"Sure, Fox makes a fortune from advertising, but it's still not enough."
"Not nearly enough!"

@avclub-da518aecddbf5c94588f53562012c452:disqus , you could just as easily say that about any superhero, so framing the Batman figure as a rational act in the context of a superhero is hardly unjustifiable.  Particularly since Nolan goes to considerable effort to explain Bruce's thought process in creating the Batman…

@avclub-884c4beddd8c98bb3b016bdfcc1bcdf8:disqus , the difference being that the animated series was set in a more fantastical world full of limitless villains, and took the view that Bruce was, at a basic level, kind of psychologically disturbed.  None of that was ever true of Nolan's Batman films.

@avclub-da518aecddbf5c94588f53562012c452:disqus , I don't believe he ever framed it in those terms.  Eliminating all street crime is impossible, and Bruce is aware of that.  Nolan's Batman was always presented as a rational man who employed the Batman guise for calculated reasons, not driven to become Batman by a…

2) ???? WHY does he quit at the end of Rises anyway?

The issue with Rises is that it suggests that Bruce permanently quit
being the Batman. This then suggests that "Batman" is a mask that Bruce
Wayne wears to fight crime, and that's few people's preferred
interpretation of the character.
…
Basically, Nolan didn't have the balls to take Batman to a place as dark as a…

This episode is hilarious on its own, but it kind of annoys me in the broader context of how this show handled the Wonder Woman mythos.  That is to say, the show had no idea what to do with Diana's own supporting characters or villains (on the rare occasions they even tried they might as well have an onscreen caption…

Yes, I would say it is missing Michael Bay's misogyny.  A character having an obstacle to overcome is not misogynistic, and she's shown to be quite competent.  Moreover, the camera doesn't drool all over her like Bay's does.

While art films and the like are never going to reliably draw huge audiences, Pacific Rim is comfortably pitched in a genre that audiences have demonstrated that they like, just missing Michael Bay's misogyny and inability to direct good robot fights, and the Transformers brand name.  That's a good indicator of what's…

Grown Ups 2 making more money than Pacific Rim is indicative of everything wrong with audiences today.  And I'm not even a huge fan of Pacific Rim, but c'mon — it's the non-stupid Transformers.  Was stupidity and/or Shia LaBoeuf really that essential to the Transformers' movies box office success?

I'd rank it as my second favourite after Inglourious Basterds.

If there's anybody who's come out of this show with my opinion of their abilities improved, it's Munn.

After a certain point it gets distracting—why not just say Matthew Shepard instead of "Lowell Lydell" in the first place?

I meant the complaints about the West Wing's fifth season, the one after he left.

My own working theory about Sorkin is that he spent the first year after he left The West Wing reading viewer complaints about the quality decline of the show, and after marinating in this he became convinced he can do no wrong.  Thus, both of his subsequent TV shows have been insufferably smug.

This episode contains some of the series' most hilarious abuse of Milhouse.

@avclub-d980b15d49101608dc407770f35b1d75:disqus , Bran was actually only in six of the ten episodes last season.  Now, I would say he had a substantial role in only three of them.

The early Young Avengers stuff was some of my favourite Marvel product of the 2000s, but Heinberg's final mini with them really took a toll on my interest in the property.  Particularly the "oh well, Eli's randomly moving away, and Cassie and Vision are dead.  Shrug" ending.  The cumulative effect of that story was to…

I really liked it.  This is what they should have done for the first Wolverine solo movie, as this picks up things like the death of Jean Grey and really deals with it.  Plus, there was no pressing need to tell Wolverine's origin story, particularly since none of the main villains could actually be dealt with in it.

James Mangold has a bit of old studio-system versatility to him, all the different genres he's done.