However, if I had $1M I would rather buy other things, like a house, 200,000 Shake Shack burgers, or a green dress. Or, if I was living in Sweden—like the crazy Swede who made it—I would buy a kick ass sailboat to take my friends around, and fish out mackerels. [Bilfeber via Geeky Gadgets via Dvice]

Well, it's not for sale, but the plans for it are. Yes, you can build your own sad little Tumblr for $30 and an existing go kart. Then you can drive up to Christopher Nolan's house and pitch yourself as Robin in the next movie. I don't see how you can go wrong! [eBay via Jalopnik]

Nonetheless, this Bat-replica for bikers is serious business. It features a heavy-duty Cordura base with four-way stretch inserts, leather and Kevlar plates, internal CE body armor and the classic wrist spikes. Outside of a helmet, you get the whole shebang here—jacket, gloves, pants and boots. And when it finally does go up for sale, I'm sure this caliber of superhero protection won't come cheap. [UD Replicas via Hell for Leather via Auto Motto via Gearfuse]

TechEBlog says that the car was handmade and is street legal, but they offer few details beyond that. Then again, when you're talking about a DIY Batmobile with a motorized roof, do you need many more specs? [TechEBlog via Oh Gizmo via Engadget]

There's not much else known about this newly registered trademark filed with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office except that it has something to do with:

Video game software; Software for computer games; Optical disc recorded video game software; Optical disc recorded computer game software; Optical disc recorded game programs for hand-held typed electronic games with liquid crystal display

Oh, what could it be? It sounds like it could be a trademark for the EULA or privacy section of DC Universe Online, the Sony-developed DC Comics MMORPG. Or something related to that game. How else is Sony thinking it can register the name Badman in any kind of trademark filing and get away with it? [USPTO via Kotaku]

Unlike its boring retro cousin, this hoodie has muscles, a utility belt and BATMAN'S FACE drawn onto it. You can zip it all up and peer out of two mesh eye holes, thereby completing your costume of the caped avenger (while making sure wind doesn't get on your face)!

Unfortunately, it doesn't also come with wedgie protection. And there's no water-proof guarantee either for when those villainous currs at your school decide to give you a swirlie. $74 for an XL. [Superhero Stuff via Craziest Gadgets]

There aren't a whole lot of movies from this crop that astound us, so these three capture the landscape of 2008's special effects fairly well. Which one should win? [Oscar]

And a second bonus poll.

Both Rolling Stone and the Times Online have written about the US's superhero phenomenon. Labeled by some as a post-9/11 response and apparently spurred by Obama's call for "active citizenry," everyday people are dressing up in spandex to patrol the streets in a manner reminiscent of The Watchmen. From Times Online:

They must stand for unambiguous and unsponsored good. They must create their own Spandex and rubber costumes without infringing Marvel or DC Comics copyrights, but match them with exotic names..They must shun guns or knives to avoid being arrested as vigilantes, even if their nemeses may be armed. Their best weapon is not muscle but the internet – an essential tool in their war on crime is a homepage stating the message of doom for super-villains.

If the rules sound unfair, it's only because they are. Rolling Stone explains that fair isn't necessarily the point.

As the superheroes see it, the fact that they can't project energy bolts or summon force fields only adds to the purity of their commitment. Their heroism, in a sense, derives from their lack of powers. What they have instead is the power to craft themselves anew. "This whole movement is more than just fat guys in spandex," insists Superhero, himself a brawny guy in head-to-toe spandex.

If anyone's interested, here's a guide I assembled anticipating just this sort of movement. To the cave that is in no way affiliated with DC trademarks! [Rolling Stone and Times Online via BoingBoing]

To refresh, BD-Live is the Blu-ray technology that allows for more interactive special features on your disc, like being able to arrange "screenings" with your friends or record commentary tracks yourself.

