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  • Tschai

    Tschai 10:16 pm on December 11, 2008 Permalink | Reply
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    Top 10 biggest movie turn-offs of 2008 

    It’s that time of the year, that every movie lover wants to share his best and worst movies of the year. Little surprises on those lists. My list would not contain much surprises either, I guess. So, instead here are my biggest movie turn-offs of this year.

    Actually I did enjoy most of these movies while watching, but at a certain point or after the ending credits some moment/thing did turn me off in a way. So don’t consider this as a ‘Worst Movies of 2008′ list!

    1.The Forbidden Kingdom


    At last Jackie Chan and Jet Li together in a movie. Should have been a dream coming true, but Hollywood decided to piss the real fans off: Instead of ‘Once upon a time in China’ meets ‘The Drunken Master’ we just got another ‘Neverending Story’! Let me use this stupid sentence just once: Epic Fail!

    2.Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull


    Not a particular bad movie, but it could also have been just another Tomb Raider movie. Nothing new. Nothing special. Nothing worth remembering afterwards. Surely a movie which could have used a fresh reboot.
    (More …)

     
  • Tschai

    Tschai 9:50 pm on December 6, 2008 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: hacks, , , ,   

    Best of 2008 for developers: 2008+ tips, tricks, scripts and sources! 

    Best of 2008 for developers
    The second in series of best posts of 2008 for designers, developers and bloggers. This second post contains a collection of more than 2008 tips, tricks, scripts, examples and tools for developers.
    Whether you’re a beginner or pro, you could use some of these posts for a reference someday.

    Tools & Web Apps (463)

    13 Most Essential Open Source Apps That You Probably Like To Say Thank You
    14 free tools that reveal why people abandon your website
    40+ CSS Generators, Creators, and Makers
    (More …)

     
    • Michael Martin

      Michael Martin 12:29 pm on December 8, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      The best posts of 2008? That’s going to be quite a challenge! Great idea though! And thanks for the mention! :D

    • Jason Bartholme

      Jason Bartholme 8:33 pm on December 8, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Hello,

      Thanks for linking to my Firefox Extension post. There’s tons of other great links in there, I need to check out.

    • Steve Yu

      Steve Yu 12:28 pm on December 9, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Great list. Thank you collecting all these useful links.

    • damocreazy

      damocreazy 5:55 pm on December 31, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      GOOD GOOD GOOD!!

    • Gotta be

      Gotta be 1:12 am on January 12, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Wow, a list of lists. How very uncreative of you.

  • Tschai

    Tschai 11:31 pm on December 3, 2008 Permalink | Reply
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    10 reasons why 'Batman: The Dark Knight' is the most overrated movie of 2008! 

    Batman the dark knight why so serious
    Batman: The Dark Knight is simply one of the best movies of 2008. However all the (necro) hype surrounding the movie with the pre-release has started all over again. Now with the Oscar nomination ads and an Imax re-release.

    Although also on my best of 2008 list, I think the movie is hugely overrated. And this new round of hype reminded me of 10 reasons why:

    1.Necro-hype

    Let’s just face it: after the death of Ledger the hype has taken some extreme proportions. Although the studio did not start it, they did not try to stop it either.

    2.Viral marketing

    The tragic death of Heath didn´t stop the tsunami of virals for promoting the movie and teasing the fans. Possibly one of most heavly promoted movies of all time.

    3.Fanboys

    Every solid IP needs a loyal fan base to build on and to spread the word and adore the franchise. The Batman ´fanboys´ may have out ´hallelujah-ed´ the Lord of the Ring, Star Wars and Harry Potter fanboys.
    (More …)

     
    • batman

      batman 7:07 pm on December 5, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Ferries about to collide? Fail.

    • Tschai

      Tschai 7:33 pm on December 5, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Rephrased the last reason, thanks for pointing that out ‘batman’…

      –edit–
      typo’s and grammars fixed…

    • dude

      dude 10:21 pm on December 5, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      4,5,8, & 9.
      Those are the reasons that say that you are dumb.

    • hg

      hg 11:09 pm on December 5, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Some good, valid points.

