When I was about ten years old, I used to plop myself down after school in front of my ’90s-chic, wood-paneled TV set with a Capri Sun and the soft, moist remnant of the ham and cheese sandwich that I hadn’t finished at lunch, and not just watch, but absorb Batman: The Animated Series. The suspense! The drama! The musical numbers about domestic abuse! What more could a fifth-grader ask for? Now Comic-Con, the impending rise of the Dark Knight, and, of course, Landon Palmer’s thoughtful exploration of the film serial and TV iterations of the Batman character in this week’s Culture Warrior, have made me especially nostalgic for the cartoon Caped Crusader of my youth – the guy who ended up ruining me for all other cartoon superheroes – so, I decided to revisit the series and examine it with fresh, grown person eyes (which actually means eyes that are increasingly crappy).

Enduring cultural figures like Batman endure precisely because of the slight but notable changes they incur over time. Batman has had a long history in the moving image, and while the character has maintained both the central conceit of being a crime-fighting detective, the cinematic Batman of seventy years ago bears little resemblance to the Batman we’re familiar with today. The character and his myth have been interpreted with variation by a multitude of creative persons other than Bob Kane and Bill Finger. In the moving image, Batman has been embodied by a range of actors including Robert Lowery, Adam West, and George Clooney, and Batman has been realized by directors and showrunners prone to various tastes and aesthetic interpretations like William Dozier and Christopher Nolan. While Batman is perhaps best-known by a non-comic-astute mass culture through the many blockbuster feature films made about him, including this summer’s hotly anticipated The Dark Knight Rises, the character’s cinematic origins are rooted in the long-dead format of the movie serial. Batman first leapt off the page in a 15-part serial made in 1943 titled Batman and another six years later titled Batman and Robin. These serials did not influence Batman’s later cinematic iterations realized by Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher as much as they inspired Batman’s representation on television. Batman’s presence in film serials and on television have had a decisive and important impact in terms of how mass audiences perceive the Batman of feature films. At the same time, these serials

After a decade of marketing materials for The Dark Knight Rises, some excellent and some bland, the IMAX poster for Christopher Nolan’s forthcoming Batman movie finally reveals its true nature: epic and terrifyingly God-like. No more hiding what it is, this poster is distilled hubris. The kind of one sheet that will slap you in the face and then sleep with a beloved family member. Fair warning – it already melted Ronald Lacey’s face, so be careful:

The release of The Amazing Spider-Man this week has left some people scratching their heads. How can a movie that is billed as “The Untold Story” be so achingly repetitive? With the first hour of the film an alternate take on the first hour of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man from 2002, people have questioned the need to rehash essentially the same origin story of such a widely-known superhero. As reported in Latino Review, director Marc Webb insists the reboot was necessary. (Spoiler: it wasn’t.) He continues to say it was to introduce the world to a new Spider-Man and, more importantly, a new Peter Parker. (Spoiler: It really doesn’t.) Whether Webb was pressured by the studio for the redux origin or if he just wanted to not have to follow any of the Raimi canon, it seems silly to tread such familiar ground so soon. In 2002, Spider-Man continued the trend that X-Men started two years before, making superhero films profitable and possible in the big studio system. Since then, we’ve seen quite a few origin stories – from full-blown reboots of known characters as in Batman Begins to introduction of heroes who aren’t known much outside of comic book fans as in Iron Man. However, with The Man of Steel coming up next year and an obvious Batman reboot once The Dark Knight Rises finishes its run, who knows what Hollywood is going to do next?

Though the idea of making a movie about Legos initially sounded like a really bad one, once Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller pitched their take on the material it actually sounded pretty promising. Could a movie about little plastic blocks tell an engaging story that teaches children an important message? That’s a question that we won’t be able to answer for quite some time, but thanks to a report from Variety we now know a whole lot more about what this upcoming Lego movie will look like. First of all, the project’s working title has now been confirmed as the project’s official title – that would be Lego: The Piece of Resistance. Thematically this makes sense, as Lord and Miller’s initial comments said that their main character would be an average guy living in Lego City who has to unlearn the town’s strict rules of always building things according to the instructions and figure out how to create something wholly original. It would seem that The Piece of Resistance’s protagonist is being set up as something of a revolutionary; both figuratively and literally according to new information from the Variety report.

