Things that are overrated:
NBC’s coverage of the Olympics. Tape delays and poor editing choices all around. Record early ratings, but record complaints too. Will those people stick around long enough to make this a loss leader? Can NBC show any event in a real way, rather than editing it for “drama.” Sports are not fiction. And fiction hurts credibility. The thing about credibility: it transcends organizational divisions. People aren’t noticing and complaining about things that NBC Sports is doing. They’re complaining about NBC. That should concern a 20th century network vainly trying to figure out the 21st century.
Sitting still with a hurt wing.
Having something else (my neck) hurt while my shoulder is recovering from surgery. One thing I could stand, I guess. There seem to be no comfortable positions when you have two things in pain. My neck, then, can stop hurting any time.
And so I did not ride my bike on the trainer today. I opted for mere discomfort instead.
We watched The Dark Knight Rises this afternoon:
If you’ve been avoiding all contact with this film until you could see it don’t worry: nothing in that trailer is actually in the movie. And I won’t tell you that Darth Vader is actually Batman’s father. You won’t hear it from me. (But Rocky did win the big fight.)
If you have seen the movie: OMG! I can’t believe that one scene!
OK, I will spoil one thing. This is a still from the opening shot:
I’ve thought, through the entire series, that Gordon was the best character. He proved it again in this installment, but still it feels like you never really get the chance to know him.
One other thing, I love the composition of that shot. I’d like to watch the movie again to study how they frame the quieter scenes. A lot of them are worth observing. But this one in particular is terrific. Two pictures of Harvey Dent. The large one, looking over all of us. The smaller portrait, sitting over Gordon’s shoulder. The exposure on half his face a bit darker this time.
For an action film, there were quite a few little gems like gems like that.
The film is worth seeing, if you’re on the fence. You need the previous two movies to make it go, if you’re one of the four people who haven’t caught them yet. It is possibly not the best of the series, but aside from a few lines of dialogue that should have been punched up, it is a quality story.
Oh, two other things. On IMDB we learned that the person who designed Bane’s coat spent two years on it. Remarkable. Also the studio wanted more Riddler. But, if you read the notes on IMDB, you’ll see that Christopher Nolan et al resisted that as “too derivative.” An odd thing consider, if you read all of the notes on IMDB or all of the comics (I don’t); many things from this movie started in the picture books.
Finally, I saw this banner in the lobby of the movie theater:
And they say you can’t get any culture in a small town. I’m mildly curious about that. Opera, at the movie theater. That’s an interesting showpiece. I should probably check that out sometime. It might make up for having watched stinkers like Sleepy Hollow, She’s All That and Phantom Menace in the same building.
And the last Twilight movie, we watched that there, too, but I block those out. With that in mind I might need something useful like a bit of opera in the movie theater.
More tomorrow, perhaps a less painful and more cheery oeuvre!