    • g

      g 12:02 am on December 6, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Look man, comic book movies are a bit of fun, a laugh. Kidn of liek iron man
      i fucking loved iron man, but i know what it was. I will tell people yeah iron man is awesome check that out! same way id say tropic thunder was awesome

      the dark knight has such a fuckign good story. trust me, watch it again, i watched it 3 times and every single time you understand the layers to each character so much better and see why they are such forces to be reckoned with.

      I saw this overseas where english isnt the first language (subtitles were available for the non english customers) and there was pindrop silence and awe when the joker was on screen (its usually a little rowdy in the cinema, kids phones ppl chatting etc). It wasnt the necro hype cuz i didnt give a fuck, and im sure those people didnt know either. His performance was just that good. the only character i’ve seen with that much mind blowing twistedness/wickedness was Amon Goeth in the schindlers list. but even he ahd a soft side.

      the acting is really that good, the story is that good. your points are split between fans of the film and the film itself.

      also your last comment “But I fear the hype for the 3rd instalment will be even bigger. And the bigger the hype, the bigger the expectation and the bigger the disappointment. So, maybe I just have to try to avoid all the coming hype than.”

      If you are aware of how you handle hype, and you are prone to getting overexcited and thus getting yourself disappointed <- if you are aware of this then you should be much more rational when approaching fanboys and hype pushing people. You know what it is, cut their bullshit out and give an honest opinion of the film. if it was fuckign amazing leave it at that.

      • Matthew Nash

        Matthew Nash 4:06 am on December 14, 2009 Permalink | Reply

        The film is a cut above most action films. Indeed, I would contend that it’s not an action movie per se, it’s just a great film which happens to have some action bits in, just as Macbeth has fights and witches and gore and hallucinations.

        It’s actuallly an incredibly good character-drama-crime film on a grand scale. I think it was too hyped, as it really didn’t need to be. If it had come along a bit more quietly, it would not be so generally slated as being overhyped and just good cos of Ledger – the script has a huge part to play too. If Ledger had just gone round going ‘This town needs an enema!’ he would have been shit no matter how he played him.

    • john

      john 2:08 pm on December 6, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      You missed out Warner’s butchered blu-ray release.

      So much edge enhancement.

    • Ejay

      Ejay 3:43 am on December 7, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      I agree with a lot of these points, some more some less. For me it’s mainly the overhyping and the fact that’s it’s listed in the top 10 movies of all time at IMDB that disappointed me afterwards seeing this movie. For example while the joker was very nicely played i expected more, mainly because of all the hype.

      2 of my own disappointments in this movie were some of the very unrealistic moments that just don’t cut it if you’re making a batman movie. The other is the predictability of so many of the important key moments. Nice to have dramatic music pumping through your speakers if you can already gues how it ends.

      While many will disagree, i might even think batman begins was better than this.

    • franki182

      franki182 10:09 pm on December 7, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      what i can’t stand are these die-hard dark knight fans who have to following arguments:

      “everyone i know loved it!”

      “ive seen it 3 times, trust me!”

      “heath ledger was amazing!”

      .
      the movie is just simply overrated in every aspect. the acting is nothing special (besides heath ledger who WAS good, but not oscar worthy. give me a break). the action IS filmed too close and it doesn’t take a movie expert to know that fight scenes are filmed close when the fight choreography is nothing special and/or the actors just cant fight.

      the story is nothing special, come on…. how many times have we seen this story.

      but the number one thing that bother me the most is the following:

      THIS WAS NOT BATMAN!!!!!!

      i can’t tell you how many times i’ve heard something along the lines of this: “you just can’t deal with the fact that the new batman is just so much cooler. the old batman was a loser and villains were pathetic. this was an awesome action movie that modernized a once respected superhero who today, is nothing more than a rich man in tights.”

      some things don’t have to change, and when i say i’m going to watch batman, and i arrive and see christian bale growling like an idiot, im sorry but it’s not what batman is.

      NOT EVERYTHING HAS TO BE MODERNIZED.

