Want some e-books? Click here.

Other e-book sites worth checking out are OpenDB.Network and Project Gutenberg.

For those using word who want to convert word docs to microsoft reader format, get the Word 2002/2000 Add-in. For other converters try here.

As a side note, I saw the trailer for The Island – Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson’s new flick, and it looks to be a mixture of The Matrix and Minority Report. Can’t wait to see it.

Featurette here.
Trailer here.

Just returned from watching the leading contender, in my mind, for movie of the year. Yes, it was that impressive.

Other than Frank Miller’s Sin City (coming soon to Sydney cinemas), I have not seen a successful translation of a comic book to the big screen. There have been some that were better than others (X-Men & Spiderman I quite enjoyed), but generally speaking the direction isn’t too great or the studios go in favour of the CGI effects or big name actors but end up with little substance.

Not this time.

Director Christopher Nolan (Memento) presents a dark and disturbingly corrupt world (Gotham City) out of which is born the caped crusader. It’s fantastic, and explains so much more about what drives Bruce Wayne than the original Batman movies ever did.

I’m actually a fan of the first three movies but in comparison they were much more comical and nowhere as true to the real mystery that surrounds Batman.

Christian Bale (The Machinist) did an outstanding job as the dark knight, with a strong supporting cast including Michael Caine (wonderful as Alfred), Liam Neeson (again as the master, similar to his role in Star Wars Episode I), Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Ken Watanabe (remember him from The Last Samurai), Cillian Murphy (as the maniacal Scarecrow) and Katie Holmes (Wayne’s love interest).

There are some inconsistencies between this movie and the other series so I was curious as to the explanation for that, and I think I found it:

While Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One is the film’s most obvious inspiration, Batman Begins borrows a number of elements, moments, characters and images familiar to longtime fans of the comics. Besides the obvious influences of Miller, Denny O’Neil, Archie Goodwin, Len Wein, Steve Englehart, and Paul Dini, there are nods to everything from Batman: Shaman to The Long Halloween to the “Cataclysm” storyline. And, as shown in Batman: Year Two, the onscreen Bruce realizes that killing is not the way to attain his revenge (something that Batman did in Tim Burton’s films).

(Source: IGN)

The best thing about this movie is that it made me feel like a kid again. As each frame passed by I was in awe, chin down to the floor, thinking “WOW, now that’s what I call a superhero”. Just brilliant.

There were two things that I didn’t like about the movie – the first sequence involving a massive explosion (too over-the-top for my liking, which the original movies were guilty of) and the new Batmobile. The vehicle design in the original movies was far more sleek. I suppose the new design is more utilitarian but it’s definitely not sexy.

I did further research on this one and discovered that this interpretation is more true to the original comics than any of the previous movies (and tv series). Tim Burton, who directed Batman and Batman Returns, hadn’t even read the comic books when he made the movies. The saving grace of Burton’s movies were the somewhat dark representations of Gotham and showstealing performances by the villains (Jack Nicholson’s fantastic portrayal of “The Joker”, Danny Devito as “The Penguin” and Michelle Pfeiffer’s “Catwoman”).

Joel Schumacher (Batman Forever and Batman & Robin) turned the whole series into a cirque du soleil styled commercial exercise. Arnold Schwarzenegger and George Clooney, and the poorly cheese-a-fied script, did not help the franchise.

So when going in to watch this film remember that this is not the fifth in a series of Batman flicks, but instead the first of a new series (potentially) – with a different story and a different perspective. It paints Batman and Bruce Wayne in a much more darker and troubled manner – the way the characters were designed on paper.

Metacritic gave it a 71 out of 100.
IMDB 8.6 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes 82% fresh.

Interesting review on Wired News. Some good points there.

Refer here for the New York Times review. Also check out the Batman Archive.

Listen to comic book author Frank Miller talk about his work and the relationship between Batman Begins and his Batman: Year One series here.

Go see it now.

Some nerds have way too much time.

Been trying, for the past hour, to implement the Clean Archives Plug-In but I can’t get it to work the way I want it to. Basically, I want to run the plugin off a new page (not the main page that you are currently viewing) and enable access to the new page via a link on the sidebar. Similar to this (notice the URL).

It ain’t happening!

Found a bug with the current code too that I’m not sure how to fix. Just select any of the archive links on the sidebar to see what I mean.

Friggen PHP/CSS!