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]

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.

Pending you've registered,

1. Pop your The Dark Knight Blu-ray Disc into your Internet-connected Blu-ray Player at least 15 minutes before the event and log into BD-Live from the main menu.
2. Fire up your Internet-connected computer and go to wblive.warnerbros.com, sign in, and click on the Post Question button in the event to ask a question.

We have word out to Warner Bros as to exactly how we can expect to receive Nolan's end of the discussion (audio track or text chat?), and we'll be sure to update this post if we hear anything more.

Those with The Dark Knight Blu-ray who've registered for Warner Bros' free Blu-ray accounts have the opportunity to watch the film in sync with director Christopher Nolan while he answers questions and gives us that commentary we were so missing from the BD's otherwise excellent extra features.

Slated for December 18th at 6PM Pacific, the community screening is open to the first 100,000 people who respond. But since Jason and I already RSVPd, that only leaves 99,998 spots left. Suckers.

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 masterpiece—sharp, 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 instead—a 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.

[TheHDRoom]

Like the Batman system, the more phones on the ground, the better, since it would be able to triangulate the source of radiation more accurately. Phones closest to the deadly stuff as they pass by would give off stronger signals, pinpointing where it's at, or how it's moving in real time. Also, the larger the scale of the project, the less the system would cost per phone—right now it's around $50-$100 a phone. Blown up to a hundred million phones, the price would plummet.

Obviously, there are some major civil rights issues here, especially if you're legally required to be a constantly lo-jacked, walking bomb detector for the Man. Newsweek suggests a more diplomatic and less creepy solution, where government agencies would pay you to opt-in. I think that's one paycheck I'd have to pass on. [Newsweek]

Jason Chen: I'm Batman!
Mark Wilson: I'm Batman!
Jesus Diaz: I'm Batman!
Matt Buchanan: I'm Batman!
John Mahoney: I'm not that guy from Frasier! [DVDTown Thanks Eric!]

One of the reasons why it's so important to try to protect the first weekend is that it prevents the pirate supply chain from starting. A day or two becomes really, really significant. You've delayed disc manufacturing that then delays distribution, which then delays those discs from ending up on street corners for sale.

But while Warner Bros. is high fiving that they defeated the internet, maybe the executives should learn a different lesson about creating $158.4 million weekend openings—namely by making good movies and tailoring them for the big screen experience. [LATimes]

In the summer blockbuster, The Dark Knight, a Nokia device is prominently featured. We worked closely with the producers of The Dark Knight to develop an appropriate device that would suit the technology-savvy character of Batman. The Nokia device used in the film is not a commercial product—at this point.

So paraphrased, that reads "Yeah, we made the world's most awesome phone for the world's most awesome movie, wouldn't you be lucky to buy it?" So even if it's not the Tube, the phone certainly has that "might go on sale" ring to it. [CrunchGear]

IMAX cameras, which use 70mm film, are much larger and heavier than a traditional 35mm machines. Among the plethora of changes to accommodate IMAX, technicians reinforced gyrostabled remote control camera cranes, crafted sturdier rigs to be mounted on cars, and forced one poor cameraman to actually carry the damn thing on his shoulders in an especially tense S.W.A.T. Team sequence.

When you're done checking the video out, head over to Wired (if you haven't already) for even more information on Christopher Nolan's methods and madness. Helicopters, wrangling with the Chinese government; the making of this movie could be its own movie. [Popular Mechanics]

(I'm going to try and get through this review without spoilers.)

First off, the gadgets. The Batmobile is back, and so is Batman's upgraded fighting suit. He's not residing in Wayne Manor anymore after the events of the Batman Begins, so he has to make do with hiding his Bat-gear inside Wayne Towers and various locales around the city. Batman makes do. He's a hero in exile, a thread that continues through to the end of the movie and on to the next.

There's a very good minor plot device that centers around cellphones that would be pretty damn awesome if it we could get our hands on it in real life. Who knows...maybe the government's already using it now. Plus there's are great scenes in the air, both with a plane and "without". He's really earning that "Bat" part of his name.

As good as Christian Bale is as Bats, the real stars of THIS movie are the Joker and Harvey Dent. If there is ever a character that is the complete opposite of the Dark Detective—cold, calculating, and completely logical—it's the Joker. He's simultaneously insane and extremely insane, taking apart bit by bit the fragile peace that Batman has strived to build since the first movie. There is so little logic to the joker that he's probably the one person whose moves Batman can't predict.

What's great about this movie isn't just the writing and the special effects (though they both are still stellar), it's that everything FEELS exactly like you'd imagine Batman and his villains to be in real life. There's even traces of realistic crime flicks like Heat going on throughout, which lends more to making guys as ludicrous on paper as Batman and the Joker believable. How would you portray a man whose sole intent, as Alfred says, is to watch the world burn? This is how. Gone is affable clownish uncle figure that Jack Nicholson played in the 1989 Batman, and in his place is a character that if you saw on the street, you should run away from as fast as you fucking can. Us gadget fans relate more towards with Batman's logic than Joker's lunacy, which is why he's going to be the best villain you'll ever seen in a superhero flick.

See this movie. Go buy this ticket right now and print it out at your office. We didn't get to see it in IMAX, but a good 20 minutes of the film was shot in the format, so we're definitely going to go back and catch it again. In fact, we've been trying to wrap our heads around all the different themes and nuances that Chris Nolan crammed in; ideas that are even more subtle than they were in the first. A second viewing would do us good.

(You'll notice we didn't mention much about Harvey Dent/Two Face in this review. We'll leave that bit of plot for you to discover yourselves.)