    • Harlequin

      Harlequin 11:19 pm on December 7, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      The film is, I must agree, somewhat overrated. Probably one of the most heavily promoted movies is a grand understatement.
      HOWEVER…
      What I hate is when I say that I loved TDK, about 20 people have to either roll their eyes at me or tell me why it was so overrated and not deserving of love or recognition. I’ve been a Batfan since I was 5 years old, and now everyone seems to despise my fanbase because of this movie.
      First of all, ITS A MOVIE. I don’t understand why some people have to get so defensive of their side of the argument. Movies are meant to be enjoyed, and are nothing deeper than entertainment. If you don’t like it, fine, just don’t ruin my day badmouthing it for no good reason.
      Secondly, I am sick and tired of crazed fans who never liked batman in their lives before suddenly saying that he ‘is teh shiz’. Seriously. Get your own bandwagon. This one is full.
      Third, stop saying that this is not batman! Has anyone else here read elseword stories/comics? Batman as a character is not set in stone. He is… shall we say open to interpretation. Same with the Joker. There is no definitive Joker story or interpretation. Read The Killing Joke, Then read Arkham Asylum. Both have been praised for their take on the Joker, as well as Batman, and look at their differences. Just because This movie was different, and it didn’t jump straight out of the comics, doesn’t mean it was therefore unfaithful.
      Finally, just because Heath is dead, doesn’t mean that all of a sudden HE is overrated. Yes, his death did influence some of the hype of the movie, but why does that have to be a bad thing? He did a great job of bringing the Joker to life, why should he have to suffer assholes saying he was a drug addict?
      *phew*
      On a lighter side, I can’t wait for TDK to come out on DVD.

    • Tschai

      Tschai 11:24 pm on December 7, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Thanks for the great comment, guys. No matter your views, good the read some reasonable arguments.

    • Aaaronee

      Aaaronee 5:24 am on December 10, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      It was one of the least imaginative batman’s just look at the environment around them it didn’t feel like Gotham anymore. I laughed every time batman spoke, and heath was overacting I don’t care what people say, Jack Nicholson was both funny, and scary, heath was just retarded, he sounded like a weakly nerdy guy and had none of the characteristics or props that joker used. he was a crazy guy who looked like joker a rained on joker.

      Having Morgan freeman, Oldman, and Caine was the worst casting decisions talk about a price you could cut by hiring actors who could play the part and not be such a big name, it was a waste of acting and money.

      I like some of the themes and mood of these batman’s but everything else was just an awful action-drama, The fighting is badly filmed, what happen to a still camera filming the whole scene and watching a fight from an outside view then coming in for some close-ups? now it’s all close-up shaky and fast.

      This movie was definitely overrated I could tell before I even watched it.

    • Leftthetheater

      Leftthetheater 7:49 pm on December 11, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      I was disappointed in this movie as well. I liked Batman Begins but waited a week to see DK. I avoided the plot summaries but couldn’t avoid all the praise that was coming out about the movie and I guess they led me to expect too much.

      I was really underwhelmed by the movie. In fact, I left after 2 face was created and the Joker blew up the hospital.

      I had the same reaction to Tropic Thunder.

      The lesson for me is lower my expectations as much as possible when seeing a hyped up movie.

      But I will go see the next Batman.

    • Lange

      Lange 4:17 am on December 15, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Although I agree that comic book heroes are free to interpretation, I prefer the classic Batman. As far as the films go, I preferred Batman Begins to TDK. I liked that in the first film Nolan made Gotham City look like a fictional city (although it was filmed in Chicago). I liked the look of the building for Wayne Enterprises and the Narrows. It was reminiscent of Tim Burton’s take on Batman. In The Dark Knight, it’s very obvious that the city in the film is CHICAGO. What happened to Gotham City? Couldn’t Nolan have given the film a real-world edge without sacrificing the look of Gotham? I don’t mind that Nolan wanted to bring the comic book characters down to earth, which I believe Nolan did in the first film. The writers made Bruce Wayne a real, conflicted man but Bruce Wayne/Batman could have still been a real man in a surreal world. I feel he completely sacrificed the mythic feel of Batman’s world. After all, it IS a comic book movie.

