promised as he maneuvered her swiftly over to the bed-like structure that was spread out behind the loungers. It was meant to be a block from the heat of the sun with its pitched white canopy above, but Emma’s genius of a husband was going to use this more spacious spot to give Emma exactly what she’d been after since seeing this whole set up in the first place.

The dance that unfolded from there was the most maddening kind of tango between fast and achingly slow. To say that it was teasing was too mild; it was an undeniable onslaught of sensation all courtesy of a man who knew Emma better than she knew herself. Every touch and every kiss was deliberate, and when coupled with the whispered words of praise for her that Killian couldn’t seem to keep contained it had Emma’s pulse roaring with fire and want and need. She was ready for this before they’d even begun, but Emma knew that getting her way didn’t mean she was exactly leading this perusal. If anything she was just along for the delicious and tantalizing ride.

“Do you want to know a secret, my love?” Killian asked what could have been minutes or days later after spending what felt like forever riling her up with roaming hands and kisses to her neck and then down to her breasts where he’d spent so much time and meticulous attention pulling out every ounce of pleasure he could.

Emma honestly didn’t know if she had the ability to say yes as his body moved lower and he trailed kisses and nips down from her breasts along the planes of her stomach. She was so distracted and caught up in all of this, but then his eyes flicked back to hers, teasing and taunting and challenging her in a way she had to rise to no matter how much she was experiencing right now.

“Tell me,” she pleaded, her voice breathy and not bothering to conceal how turned on she was. This of course left Killian grinning and looking every part the conquering hero.

“Your gift, undeniably perfect as it might be, was hardly necessary. You see I had every intention of fulfilling your desires today plan or no plan.”

“You did?!” Emma asked, her words basically choked out as Killian’s hands removed the last bit of fabric between them, revealing her to him. “But I thought…”

“You thought I was suspect of the lack of privacy,” Killian filled in when Emma’s train of thought slipped for a moment. “And I was for the first few days. But more than that I feared giving in would mean having less time for you to thoroughly enjoy this trip. All it would have taken was one memory of having you out here as I wanted and I wouldn’t have stopped. It never would have been enough.”

Emma was trying to comprehend everything that Killian was saying, but just when understanding began to dawn on her it shattered as his mouth came to her sex. Then all thoughts were lost and the only thing left was fireworks and the throbbing, electrifying bliss of his talented tongue working its magic. In truth every part of it was so fantastic that Emma fell into her climax before she even thought possible, shattering into what felt like a million pieces only for Killian to put her back together as he made his way back up her body to look into her eyes.

“Truth is, Emma, resistance when it comes to you is futile. It’s almost as if your will is my command, probably because we both always want the same things.”

“So stop resisting,” Emma replied as her hands moved down the defined slope of his chest and then lower, feeling the taut muscles that spoke to his barely restrained need. In this moment Killian had finally stilled long enough for Emma to have some kind of upper hand, and she wasn’t fool enough to waste it. Instead she took advantage of the opening and flipped their positions so Killian was beneath her now, looking like he was seconds away from caving fully as she came to line herself up with his hard, waiting length. “Give in with me.”

Killian didn’t need to be told twice, and Emma was fully ready to take charge of this union, bringing them together over and over again as the pressure inside of her built. It was slow at first, building to something so much stronger, but soon it gave way to hard and fast and finally they were both teetering over the edge and into a release so sweet it outshone everything else, leaving Emma spent and sated and totally content.

“That was… well I don’t even think there’s words for what that was,” Emma said, swearing there shouldn’t be a high so good but thankful that there was and that she’d found it with Killian. People didn’t get this lucky, but somehow they were and it was almost like magic in how rare all of this was.

“Aye, love, I think we’re in agreement on that. Perhaps I shouldn’t have denied you all those other times. Clearly you were onto something,” Killian acquiesced, pulling a smile to Emma’s lips as she snuggled in closer to him.

“I think you just more than made it up to me,” Emma teased and Killian chuckled, his fingers tracing shapes along her bare back as the vibration of it ran through her.

“You mentioned our return home before, Emma, and I just want you to know that whatever happiness we’ve had here isn’t going anywhere. We’ll carry it with us always. No matter where we are, no matter what we face, we’ll always have this. We’ll always have us.”