Last week, the utterly shocking news broke that not only was Warner Bros. pursuing a Justice League movie, but it also was in no way at all ever influenced by the unbridled financial success of Marvel’s The Avengers. We can all believe that, can’t we? After all, we read it on the internet. With Man of Steel coming out next year and a no-brainer Batman reboot coming now that Christopher Nolan’s movies are wrapping up this summer, this is an opportunity for Warner Bros. and DC to set a new stage. Plus, with adaptations of The Flash and Lobo, and the potential for a Green Lantern reboot, Warner Bros. and DC have things laid out for them to work out very similar to the pre-Avengers line of films. But this is Hollywood, and so many things can go potentially wrong with a project like this. Here are seven ways Warner Bros. can avoid a potential disaster as they develop this film series.

The MTV Movie Awards are good for two things: pouring slime on people and premiering footage from highly anticipated, forthcoming movies. Plus, one of those things is done by the Nickelodeon Kid’s Choice Awards, so you do the math. Fortunately, there’s no difficult math involved in this amazing Dark Knight Rises footage that came as part of the Twilight/Hunger Games worshiping ceremony. It features a difficult conversation between Anne Hathaway‘s Catwoman and Joseph Gordon-Levitt‘s policeman surrounded by explosive images, crowded fight scenes, and a dire warning. Check it out for yourself:

“If Michael Bay directed Raiders, the Ark would be opened in the first act, and people’s heads would explode through the rest of the film.” I don’t typically seek out wisdom from Twitter, but this below-140-character observation (made by @krishnasjenoi and retweeted by @ebertchicago) struck very close to something that’s been occupying my mind as we enter the fifth week of the summer movie season. Though the statement works better as a fun hypothetical critique than a contestable thesis (in other words, there’s no way we’ll ever really know, thank goodness), the sentiment feels relevant. Though the modern Hollywood blockbuster has been a staple of studios’ summer scheduling for almost forty years, the films that become blockbusters don’t look or feel very similar to the films of the 70s and 80s that somehow paradoxically led to today’s cavalcade of sequels, franchises, adaptations and remakes. Criticizing Hollywood’s creative crisis is nothing new. But with the mega-success of The Avengers and the continuing narrative of failure and disappointment that has thus far characterizes every major release since, it seems that this crisis has been put under a microscope. The moment where unprecedented success is the only kind of achievement Hollywood can afford and the well of decade-old franchises and toy companies become desperately mined for material is something we were warned about. But Hollywood’s creativity-crippling reliance on existing properties is not the only, or even the primary, problem faced by mass market filmmaking’s present moment. The bloated numbers sought after each and

Two TV spots, new pictures, and banners from The Dark Knight Rises? What else could you ask for in about a day’s time? To make that month and a half wait we have left until the film finally opens a little more tolerable, there’s plenty to chew on and savor here. In usual Christopher Nolan cult fan fashion, it’ll be interesting to see how the fandom dissects the meaning of Joseph Gordon-Levitt “kneeling,” what secret Bruce Wayne and Miranda Tate are “talking” about, or what Selina Kyle is really looking at. These new pictures and posters (courtesy of Empire) don’t give us the answers we need, but some message boards out there will most likely come up with countless theories over the matter. First up, here’s a slew of gritty pics, all featuring nothing but gumdrop smiles and a much needed reminder of Nolan’s undying love for “happy” characters:

By all means, Christopher Nolan‘s third (and final) Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises, should be a slam dunk. The last chapter in the beloved franchise has been eagerly anticipated for years, and Nolan’s previous two Batman movies have been critical and commercial hits, so why is Bat-fervor feeling so cool these days? While we can’t blame today’s newest TDKR poster for the problem, it’s certainly a symptom of something greater – the marketing for the film has not been exciting. This is not an exciting poster. Sure, it expands on that first teaser poster from last summer (a stunner in its own right), but adding in a shoddy Batman (Christian Bale) does nothing to raise pulses for what should be summer’s biggest hit (though it will be hard-pressed to match The Avengers). Perhaps the marketing team over at Warner Bros. thinks they can coast on this one (and who can blame them?), but that doesn’t explain why that first poster and the first trailer for the film crackled with so much energy and spark, and why everything else has been so snooze-inducing ever since. I mean, “here’s a picture of Catwoman’s ass“? What? But it can only get better…right? If you’re in need of the marketing equivalent of a Thanksgiving turkey, check out the full poster after the break.