      I love a good action movie, but the only real action sequence I felt was the car chase. I think Ledger’s interpretation was of the Joker was, without a doubt, the most credible performance of the Joker I have seen but that wasn’t enough for me. The story seemed to meander and in a lot of ways it reminded me of the plot in the movie SPEED with Keanu Reeves. The cops are bumbling around trying to figure out the next move of the homicidal maniac who keeps outsmarting them. You could have easily transferred Reeves, Sandra Bullock and Jeff Daniels into this film and you’d have SPEED in GOTHAM CITY. Oh yeah that’s right I forgot, CHICAGO! There’s nothing new here. I honestly think that Batman Returns was a far darker film than this one, and yet BR kept the mythic look and feel of Batman’s world.

      I actually prefer Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman to all the other actors who have portrayed the character. He brought a certain kind of vulnerability to the character that I feel was lacking in other performances. Although Michael Caine is not used much in BB or TDK, his Alfred is better written. You get more of the sense that he took on the responsibility of raising Bruce after the murder of his parents. You get the sense that, although he cares about Bruce, he is not afraid to tell him exactly what he thinks. I think Batman: The Animated Series is probably the best all around interpretation of this characther and his world.

    • Lange

      Lange 4:36 am on December 15, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Another thing was how the Harvey Dent/Two-Faced character was handled. Although I felt Aaron Eckhart gave a good performance, I thought that the animated series portrayal of Dent was far more complex. The animated series went the route of Dent having a split personality and struggling with sudden outbursts of rage that he didn’t quite understand and was in denial about it . To me, if TDK had gone this route, Dent’s transformation into Two-Faced would have been more believable. If Nolan had shown Dent already struggling with suppressed emotions that developed from an abusive background, I could see how Rachel’s death would have pushed him over the edge because he was already unstable. Well, that’s my opinion.

    • Sheeyah

      Sheeyah 9:15 am on December 15, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Let me preface with the fact that I think “The Dark Knight” was a great movie. I don’t want to take anything away from Ledger’s performance either, no matter whether you consider it Oscar worthy or not.

      I don’t want to be too nitpicky about the LITTLE details. (For example, Batman has never been portrayed in film wearing a bodysuit…it’s always some kind of body armor. But considering it isn’t actually a comic book or even animated, I understand why it makes more sense for him to be wearing body armor.) I’m more concerned with the BIG details. And yes, I have the same problem with any movie that strays too far from the source. As long as it can be legitimately justified, I don’t have a problem with slight variations.

      OK, now, let me get to my first point. The Joker in “TDK” is not the same Joker I’m used to. I prefer Jack Nicholson’s Joker for this reason, though ultimately I prefer the Joker from the animated series. My Joker didn’t cut scars into his face or put on white make-up, he fell into a vat of chemicals. Ironically, I also find TDK’s Joker too serious. My Joker laughs constantly, and is much more “fun,” while still staying a murderer.

      Second, I think the only reason the Joker was used is because he is the most recognizable Batman villian and closest to the envisioned character. After reading some information, the serial killer Holiday would’ve been a better fit – especially given Nolan’s desire to make this Batman more practical and realistic. His story is actually connected to Harvey Dent’s Two-Face transformation and many people know nothing about his character, making a reimagining of his origin refreshing.

      Third, I don’t like Two-Face’s fate. Moreover, I don’t like the ending to the movie; it keeps me from saying the movie was “amazing.” To be honest, if Two-Face hadn’t died I really wouldn’t have a problem with it.

      Fourth, “Batman Begins.” What does this have to do with TDK? A lot, actually. This was a decent movie, and better than Batman Forever and certainly Batman & Robin (of course just about anything is better than Batman & Robin). Previous posts mentioned Batman: Year One, and one might wonder why Nolan and company wouldn’t have preferred a story closer to this one for realism. It takes elements from Miller’s work, but it sets the tone for moving too far from the Batman series’ origin stories.