Emma knew that was true and as she looked up into her husband’s eyes, she saw glimpses of that happiness they were going to have. After years of seeing something similar with her parents, Emma knew what a marriage built with the foundations of true and lasting love looked like. It wouldn’t always be easy, but it would always be worth it and Emma knew she and Killian were both determined to give this there all. They’d walk through life together and face each triumph (like starting the family they both wanted), and each set back (which were bound to pop up given their jobs and the risks they came with), and though it might not always be sunshine and smooth sailing, it would be the best part of her world and one of the greatest things she’d ever done.

“I love you,” Emma whispered as her hand ran across Killian’s jaw, grazing the spot where flesh met the stubble of his beard and taking comfort in that rough scratch that she’d grown so familiar with.

“And I love you, Emma. For this day and all days still to come.”

With those precious words and another kiss, Emma and Killian set out to enjoy the last fleeting hours of their honeymoon before returning back home soon after and finding that Killian was absolutely right. The joy did last, and their love grew ever stronger as weeks turned into months and months to years. Eventually the family they dreamed of came to be too, and with it came a stronger understanding of just how much they’d found together. It was a gift Emma and Killian would never trade for anything, and to have all that while still having the work that the two of them loved made for a wonderful kind of balance that facilitated a truly beautiful life.

And in the end, despite the odds being stacked against them, and despite all obstacles the world might through their way, the love of these two people remained constant and endured. Because for Killian and Emma Jones there would never be anything more important than love and fighting for it always and forever.

Post-Note: So to say this has been a fun little fic for me to explore is an understatement, and as long as I’ve been writing CS I’ve always wanted a story with Emma as a detective and Killian as a firefighter. It’s a trope I’ve always enjoyed, and because of that it’s bittersweet to have this story ending. As of right now this is the last chapter of the fic (though I intend to craft an epilogue sometime later this summer) but I went out I believe with my usual brand of fluff and cuteness. I hope that you will all agree, and I appreciate all the kindness and support you guys have sent my way during this project. It’s been delightful and I really enjoy seeing what you guys think. Anyway hope you have great rest of your day and thank you all very much for reading!

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MonsterVerse Movies Ranked: From Godzilla vs. Kong to King of the Monsters

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When Hollywood’s history in the 2010s is written, it will be called the era of the big, extravagant shared universes. There were superheroes, yes, from Marvel Studios to DC Films; but there was also the failure to launch the Universal Monsters into the “Dark Universe,” and Star Wars going to TV. And then there was the MonsterVerse. Pound for pound, there was nothing bigger in scale (particularly when it came to protagonists’ height) than this Americanized vision of the kaiju. It’s the wild concept that brought Godzilla back to the West and put him in a death match with King Kong.

While currently only four films in length, Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures’ MonsterVerse has produced four remarkably different visions of giant monsters (or “Titans”) doing battle in the ruins of our major cities. Starting stark and somber with Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla (2014), this “universe” reached an unapologetically goofy crescendo this week with Godzilla vs. Kong. Each film between them has had a different director and a sharply unique aesthetic. So our staff of monster fanatics and Godzilla geeks has taken it on themselves to debate, vote, and rank every one of them. Below is the definitive list.

4. Godzilla (2014)

Gareth Edwards’ film, which kick-started this whole crazy thing, is arguably still the only one to get the “human drama” right. For about 40 minutes. The first act of the movie is a solid, tantalizing build-up to the realization there’s a giant lizard out there running amok. Equal parts Toho’s Gojira (1954) and a Christopher Nolan knockoff, Godzilla (2014) plays it straight, even incorporating the recent horrors of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster of 2011 into its tale of a family man (Bryan Cranston) driven to madness by the sight of beasts of unusual size.

… It then kills Cranston’s character off and leaves the film to his son, a cipher of an action hero who Aaron Taylor-Johnson had the unenviable task of making interesting. He did not succeed. More unfortunate is that a movie called Godzilla barely features the Big G. Content to focus on Cloverfield-esque monsters while teasing the action instead of showing it, Edwards’ film becomes a two-hour exercise in delayed gratification. When that gratification finally comes in the movie’s last 20 minutes, it’s too little too late.