UPDATED: The Tumbler Tour’s official page has now listed its full list of stops and, in many cases, precise locations! Head over to the Tumbler Tour page and click on “Tour Dates” in the upper right hand corner. If you’re eagerly anticipating Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight Rises as much as most people (in Reject terms, we’re second-best anticipating it) and its release date of July 20th is just too damn far away for you to handle, Warner Bros. is rolling out a special tour of two essential items in the Batman franchise that might fit you like a glove (skintight Batman suit?). Warner and Legendary Pictures have just unveiled a multi-state “Tumbler Tour” for Batman’s Tumbler and Bat-Pod, both of which are trucking it across the country over the next three months. Mountain Dew and IMAX are sponsoring the tour, which is currently set to hit over twenty different towns and cities, so not only can you rest your eyeballs on two of the Bat’s favorite modes of transportation, we’re betting you can refresh your tastebuds with everyone’s favorite green soda. Hey, it’s something to do! Details are otherwise slim, including precise event locations, if we can expect any special guests to show up, and pretty much anything else (will you be able to touch the Tumbler? The world needs to know!), but it should prove to be an interesting way to satiate fans until The Dark Knight Rises explodes everyone’s minds later this summer. After the break, check

After killing several police officers and District Attorney Harvey Dent, it’s time that the unknown vigilante known as The Batman be brought to justice. With Harvey Dent Day approaching, and you know, a new documentary called The Dark Knight Rises hitting theaters, Christopher Nolan and Police Commissioner James Gordon are renewing efforts to find the murderous man in black. This website has a ton of police files detailing the crimes as well as how you can help out. Primarily, they’re asking for people to search for evidence of graffiti in support of Batman in cities around the world. Addresses are given. If all the evidence is recovered, they’ll release a new video online (which is expected to be the trailer that will play ahead of The Avengers this weekend). Good to see Warners and company are having fun with the viral marketing again. Hopefully, with all of his resources, billionaire Bruce Wayne will be able to aid the effort.

The Dark Knight Rises finally breaks into theaters on July 20th (shortly followed by it getting away in a school bus with everyone’s money). The advertising so far hasn’t been nearly the effort put in for the second film, which makes sense considering that everyone on the planet will see it even without a dime put into television ads. However, the final trailer for the film is about to be seen by millions. According to NolanFans.com, Christopher Nolan‘s forthcoming Batman flick is utilizing Marvel again by playing the trailer before The Avengers. Just as they did with Inception before Iron Man 2 and as they did with The Dark Knight before Iron Man. Superheroes love hanging with other superheroes. It’s true. Of course, the trailer will no doubt be online right around the same time (just in case…you weren’t…planning on going to see The Avengers…for some reason).

In the forthcoming edition of Entertainment Weekly, Tom Hardy gets deep on his dedication to Christopher Nolan, his creative aim in The Dark Knight Rises, that damned voice problem, and the dangerous gamble that they’re taking on the villainous Bane. “It’s a risk, because we could be laughed at—or it could be very fresh and exciting,” says Hardy. As for the voice, he calls for patience – noting that with the benefit of time in the context of the movie will let the audience acclimate to the grumbling sound. It’ll no doubt be a fascinating interview, one that exactly zero people will have to be goaded into reading, but it’s more interesting that the star of one of the most anticipated movies of the year, an inevitable blockbuster that will add even more hundreds of millions of dollars to a billion-dollar franchise, is having to defend and explain substantive creative choices. It’s refreshing actually. This isn’t the same plastic, obvious, big-scale, two-hour commercial for toys; it’s a giant experiment in storytelling (that, granted, has the benefit of a giant safety net earned by past performance). Hopefully Nolan didn’t ask Hardy to wear a bag over his head for nothing.