      Those are the major gripes I have. I won’t say that “this isn’t Batman” because it is on a basic level. That comment would apply much better to the first movie. It’d be more accurate to say, “that’s not the Joker.” The movie shouldn’t, IMO, win any major Oscars. It’s box-office-record-breaking run is marred by the fact of why people went to see it in the first place. (But then again, “Titanic” has its record marred by the fact that it stayed in the theatre for such a long time, “Star Wars” was re-released, and so on…so that’s another topic for somewhere else). If Ledger wins an Oscar, it’ll always be marred by the question of whether he would’ve won if he hadn’t died…or if he doesn’t, by the question of if he was purposefully denied the Oscar for that reason. (On a side note, Ledger should NOT be nominated for best supporting actor as rumored he will be. He should be up for lead actor if anything. Whether or not he wins that depends on the other nominees. Regardless, his performance should be judged independently of what anyone thinks about how the Joker should’ve been portrayed.)

      One other question I have is why do we have so many “reboots?” Even the comics are guilty of this. Crisis on Infinite Earths rebooted things. Fine, it probably DID need it at that point. But no more, please. In this movie’s case, Batman doesn’t need to begin in the 21st Century, he needs to Begin in the late-80’s. He was 25 when he came back to Gotham from his training, so he’d be about 46 today. Can we just leave him there and let him age now? The next generation can move on to younger superheroes but can always go back and read older comics. This goes to other characters, too, though. Let’s let some fresh faces have the Spotlight – poor Nightwing.

    • Angel

      Angel 4:39 pm on December 17, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      I prefer Jack Nicholson, this movie it´s just another batman movie…

      • abraXXious

        abraXXious 2:59 am on October 10, 2009 Permalink | Reply

        Jacks performance was much better than Ledgers in my opinion too.

    • Eli Dirkx

      Eli Dirkx 11:58 pm on June 21, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      My reasons for not liking the movie as much as I should have:
      1.The Two-Face revealing scene already looked rediculous to me at first glance. And somehow I was the only one somewhat mocking this cheap zombie-face in the movie theatre. What happened?
      2.Christian Bale randomly went James Bond in a few scenes. If you watched it, you’ll know which scenes they could be.
      3.The Joker is organised way too well to be ‘realistic’. He somehow manages to rig entire hospitals and ferries without doing a shit, he somehow forced a bomb into somebody’s tummy if that wasn’t one of his henchies, he somehow manages to get on the top of a tower without doing as much as an effort, and really…do his lips organise that all for him? Noticed him smacking them so much. Maybe that’s his lips working.
      4.No details about what happened after Batman and Rachel escaped from the fundraiser? Nothing, absolutely nothing? I mean, a hint could have helped grasp at the situation thereafter. Now it just seems like a plothole.
      5.Alfred somehow always manages to prepare a whole speech on short notice. I guess it can be funny, but I’m not sure if this is really a necessary thing.
      6.Gordon’s faked death…was this even necessary? I noticed barely any part that ever mentioned him being a danger to Curly Hair, let alone Zombie Face.
      7.’Why So Serious?’ Yeah, why? You really need to get that frown off your face for a few minutes. Trust me, you’ll feel better. Seriously, there could have been alot more humour in this. The constant seriousness can be tiring. Even The Godfather Part II had some painfully hilarious parts and still managed to keep up the dead-serious tone.
      8.The Two-Face contained in this film is medically impossible, yet somehow manages to get right out of his bed without troubles, drinks alcohol, his eyeball manages to still work, and instead of dying from an infection, he necessarily has to die from being thrown down by Batman because he had this insane conviction that Gordon had to suffer for what happened to him and his girlfriend…what?
      9.Who wrote this script? Cliché lines like ‘You die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain’ ‘This city has just shown to you that it believes in GOOOD’ and copied lines like ‘I’m a man of my worrrd’…*facepalm* I’d fire the writer and hire a new one, preferably one that doesn’t concentrate on unnecessarily long monologues and stupid ‘heroic’ quotes. Also, some more originality could work.
      10.The fanboys. I don’t think this particular one needs much explanation.

    • pmg

      pmg 5:52 am on July 13, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Additional reasons:

      1. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s annoying Rachel. Somehow Bruce and Harvey were both madly in love with her. Huh?