There’s still a lot of stuff to like, however. The director’s sense of scale is used to visceral effect every brief moment Godzilla is on screen. The lizard’s first reveal, and then later a parachute HALO jump which travels the length of his body, are both visually breathtaking. Never before has Godzilla felt so enormous. And Ken Watanabe brings a great deal of gravitas to a role that in lesser hands would’ve been easily forgettable. Nevertheless, the movie would’ve benefitted taking to heart what Watanabe’s character tells the Americans: Let them fight. – David Crow

3. Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

Billed as the culmination of the MonsterVerse (for now, at least), Godzilla vs. Kong certainly delivers on its title in two lengthy major battles between the legendary stars. Director Adam Wingard’s first picture of this size shows that he has a good eye for scope and spectacle: one can follow the titanic action, and Wingard is confident enough to shoot much of it in broad daylight, a refreshing change from the previous American Godzilla films. And speaking of Godzilla and his co-star, the big guys have more personality here than in previous entries, with Kong in particular coming as close to a well-rounded character as an ancient, 300-foot-tall gorilla can get.

It’s just too bad that the rest of the movie somewhat falls down. The plot and characters here are perhaps the most shallowly conceived yet for this series, and while no one is paying for Shakespearean human drama, at least there was something interesting going on with Vera Farmiga’s misguided scientist in KOTM. Even sadder is the lack of context and the absence of any development in some of the more interesting world-building of the previous films, leading to a noticeable stack of unanswered questions throughout the film. As for Mechagodzilla, it’s a cool bit of third act fan-service, but little else.

Godzilla vs. Kong does offer some knockout moments and one can’t deny the sheer nostalgic fun of seeing these two icons punch each other’s lights out, but the movie is also the narratively thinnest yet of this shared universe. – Don Kaye

2. Kong: Skull Island (2017)

After the mixed response to 2014’s Godzilla and its slow burn approach to introducing the iconic title monster, Kong: Skull Island was clearly a course correction—and it succeeds as such. While it still runs into the same problems Godzilla (and, indeed, all these movies) have faced in creating somewhat interesting human characters, no one could accuse this old-fashioned pulp adventure story of skimping when it came to a satisfying reinvention of its own legendary star, as well as plenty of awe-inspiring monster battles.

The film’s period setting of 1973 allows for much more humor than its predecessor, not to mention some terrific music cues. Similarly, the cast—including Marvel stars Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, and Tom Hiddleston, along with John Goodman and a walk-off-with-the-movie John C. Reilly—at least seems to be having fun under the direction of Jordan Vogt-Roberts, confidently handling his first tentpole-sized picture. Meanwhile the title character, who clearly dwarfs all previous iterations of the beast, wanders his domain like a lonely king, ready for battle instantly, but more interested in finding a nice big spot to sit and relax.

The plot finds most of the cast trying to make their way across a creature-infested Skull Island after Kong swats their helicopters out of the sky in a thrilling first act sequence, and you can tell who will survive based largely on their billing. But Vogt-Roberts keeps a playful, swashbuckling tone throughout, and the combination of monsterfest, old-fashioned jungle romp, and Apocalypse Now aesthetics somehow all works. – DK

1. Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)

A contentious choice to some, Godzilla: King of the Monsters was given top marks by all of our staff who voted. That’s because to a certain breed of Godzilla fan, Michael Dougherty’s majestically silly vision is terrific. Big, gaudy, and knowingly ridiculous, King of the Monsters eschews the grounded approach of Edwards’ 2014 movie in favor of sweeping grandeur.

Each of the four A-list Toho monsters in this film—Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah—is filmed with the awe and reverence of the crucifixion, and as evidenced by Ghidorah’s hellish roar before a fallen cross in the film, this is deliberate. King of the Monsters positions the kaiju as the original gods who’ve risen back to take their rightful place as rulers of the Earth, and the amount of fanboy love in each frame is infectious.

Read more

Movies

Godzilla vs. Kong: Where The MonsterVerse Should Go Next

By David Crow

Movies

From Skull Island to Godzilla vs. Kong: A Complete MonsterVerse Timeline

By David Crow

For those already converted to this faith, the film’s endless series of still frames, where Godzilla or Mothra flex for unseen painters, is joyous. King of the Monsters also reduces the humans to essentially comic book characters going on a breathless series of Saturday morning cartoon adventures. They act in service to the monsters’ film instead of leading it, with the best you can hope for from this peanut gallery being some Watanabe wisdom or scene-stealing comic relief by Bradley Whitford.

