bsu legato

Neener neener neeener, I'm the snot and you're the weiner!

How is it compared to the first movie? Compared to the first Burton movie? Definitely an improvement. I'm no Batmanophile, so I can't compare either of the films to any of the established Bat-history. However, I think it definitely blows away Burton's film in most respects. Burton's Batman, I feel, has really lost a lot on repeated viewings. It never feels like it takes place on anything other than a giant soundstage, and Burton's subsequent films have shown that much of the films style has little to do with Batman but instead are simply Burton's kitchy, corny esthetic. This film, on the other hand, looks like it takes place in a real city (for the most part). We get a much clearer view of why Bruce Wayne does the things he does, and just how his moral code is forged. The effects are all quite good, and I'm told that the first "helicopter" shot of Gotham perfectly matches the established geography of the city's comic counterpart. Bale is, unsurprisingly, excellent as Batman, and unlike the earlier incarnations we see that the "playboy" Bruce Wayne is merely a facade he maintains.

Seen it. Liked it. Highly recommend it.

It may change, but for now the ROTS finale between Obi Wan and Anakin is my current favorite. It has all the speed and fury of the TPM duel, but it also has the emotional content that the ESB and ROTJ duels had. That, and its the duel I've been waiting nearly 20 years to see.

You may have not liked Anakin as a character, but the choices that he's forced to make should be something you can empathize with, right or wrong. We've already had somebody here in this thread step up to the plate and admit that the lives of billions are nothing next to the life of a loved one. I recall some posters on MW not being bothered by the prospect of killing the Tuskens, a'la AOTC, either. Anakin himself may have been a dink, but the path he chooses is one we should all be able to understand.

Wait, how does Vader's less-than-evil youth somehow lessen his menace as and adult Sith Lord? Should he have been evil from birth? This is just silly. LEt me ask you this: Does the knowledge that young Hitler was a mediocre painter in Vienna make him any less of an evil tyrant and an insane genocidal monster? Edit: Opus makes a good point with Coppola's Dracula, but I would have to point out that in the book Dracula wasn't even a character. He was just a monster with zero motivations, other than the fact that he was evil. Vader on the other hand hasn't been a one-dimensional boogeyman since Empire.

As a Canadian, I see this as having less to do with Trek in general, but more of an indictment of Toronto as a whole. Bluntly put, Toronto sucks.

Yeah...I dunno, it was the only thing I had on hand that was close to Agent ONE's .gif

There's a rumor that we'll be seeing a demo, complete with single AND multiplayer, in the next week or so. Keep your eyes peeled for news. Late edit: I just got the following email from Xfire

I think there was a buildup of the Venator Star Destroyer on the Starshipmodeler boards.

Ah yes, the "apologist" card. If this wasn't an internet discussion, I'd be willing to wager that you don't have the slightest clue as to how I would appraise either of the preceeding prequels.* *look ma, alliteration!

Au contraire, I'm not the least bit upset and I can't see where you'd get that impression from my post. I was merely echoing Agent ONE's sentiments, albeit in a somewhat more tactful manner. If anybody is "upset" I'd suggest it would be yourself, as its pretty clear you like to paint yourself as somehow "persecuted" by those of us who don't share your less-than-glowing appraisal of the PT. But like you said, we'll see what happens.

The fact that Dodge dropped that Charger concept in favor of a "Magnum" with a trunk should be considered a crime. And this is coming from an anti-Dodge guy!

Oh come now...I think we can all predict your review with a fair degree of accuracy. But hey, feign openmindedness if it make you happy. It's not as if you have a vested interest in continued prequel bashing.

That, and the fact that he had become a deluded megalomaniac.

Just spreading the wonderous tales of Agent ONE. He's like a modern day myth. One day when we're all dead and forgotten, maidens will sing songs about his greatness.

FROM a certain point of view.

I'm still waiting to hear why we would want to pin a Yukikaze thread. Didn't we all agree that apart from the cool looking aircraft, it wasn't a very good show? It's like the AvP of anime, and I guess in that regard they both get far more attention than they actually deserve.

IGN has some new VIDEOS online. So if we're all intent on getting the game, are we interested in throwing together some informal MW brawls? We could post here to set up the time and server IP, or we could all hook up on X-Fire.

That is definitely something I would have liked to see Dice leave behind when they were working on BF2. IIRC, they claim its to promote "community" or some such nonsense. Leaving it in was their sort of trademark "Battlefield-ism." But from what I've read, there will indeed be some option to disable it either when the game ships, or in a patch shortly thereafter. Nice to hear about the taming of the 'snipahs' as well. More games need to do that. Just as long as there's no scope-walking, I'll be happy.

Its ok for you to feel that way, MGREXX. You were going to be perma-banned from the MW server anyway.

That's odd. Then why say this? It seems to me that you would only bring this up if you thought some of us were indeed trying to paint the suit as a net gain (thus a reward) for Anakin. Indeed, that seems to be the entire point of the imaginary script that I quoted back. Again, I mention it for the benefit fo those who only see Vaders final incarnation as a suit of cool looking leather & armor with no loss of his former abilites. Allege? Allege? What, are we in court now? I realize that you really, really enjoy arguing, but if you're going to attempt to paint every comment I make as some sort of allegation, insinuation, or possibly a fabrication (all words with less-than-nice connotations, for the thesaurus impared), then there's even less point in discussing this with than I originally thought. But back to your point, you do somewhat seem to sense that there's more to this than some hasty, last minute retcon. Now who's making with the straw man there, Hurin? Nobody has alleged that any of what you just posted was a factor in the OT duel choreography. The reality of the matter is that western fight choreography wasn't anything like we have today in films. However, is it so wrong for Lucas to take the slower pace of the OT duels into consideration when making the PT, and allow that perhaps they weren't as fast as they could have been had the participants been in their primes? Or I suppose you'll tell me how much more thrilling that the Qui Gon/Obi Wan/Maul duel would have been, had it been fought at the same pace as the ANH duel. And back to the original comment that started this whole tangent off, the novel does indeed omit any mention of Palpatine being displeased with Vader. However, it does state that he was "far less than he had been" and that his power was a fraction of what it had been.

<------ Point Hurin -------> I'm not saying that VADER would feel rewarded by his shiny new suit. I'm talking about the "Vader forever as a badass" crowd who see it that way. And you conveniently ignored the part where I mentioned how this Vader-as-cripple thing is hardly new. I'd find the quote myself, but let's be honest; no matter where it came from you'd twist it around so that it suited your argument. If it was from anywhere in the mid 90's thru today, you'd say that it's just the "out of touch childhood rapist" Vader, and he should be disregarded as such. If it was from somewhere in the 80's you'd say that it was the same Lucas who fed Boba Fett to the Sarlacc, causing you to spit up your pepsi. If it was in the period from 78-80, youd say that either Gary Kurtz, Lawrence Kasdan, Irvin Kershener (or all three of them) overrode him and made the move better for it. If it was in 77...well, I doubt thats where it was from, but it'd be interesting to see you squirm out of that if it were the case.

Man, you are just fired up today, aren't you?