It all comes down to the technology. Instead of having director Chris Nolan talk into a mic and answer questions as they were asked via the website, Nolan had to do all his own typing. Or, we assume it was Nolan and not some designated typist, since the answers were slow going and contained a bunch of typos. The largest problem was that the text, displayed IRC-style with a white overlay behind it, was too small (on my PS3, at least), forcing me to sit closer than I normally would.

Smaller issues included Chris Nolan connecting and disconnecting every two minutes for the first 1/3 of the movie, which lead to the unfulfilling situation where questions were displayed but his answers were dropped. He also intentionally stayed silent or deftly evaded when certain questions on sensitive topics chosen by the moderator, such as piracy, making a third movie and any talk of money.

There were some enjoyable moments, such as when he took not one, but two pee breaks, explaining that he needed to make a shorter film next time. Fortunately, the BD-Live format let him pause everyone's movie simultaneously. He also reused the same joke three times in different formats, thanking an actor or a contributor by name when someone asked how awesome it was working with said person.

Here's how to fix the experience. Give Chris Nolan a microphone. Make whatever adjustments you have to make to the BD-Live technology to allow a low-bandwidth audio stream to reach however many players were signed on last night. Then, record the "podcast", and let people who were still at work (it was on at 6PM PST) watch it after the fact whenever they like. I stare at chatrooms all day at work, don't make me stare at another one when I'm watching Batman tearing around Gotham City.

I don't claim to think that I can in any way influence your purchase of The Dark Knight on Blu-ray ($24) or DVD ($15/$21). In fact, I don't really want to. I couldn't care less if you buy it, rent it or stomp any loose copies you spot at the store.

But to me, the 3-disc Blu-ray set (2 discs of content and an extra disc for the digital copy) has brought an unparalleled experience to my home theater. And I'm going to fanboy out a bit for 30,000 or so words.

The Movie
In one respect, a 1080p display could never hope to capture the multi-story IMAX experience. And it doesn't. But seeing the first shot of the movie, that of a less recognizable Chicago skyline, rekindled what it was like to sit in the theater and see film as I'd never quite seen it before. It was also the prettiest high definition moment I've experienced yet.
Just as in its theatrical release, the IMAX footage plays at a different resolution. It fills an HDTV in 1.78:1 aspect while the rest of the movie plays back with black bars in 2.4:1. And just as in its theatrical release, the transition is barely noticeable.

But despite all of this video glory, I've never felt so torn over a DVD release. On one hand, The Dark Knight is a technical masterpiecesharp, colorful, vivid and pretty much any other advertisement-inspired words you could imagine. On the other, its inability to be contained on a 40-inch LCD reminds me of why we will always need theaters. A big movie simply cannot be captured on the small screen scale, even though it's a lot of fun to watch The Dark Knight try.

The Extras
As for the extras, I was shocked to find no commentary by director Christopher Nolan. It's rare that I actually watch those things, as much as they've successfully tipped the scales on me making many a DVD purchases. But I wanted to hear Nolan's unscripted reminiscences of filming in Chicago, flipping trucks and blowing up cars on the streets of my hometown.
What we get instead is about an hour of featurettes that can be called up during relevant parts of the movie or just played from the main menu. While I was initially pretty bummed about the unworthy substitution, I will say that these short documentaries were lovingly assembled, providing incredibly detailed accounts of pulling off a chase sequence on shady Lower Whacker Drive with only ambient lighting, and loading an IMAX camera onto a steadicam rig...only to snap the metal suspension bar under the camera's weight.
I hadn't realized that the film used minatures for some of the great Batmobile sequence, which was entertaining in the most childish-fulfilling way. But maybe even more impressive was when the crew submitted to the impossibility of shooting Batman's base jumping scene over Hong Kong. They used a stunt double on a green screen insteada stunt double that still dropped 120 real feet in a studio.

There are countless little bits of trivia like these along with lots of behind the scenes footage (all shot with decent HD cameras, btw). From the Batpod to all of Batman's tiny gadgets, we get access to it all in this fantastic hour of features.