This might’ve been a deal breaker to audiences who wanted compelling human drama or full-fledged character arcs. But to kaiju aficionados who long ago understood that humans are the least interesting part, King of the Monsters strikes the right balance with affable archetypes (or sinister eco villains) who help Godzilla where possible and then get out of the way as the camera bows before the lizard for another hymn. This truly is the gonzo monster mash-up every child dreams of when they look at Godzilla toys. – DC

Mike Cecchini and Gavin Jasper also contributed to this feature.

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Batman Gifts: Our Pick of the Best DC Collectibles

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Here's our rundown of this year's coolest Batman collectibles.

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80 years in and Batman is as popular as ever. Even as you read these words, work is underway on the next cinematic adventure for the Dark Knight, and Joker is still going strong in theaters -- so much so that Joaquin Phoenix and Todd Phillips are hiding away crafting the character's next solo film. The eight decades since Batman was first introduced in the pages of Detective Comics have seen him undergo countless changes, the versatility of the Caped Crusader is a huge part of his staying power. But when it comes down to the nitty gritty, Batman is just a hero at heart -- whether he's the goofy 1960s one or the grimdark Synder take. So you really can't go wrong with giving the gift of Batman, and here's some ideas to make your holiday shopping experience a Bat-tastic one!

Batman 4K Film Collection

Let's kick things off in a big way with some Bat-Movies, shall we? Batman, Batman Returns, Batman Forever, and Batman & Robin get a deluxe treatment in this eight-disc set that includes 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and digital copies of each film.

Buy the Batman 4K Film Collection here

The Dark Knight Trilogy Collection

Those who prefer their Batman to be a bit less ridiculous will likely be more interested in Christopher Nolan's take on the character with Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises -- all of which are included here in 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray. Point to ponder, why does everyone give Batman & Robin so much shit when Bale's Batman essentially causes nuclear winter over the skies of Gotham City at the end of The Dark Knight Rises. No wonder he gets the fuck out of town so quick.

Buy The Dark Knight Trilogy Collection here

Batman: The Definitive History of the Dark Knight in Comics, Film, and Beyond

Nearly ever iteration of Batman -- from the World's Greatest Detective to the Dark Knight -- is explored in this mammoth 400-page guide to the character and how he has been portrayed in various forms of media. When a book bills itself as "the most comprehensive history of Batman ever written," it better have the content to back such a brazen statement up, and thats exactly what authors Andrew Farago and Gina McIntyre aim to do here.

Buy Batman: The Definitive History of the Dark Knight in Comics, Film, and Beyond here

Batman Chair Cape

Earn the respect of your coworkers -- or maybe just get a quick trip to HR! -- with this Batman cape that you can connect to your office chair.

Buy the Batman Chair Cape here

The Joker: The Bronze Age Omnibus

Long before you grew tired of Joaquin Phoenix stair memes, the Joker starred in his own short-lived solo comic in 1975 and '76. A strange affair, the title removed the character from the context of Batman -- allowing him to star in stories that were unlike anything he previously appeared him. All nine issues of that book, along with a previously unseen tenth issues and countless other iconic appearances from throughout the DC Universe's stable of comic are included in this massive omnibus. From lightweight adventures to tales that portend the dark madness to come, this is an unmissable volume.

Buy The Joker: The Bronze Age Omnibus here

Batman: Damned

The dream team of Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo collaborated for Batman: Damned, the comic that infamously showed Bruce Wayne's penis for the first time. Yeah. Despite the controversy, the story ranks among the best in recent memory, with Batman trying to get to the bottom of the Joker's death with the unreliable assistance of John Constantine. The miniseries has now been collected into this graphic novel, featuring a behind-the-scenes gallery and afterword from Azzarello.

Buy Batman: Damned here

Also from the team of Azzarello and Bermejo is Joker (not to be confused with the movie of the same name), which DC Black Label declares is "arguably the most terrifying Joker tale ever written." But we will leave that to you to decide. 

