The Dark Knight

Last night I went a midnight screening of "The Dark Knight" with a few friends. We waited on a line that extended about halfway around the theater. Some people had their faces painted up like The Joker's. There were several Batman shirts. One guy even had the cape and cowl on. Well, a black cowl and brown cape. At least he tried, right?

The movie was supposed to start at 12:01, but there were so many people lined up that our showing didn't begin until around 12:30.

I felt it was worth the wait. Heath Ledger's version of "The Joker" was flawless. Chilling, seriously warped and twisted. I would put his performance above Jack Nicholson's, and I'd feel the same way even if Ledger were still alive. I honestly cannot think of one scene I thought he could have done better, one line he delivered poorly, or any dialogue that stuck out as strange. Even his mannerisms were perfect. I feel sorry for the next guy to put on that purple and green suit.

Strangely enough, Christian Bale's "Batman" is the one part of the film that seems to go against the grain. His voice is forced, taking you out of whatever he's saying. In Batman Begins, he really didn't do much talking while wearing the mask, so I guess that's why not too many people complained. This time around he's practically giving speeches. You can't help but notice that the voice is just too much. In fact the one positive I can pull from this choice is that there's NO WAY you'd suspect The Batman of being Bruce Wayne. Someone needs to tell Christian Bale to stop, or Christopher Nolan to stop asking for that voice. It hurt the film. Not much, though.

Everyone else does their job pretty well. Aaron Eckhart is a great Harvey Dent/Two-Face. Leaps and bounds above the laughing maniac played by Tommy Lee Jones in the forgettable "Batman Forever". In TDK, Harvey Dent is a well developed character before he is horribly disfigured. Gary Oldman continues his fine work from the first film as Commissioner Gordon. Maggie Gyllenhaal is a solid replacement for Katie Holmes. Various bit players(and a few cameos) all add to the atmosphere.

I'd definitely reccommend seeing this movie. The 94% rating at RottenTomatoes.com is justified.

Final Fantasy XIII

Oooh, that's gotta suck.

Fanboys wept and screamed in anger as Square Enix confirmed yesterday that Final Fantasy XIII will be multi-platform. The loss of this game as an "exclusive"(really seems to be a hollow word these days, doesn't it?) will no doubt cause Sony to miss out on some sales, unless they have some major announcements today.

Microsoft's announcements yesterday were mostly exciting, and the conference was much better than last year's snoozefest. The team-up with NetFlix? Awesome. I love watching movies, and I've always wanted to get NetFlix just so I could see more. Now's it's like I have no excuse.

The avatars are "alright", as is the rest of the upcoming interface. What's going to happen with everyone's themes, though?

It's about time they let players hop from game to game as a group. Maybe people will actually use text chat now?

2.40 Firmware Impressions

Well, I've spent several hours with the 2.40 firmware update today. I like the new trophy system. So far the only game that has trophies is Super Stardust HD, which I ended up downloading. I haven't earned a trophy yet, but I will before this time tomorrow.

Aside from the trophies, messaging people from within the game works about as well as it does on Microsoft's console. Better late than never, I guess. One big advantage PS3 users have is that they're not limited to just the Playstation Eye when it comes to sending pictures. You can send .jpgs and .gifs from any source. Microsoft forces its users to snap pictures with their Vision camera, which is serviceable at best.

I haven't tried in-game chat for myself yet, but from what I've heard and read it works pretty well.

50 additional friends for a total of 100? Very nice. I'd expect them to bump this cap up further when HOME (finally) releases............"whenever".

You can listen to music off of your hard drive while playing Playstation 3 games that support the new feature. Just like XBL, you can lower the volume of your custom soundtrack if you so choose. Hopefully, Sony can patch older titles to allow them to take advantage. Right now, not too many games support custom soundtracks.

All in all, this a significant update that loses some of its impact because developers haven't caught up yet. If more titles had trophies to earn, exclusives like Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Folklore or Tekken Dark Resurrection Online
for example, Sony's answer to Microsoft's Achievements would have made a bigger splash Wednesday morning.

This is not to say it never will, though. Just give Sony time. The trophy system shows promise, and as they further improve on the new features they've added to the Playstation Network today, they'll start giving Microsoft a run for its money.