Remember Batman Begins? My personal favorite of the Batman movies, it was a bit different from the others. At the end, Gordon gives batman “a calling card” found at the scene of a robbery (if I remember correctly). It was a single card from a deck…the Joker.

In The Dark Knight, slated for an ‘08 release, we see what seems to be the beginning of The Joker in the Batman films. It’s a bit odd, though. They don’t seem to be simply remaking the Batfilms, but making a new, different, one. It’s not supposed to fit in with the old movies, obviously. Why not? In the original Batman movie, Bruce Wayne had not prior meeting with The Joker. So what’s going on? They’re making a sort of parallel series that’s different from the old ones. Basically, Batman Begins was the start of a new series of Batman films that are different from the old ones.

Whatever.

“It is the Alethiometer. It tells the truth. As for how to read it, you’ll have to learn by yourself.”

New Line Cinema, the company that made The Lord of the Lings movie, is at it again. Further building their reputation for fantasy films, they’ll soon be releasing a movie based on Phillip Pullman’s The Golden Compass.

When I was at the movie theater, waiting for a matinée of Pirates of the Caribbean 3 to start, I was surprised to see the trailer for The Golden Compass. Unaware that a movie was being made, I had been just about ready to start reading the book.

The trailer was amazing, living up to the standards of Lord of the Rings. You can view it at IMDB.

The book was pretty good (I just finished reading it yesterday), and the movie looks like it’ll be just as good. We’ll see in December, I guess.

I finally saw Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End yesterday. How was it? Let’s see…

At World’s End was a lot better than the mediocre Dead Man’s Chest, but still not as good as Curse of the Black Pearl (which is way better). I’m disappointed that neither of the sequels have matched the original overall. The first Pirates film was amazing, but the two sequels don’t even come close.

I think that the latest two POTC films don’t exactly fit with the original, anyway. They lack…something. It’s the same producer, writers, and director…so that can’t be the problem. Disney made everything darker and went off in an odd direction. The characters, as well, seem less strong in Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End. What happened?

Sure, they’re more action-packed than the first, but they seem to lack some important things.

Back to At World’s End (A.W.E.), it’s not a bad movie. There’s plenty of action, good special effects, interesting storyline, etc. What’s the major problem? It builds off the storyline of Dead Man’s Chest. I think it’s a lot better than it’s predecessor, yet nowhere near the original.

Oh, well. Watch it and decide for yourself.