Buy Joker here

Batmobile: Pursuit of the Joker Lego Set

With the holidays here, it's great that this Lego set actually allows for the Batmobile to lose a wheel, allowing the Joker to get away. At press time Batman's smell remains undocumented.

Buy the Batmobile: Pursuit of the Joker Lego Set here

The Batman Who Laughs

What would happen if Batman and the Joker were one and the same? That's exactly what happens in this graphic novel from writer Scott Snyder and illustrator Jock that focuses on a character who is half Batman, half Joker, all terror -- and you'll never look at the Dark Knight the same again.

Buy The Batman Who Laughs here

The Batman Who Laughs Funko Pop!

FYI: If you really want to win over the Batfan on your holiday shopping this, get them this and The Batman Who Laughs graphic novel.

Buy The Batman Who Laughs Funko Pop! here

Batman Hallmark Christmas Tree Ornament

Tim Burton's Batman turned 30 this year, and Hallmark is celebrating the anniversary with this Keatonesque Batman ornament that will give your Christmas tree some Dark Knight realness.

Buy the Batman Hallmark Christmas Tree Ornament here

Batman Umbrella/Rainwear Set

Rainy days just got that much cooler. This raincoat/umbrella combo would make a fantastic gift for aspiring young superheroes/vigilantes. It's a fine line, right?

Buy the Batman Umbrella/Rainwear Set here

DC Collectibles Artists Alley: Batman by Joe Ledbetter Designer Vinyl

Figure

DC Collectibles continues to up the ante in terms of unique items through their Artists Alley line, which provides the industry's greatest creators with the opportunity to put their spin on the publisher's most iconic faces. Limited to 3,000 pieces, this 7" tall vinyl-cast interpretation of Batman by Joe Ledbetter is a re-imagining of the character that has a real bite to it.

Buy the DC Collectibles Artists Alley: Batman by Joe Ledbetter Designer Vinyl Figure here

Batman: Exclusive Original Television Soundtrack Album

With music and dialogue from the 1960s Batman TV series, this is a gift idea that is a little retro kitsch, a whole lot of cool.

Buy Batman: Exclusive Original Television Soundtrack Album here

Prince: Batman 

The same as the above LP, just even more so.

Buy Prince: Batman here

Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass

One of 2019's finest graphic novel is Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass. Writer Mariko Tamaki and artist Steve Pugh have crafted a story about fractured adolescence that elevates the oft-maligned character into a true pop culture force to be reckoned with.

Buy Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass here

Batman: 100 Greatest Moments: Highlights from the History of the Dark Knight

Another colossal book that was produced for Batman's 80th anniversary is this effort from Robert Greenberger that is sure to stir fevered debate among the faithful.

Buy Batman: 100 Greatest Moments: Highlights from the History of the Dark Knight here

The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture

If you are looking for a brilliantly written exploration of how Batman shaped pop culture (and vice versa) look no further than this joyous effort by writer/comics historian/NPR personality Glen Weldon.

Buy The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture here

Invicta Men's Batman Watch

Be the most fashionable Batman fan around with this handsome men's watch from Invicta that is waterproof, has automatic self-wind and comes with a black stainless steel case. What's the time? It's time to stop criminals in Gotham City, whee!

Buy the Invicta Men's Batman Watch here

While not directly connected to Batman, 2019 best show is set in the DC Universe and therefore will has more than enough shared DNA to please fans of the character. Doom Patrol brings together a variety of largely unknown DC characters for a show that somehow manages to be both wildly entertaining and one of the greatest explorations of trauma that the medium of television has offered up. If that sounds somewhat unhinged, that is the entire point. Each of Doom Patrol's characters is severely damaged -- from the world weary Robotman (voiced by Brendan Fraser in a soulful performance) to Jane (Dianne Guerrero), a young woman whose childhood abuse caused her to splinter into 46 personalities each with their own super powers. In a season packed with mindblowing moments, perhaps the most touching involvings the Danny the Street character: A sentient qenderqueer city block that is a haven for society's castoffs. To say any more would give away some of the show's surprises, so just know this, Doom Patrol is peak TV at its best...and a show that deserves to be a much larger part of our cultural conversation.

Buy Doom Patrol: The Complete First Season here

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Nov 29, 2019

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