That's disc one.

Disc two contains is technically the one containing all the extras, but honestly, it's the first disc that's more impressive. There are two History Channelesque documentaries (one on Batman's gadgets and the other on Batman's psyche). Both are extremely professionally assembled, and they tend to explore the Batman from comic books as much as the Batman from recent films. I enjoyed watching the CIA discuss Batman's utility belt from 1960s comics and getting a look at how we build bulletproof ceramics in real life.

But the rest of the features disc is filled with about an hour's worth of faux newsreels known as Gotham Tonight. It's bad internet content that's filling up room on the back of The Dark Knight box. And it's just awkward to watch b-list talk about Batman sightings and Gotham politics, frankly.
There's also a notable series of slideshows, but the pictures should really go full screen.

The BD Live
As for BD-Live content, you've got to remember that this is Warner Bros' first BD Live enabled disc, and it actually offers something really, really promising with the platform. You can record your own commentary track. The only catch is that you actually do the recording through Warner Bros' site while you watch the film streamed (before you later download it to your Blu-ray player). But it's a neat idea for BD Live and it will be interesting to see what the fan base does with it. Unfortunately, I was unable to get the website working yet.


The Heroic Ending
Like I said, it's more than a bit futile to review The Dark Knight on Blu-ray. It's almost a sure thing to outsell its predecessors. The most popular movie of the decade will certainly be the best selling BD of the last handful of lackluster years.

But I do think that Warner Bros. did the material justice, even if the discs have a bit of worthless filler. The film is, of course, excellent. And the extras that are worthwhile really are worthwhile, representing the upper echelon of behind the scenes film content.

If I had one complaint, it's that Nolan and Bale clearly didn't have contracts that were binding enough to force them to sit in the same room for two and a half hours, making awkward, human small talk over a film that's grown so legendary in its reputation and lore.

One thing we meant to mention: The BD and premium DVD versions of the film also include a free VOD copy of the movie along with the digital version if purchased from Amazon.

The game takes you through the Batcave, the streets of Chicago (Gotham City) and rooftops, as you make tire screeching noises with your mouth and recreate famous lines like "he's flying on rooftops!" and "it's a black...tank". Kotaku says there's only about a minute or so worth of gameplay in there, which isn't a horrible trade for $0.99 if you love Batman as much as we do. Rachel!!!! [App Store via Kotaku]

But ironically enough, this eBay-buyable Batmobile, a converted 1973 Opal, is filled with tech that's been out of use for well over a decade. (Superman's grandma has a newer cellphone than this "superhero.")

1. SONY Digital Navigation System #NVX-F160

2.SONY Pre-Amp XDP-U50D

3. SONY Magic Link System with pager. This is the original vehicle PDA system before there were PDAs. Google Sony Magic Link System to get an idea. I do not know how to use it but it is there. I think you send emails, messaging, etc.

4. SONY Magic Link SkyTel Card

5. SONY 10 Disk CD Changer CDX-U404

6. SONY Hi-8 VCR

7. Pioneer CD player DEH-85 in the dash....comes with the batman theme on cd!

8. Alpine Bat Phone #91530

9. Pro Series Boston Acoustic Kicker Box #6-2 with bat decals inside clear plexiglass

10.Rockford Fossgate Puch 45 Amp

11.Super Nintendo NES Game system with Batman Forever game.......yes, a game system that plays batman!

12.SONY Interface Equalizer #XE-744

13.Alpine 80-80 Remote Commander RMX 38 (something to do with the alarm I think)

14.Alpine Alarm 8401 with paging system, unlocks and opens doors, windows...It will take you a full day just to learn the alarm system.

Poor Batman, calling back Alfred on an analog network after getting his page...only to look up cheat codes for his one SNES game. If the Joker gets wind of this, there will be no living with him. [eBay via Jalopnik]