Tim Burton’s Batman wasn’t a movie, it was an event. It spawned a tidal wave of merchandise, video games, roller coasters, an animated series, a ridiculous music video, etc… He dropped that movie on the world like a bomb, and in many ways it could be considered the high point of his career. His artistic approach was finally paired with mainstream material, and his success there has propelled him to being one of the go-to money making directors in Hollywood. But, as an 8-year-old fan that was blown away by the gritty comic book take on the character that was developing throughout the 80s, the release of Batman is forever marked by me as a day of huge disappointment. I hated that boring, goofy movie. It was lamer than that show from the 60s I watched back when I was 6. Pathetic. Batman: Under the Red Hood was a straight to video cartoon that kind of gets lost in the sea of DC straight to video cartoons. Most of these movie are pretty strong, don’t get me wrong, but they’re strong with the caveat that they’re just cartoons. They’re for kids, but they’re good enough to be enjoyed by adults, not good on the level of the best feature films. Under the Red Hood is a step above the rest though. Other than The Dark Knight, I would say that it’s my favorite Batman thing that doesn’t come from the medium of the page.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly movie news column that seeks to dazzle you with facts, figures, commentary and hyperlinks. And hyper-facts, figure-links and perhaps some commentary on figures. But enough about Chris Evans’ abs… We begin this evening with a still from a very intense walking sequence in The Avengers. It’s one of a pair of new photos released yesterday via Marvel.com, featuring Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Chris Evans as Captain America (said to be the central character of Avengers) and Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow. At least one of these characters appears to be showing off a little more skin than usual.

This week’s merchandise world has gone loopy for The Dark Knight Rises with two stellar announcements by two of the world’s biggest collectible players, in DC Direct and Hot Toys, and 2012 looks like it’s going to be a good year for anyone who collects Bat Merch. There’s also a couple of entries from Mattel, making this the most bumperest Merch Hunter column ever. It’s been a thrill-ride, and I’d like to thanks Jesus Christ and Chris Nolan for giving me the strength to achieve this monumental feat. So anyway, this week’s Merch Hunter is dedicated to Chris Nolan’s upcoming trilogy-ender, and the news that has got collectors’ tongues wagging and seats wet in the past week or so. So put away your wallets for now, because you won’t be able to buy what is listed here just yet – and in all honesty, saving up for them is probably going to be a pragmatic decision, given how much dough is likely to be needed to buy them.

On January 11, 1991, the then-head of Disney studios, Jeffrey Katzenberg, circulated an incredibly important memo about the state of the movie industry and the products they were making. It was called, “The World is Changing: Some Thoughts on Our Business,” and it had a simple purpose: to locate the root of a growing problem and to take steps to avoid falling victim to it. Katzenberg began the memo by stating: “As we begin the new year, I strongly believe we are entering a period of great danger and even greater uncertainty. Events are unfolding within and without the movie industry that are extremely threatening to our studio.” As we begin a new year two decades after this memo was written, it’s critical to look back at the points Katzenberg made to see that his period of great danger is now our period of great danger, to note that the same events unfolding within and without the industry still threaten the entire studio system in 2012, and to predict our future based on the past.

Despite the fact that the world collectively shat their pants at all of the cool included in the first trailer for Christopher Nolan’s third Batman joint, The Dark Knight Rises, there was also a rallying cry that begun to spring up after all the explosions and Batplanes had sunk in. It was the cry of, “Hey, what did Bane say? I couldn’t understand him at all!” Tom Hardy, behind the Bane mask, kind of sounds like the son of Michael Caine and Donald Trump gargling marbles, so everybody is now hoping that the line we got from him was just early footage, or a temporary sound mix, or something that isn’t at all indicative of what it’s really going to be like trying to understand the main villain for the entirety of the film. Unfortunately for those with hopes, THR claims to have sources saying that this is definitely what Bane is going to sound like through the whole movie, and that Christopher Nolan doesn’t have many plans to do anything about it. The first source they cite, who is just said to be “working on the film,” says that he is “scared to death” about “the Bane problem.” This could either be taken as evidence that Bane’s dialogue will be an issue, or evidence that somebody working as an extra wanted a little bit of spotlight from the trades and struck while an online controversy was hot to deliver a quote, I’ll let you decide. But further comments in

Wow. Wow is all there is. With all eyes on Christopher Nolan to find a fitting ending for the massive phenomenon that he’s turned into an even more massive phenomenon, the director and everyone involved seems to have pointed beyond the bleachers and out into the parking lot with this full length trailer for The Dark Knight Rises. It’s got Christian Bale getting existential as Batman, Tom Hardy as Bane looking ominous with a bomb and Anne Hathaway representing the unwashed masses as a masked Selina Kyle. In fact, it’s got enough red meat to make any old fan happy – and to prove that Nolan and company are not shying away from the greatness of their challenge.