Now to win the “Heroes” and “Marvel” calendars, 355 people were randomly tossed and one winner emerged –

#299 sito, and to quote his/her answer –

- I loved Batman as a kid, slightly more than Superman. Batman had to do his thing with cunning; he had no special powers conferred on him by an alien sun. No X-ray vision, no super speed, no flying; just guts and determination to do what needed to be done.

Congratulations, Sito! I emailed you for instructions on claiming your prize.

To the rest, don’t worry if you didn’t win. There’s another give-away coming next week, and you’re gonna love this one!

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“The Dark Knight” premiered in IMAX on Monday July 14, 2008 at the AMC Loews Lincoln Square in New York City. Cast and directors were at the black (yeah, black; Not red) carpet to enjoy the accolade and attention to this summer’s winning blockbuster.

Image details: World Premiere Of "The Dark Knight" Presented by Belstaff – Inside Arrivals served by picapp.com

Ledger’s family and friends also attended the premiere but remained low-key, excusing themselves from the glitz by entering through the side doors. It must still be painful to watch Heath in his last and greatest performance.

Image details: Heath Ledger’s family attend ‘The Dark Knight’ after-party in New York served by picapp.com

Entertainment Weekly gave “The Dark Knight” an A- and adds that the movie has a “predatory glamour that makes the comic-book films that have come before it look all the more like kid stuff.” Variety  credits the The Dark Knight as “the rare sequel that genuinely deserves another.” Every other review of the movie is positive, except for Newsweek who was looking for a lighter, more fun fanboy movie.

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With “Batman Begins“, writer/director Christopher Nolan explored how Bruce Wayne became the legendary hero known to the world as Batman. When Nolan returned with “The Dark Knight“, Batman has now defined Bruce Wayne’s true identity.

Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) begins to realize that he has unleashed a symbol, this Batman, and that symbol can’t have limits. He can’t show weakness. So there is now a conflict between what’s good for Bruce and what’s right for Batman to do, and “the two of them are not always compatible,” remarks Bale.

The dark knight has taken over the billionaire’s life, and it is something he can not escape from, anymore.

Bruce initially saw Batman as a short-term crusade, as a symbol to inspire the
good people of Gotham to take their city back. In Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), he finally sees the hero that Gotham needs—the hero with a face, not one wearing a mask.

The respect for Batman is mutually returned by Harvey Dent. “Harvey sees Batman fighting crime in a way that he would like to, but cannot,” remarks Eckhart. But Harvey’s thoughts on the billionaire? “He thinks Bruce is a complete upper-class twit,” director Nolan affirms. “It would
astonish him to find out he is really the man behind the mask.”

And then there is assistant district attorney Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who is the one true love of Bruce Wayne… and the current girl of Harvey Dent. “Rachel made the decision that it is impossible for her to be with Bruce as long as he is Batman. Then Harvey Dent came into her life, and she is crazy about him.”

The Dark Knight also stars Nestor Carbonell as the Mayor of Gotham City, and Anthony Michael Hall as a television news reporter. With Batman are his two closest confidants- Alfred (Michael Caine) and Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman).

Photos and production notes courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures. TM & © DC Comics

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“An absolute stunner!” – The Rollingstone

Batman fever is on! Showing in just a few weeks, Christian Bale’s The Dark Knight… (and shall I say Heath Ledger’s Joker) is getting very good early reviews! The Rollingstone has nothing but praise for all the major actors in the movie.

The Dark Knight, director Christopher Nolan’s absolute stunner of a follow-up to 2005’s Batman Begins, is a potent provocation decked out as a comic-book movie.

Now beware of spoilers before you make the jump!

To sum up the Rollingstone review, Director Nolan and his brother Jonathan deftly wrote the script to bring the struggle with good versus evil into epic proportions. Classic to all superheroes and those entrusted with “great responsibility”, Bruce Wayne has had it with living the vigilante life. “Christian Bale is electrifying as a fallibly human crusader at war with his own conscience”.

But clearly, it is Heath Ledger’s last dance as the Joker that gets everyone into fan-frenzy mode.

