Fannish December

I watched The Batman recently. The one from this year, with Robert Pattinson. I hadn't watched a Batman movie before, except for some snippets from The Dark Knight, and I'd seen very little DC movies in general (just Birds of Prey, I think), so I didn't really know what to expect. I ended up loving it, to my surprise.

I loved the mystery and the noir vibe and the visuals were all so beautiful. Wonderful set design, brilliant costumes, amazing props; it was inspiring in a way I hadn't felt recently. I liked the world and I wanted to see more of it, so I went to look for comics.

There was a little set of the specific comics director Matt Reeves says inspired him for the movie (Year One, Ego, and The Long Halloween), so I ordered that and started reading as soon as they arrived at my doorstep (endless love for local online stores!!). I've finished Year One and Ego so far and I have to say, Pattinson's Batman and Bruce Wayne are spot on—he perfectly portrayed the melancholic introverted Bruce Wayne, who's more Batman than man but who, still somehow, doesn't quite know how to be Batman. Lovely really. The character growth was wonderful.

I quite liked Selina Kyle too,,,though I did get confused about her. See, when I first saw her in the movie, she seemed rather gay. She was very concerned about and protective of her flatmate Annika and that's about the background canonical involvement between characters that I need in order to feel shippy feelings. ...It's on me that I knew so little about Batman that I didn't know he and Selina have had a romance going on for the last 80 (eighty!) years. 😩 So, okay, I suppose it was in character for her to go and kiss Batman...whether she was trying to manipulate him or was genuinely attracted.

Overall, when I saw the ending, I wasn't left with the impression that Selina and Batman (she never met Bruce) were all that into each other. Like, they were, but I didn't feel like it was a strong connection. Maybe in the sequel, or just in the comics and games.

Speaking of games, a long time ago I bought the first season of the Batman Telltale series and I finally got around to playing it after watching the movie. I liked it a lot, and it was similar enough to my favorite Telltale game—The Wolf Among Us—in both a gruff detective investigates crime in a big imposing city that's basically its own character. Very noir, very moody, very nice.

I took one screenshot only: of the batboobs.



Looking forward to playing the second season. (I also own a couple of Batman Arkham games that I've never touched, I'll probably get to them soon.)

More thoughts: I seem to get these bouts of interest in *a specific British actor* every now and then. It was Orlando Bloom at one point last year, then Benedict Cumberbatch this year, then Tom Hiddleston after that, and it's turning out that now it's Robert Pattinson (and I have a feeling Henry Cavill might be next).

I watched Tenet, directed by Christopher Nolan, and The Devil All the Time, a Netflix production based on a book. Stellar performances in both!

( Thoughts on them )

I've been having fun this month getting back into iconmaking and participating in the challenges at iconthat.

As for next year, I'm looking forward to the snowflake_challenge and also Fannish Fifty, which sounds like a good way to come up with regular posts. I'd like to do Mount TBR too, but I don't think I have twelve books right now.