I can only speak superlatives of Ledger, who is mad-crazy-blazing brilliant as the Joker. Ledger’s Joker has no gray areas — he’s all rampaging id. It’s typical of Ledger’s total commitment to films as diverse as Brokeback Mountain and I’m Not There that he does nothing out of vanity or the need to be liked. If there’s a movement to get him the first posthumous Oscar since Peter Finch won for 1976’s Network, sign me up.

The supporting cast are hardly out of limelight, praises Rollingstone. “Every actor brings his A game to show the lure of the dark side”. There are also some spoilers coming out of the review –

• a secret kept by Alfred the butler could crush his boss’ spirit.
• a major character dies that pushes a do-gooder into the dark side.
• one more of Batman’s enemy emerges from the chaos

With reviews like this and the trailers to whet our appetite, this summer is gearing to welcome another blockbuster!

Photos and illustration courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures. TM & © DC Comics

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Mark Millar’s comic adaptation Wanted is getting moviegoers buzzing. Some love the extreme action, others hate how it deviates from the original graphic novel. Either way, I think it’s worth watching.

Yahoo actually has twelve trailers of the movie, from the theatrical version to snippets that haven’t been shown in youTube yet. There’s a train sequence,

Superherohype/Coming Soon also wrote leads to sevral more trailers. One of the videos shows how Wesley’s father, known only as Mr. X, was murdered after himself jumping flying off a building and killing others. There is even an  age-restricted trailer.

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No, really. Haven’t you thought to ask that before? Ever since I read the first comic versions of The Incredible Hulk, I always wondered how his pants can grow to size.

Here are some theories floating around.

My own theory? The pants are organic. They grow to accommodate The Hulk/Bruce Banner transformations. But material aside, Bruce Banner has very bad taste in underwear! Who wears purple?!

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The Incredible Hulk opened this weekend with $54.5 million in 3,500 theaters to take the #1 spot. Rack in another $31 million from 38 other countries and that puts the movie worldwide at $85.5 million worldwide. That’s not bad for a “rebooted” movie.

It’s too early for the studio to commit to a sequel, especially since it still does have to earn beyond the $150 million production expense. But I did read that cast member Tim Blake Nelson (Hulk’s enemy Samuel Sterns/The Leader) is in talks with director Louis Leterrier and producer Gale Ann Hurd for a follow-up. Sequel or not, The Hulk will be returning as part of the superhero team The Avengers. However, there is a big question of Edward Norton returning or not.

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How does he keep fit? Aussie’s Courier Mail caught the actor at Sydney’s famed Bondi Beach where Hugh Jackman swims regularly, and does it just before dawn. In nine degree waters! Either he really likes Australian winter or he doesn’t want anyone seeing him flex his pecs.

Health and Men also featured Hugh Jackman’s celebrity health profile. For this role, the Wolverine actor eats a thousand more calories, and gets into character while working hard at the gym.

No wonder Jackman looks a lot younger than his age!

image: newscom.com

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Where do we begin? As it is  I am late promoting the new Batman movie – The Dark Knight, so I do have a lot of catching up. Still, it’s better late than never. What is The Dark Knight all about?

Christian Bale (Batman/Bruce Wayne) and director Christopher Nolan return to continue Batman’s war on crime. Thanks to Batman, Lt. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), the organized crime in Gotham is almost destroyed. Until the Joker (Heath Ledger) shows up, who thrusts Gotham into anarchy. How far will Batman go to stop this madman? The Dark Knight must choose between being a hero and becoming a vigilante.

Catch the excitement from the trailer… It is dark.

images: TM & © DC Comics/ 2008 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Photo by Stephen Vaughan

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When Sulu gets married, most of Star Trek’s fleet command will be part of the wedding party. Except for Captain Kirk.

Image details: Star Trek Convention In Las Vegas – Day 3 served by picapp.com

George Takei (”Sulu” of Star Trek) will be getting married to his longtime companion Brad Altman on September 14. Walter Koenig (”Chekhov”) will be the best man and Nichelle Nichols (”Uhura”), will be the matron of honor. Leonard Nimoy is invited, but William Shatner’s name won’t be on any list.

Image details: George Takei and Brad Altman served by picapp.com

Takei’s lame excuse is a limited guest list. Yeah, sure.  We all know they don’t like each other.

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