      2. Excessive political correctness. I won’t elaborate; I think it’s obvious.

      3. Impossibilities mentioned by others–e.g. (a) rigging an entire hospital with explosives without anybody noticing and (b) thinking coherently off pain-meds after just having half your face burned off.

      4. Arbitrary Dent story arc, as mentioned by others. Dent’s girlfriend dies and he goes from completely good to completely evil. And that interrogation episode with the schizophrenic didn’t make the transition any more convincing.

    • Alpha

      Alpha 2:50 am on August 21, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Wait, for every1 who said ledger didn’t deserve the oscar, who did that year? I watched the other performances, doubt was close, but honestly ledger really was better. All because a movie has hype doesn’t mean somebody has to try to bring it down. This is my opinion had much less plotholes than the original batman movie. Watch the scene where joker falls into the vat, y did the cops stop because of a liquid? And in all honesty, this is how a comic book movie should be. The comics are the way they are, imaginative and not as realistic because it works very well on their medium. Movies should attempt to be different like this. If they are the same in terms of attitude and realism, then there is no point of the movie, it is just a copy of the comic, not expanding on the universe.And get off the fucking voice, jesus christ, its a fuckin voice changer, he didn;t actually talk like that. how big fo a plot hole would it be that no1 could figure out that batman was wayne if u could CLEARLY hear his voice?

    • WSS

      WSS 6:33 pm on September 24, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Before The Dark Knight, I had never seen a Heath Ledger movie. I didn’t really like him. But, comparing his performance & Jack Nicholson’s is like comparing The Godfather to The Teletubbies. I’m not a fan of Batman, but the Dark Knight was amazing.

      • abraXXious

        abraXXious 2:55 am on October 10, 2009 Permalink | Reply

        Sorry, don’t agree. Heaths performance was bland and average. Jack Nicholson, in my humble opinion, was far closer to the original comic book villain – less realistic, yes, but how realistic is a Batman movie supposed to be?

        Heath was a little too “wimpy” as the joker. Also, nicholsons portrayal was more interesting as we had some back story to show WHERE his character originated, and Jack Napier was well played.

        Nicholsons portrayal – 8/10

        Ledgers – 6.5/10

        Again, my humble opinion. :)

        • Sam

          Sam 8:23 pm on January 24, 2010 Permalink | Reply

          How can you possibly say Jack Nicholson is closer to the comic book Joker? Heath became the Joker, Nicholson made the Joker Nicholson. Jack Nicholson played himself.
          Have you read “The Killing Joke”? or “The Dark Knight Returns” or “Arkham Asylum”.
          If, when you say, “original comic book villain” you are referring to the jokers earliest incarnations, then neither Ledger NOR Nicholson’s performance come close. If thats what you want watch the fifties TV show with Adam West as Batman.
          As to wanting to know the Jokers origins ala Tim Burton’s Batman (which dont’ get me wrong is an awesome film) isn’t it better to have a little mystery? DO you really want to sit through another “origin” film like Batman Begins was? Don’t you just want to get into the film?
          Or are you just a contrary person by nature who likes to bring shit down?

    • Martin

      Martin 8:05 pm on December 6, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Yea, this movie wasn’t even that good

      it was just like all the other action movies out there

      First time i watched it, i fell asleep.

      • Joey

        Joey 10:07 pm on January 7, 2010 Permalink | Reply

        “First time”? Why the hell did you watch it a second time if it just made you sleepy?

    • Carl

      Carl 2:31 pm on January 25, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      this is spot on… even the avatar post. good blog

    • Sheeyah

      Sheeyah 3:30 pm on August 21, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      It’s more of an issue that we’ll never really know if Ledger won because of his performance or because of his death. My problem with his performance is not its quality, but that his version of the Joker is not compatible with mine. Your problem with the vat in the first movie is minor since it is consistent with traditional Joker origins and that IT altered his appearance rather than self-mutilation. Your argument for this movie being imaginative rather than realistic doesn’t hold up well either. The movie TRIED to be realistic. If anything, it could’ve been more incredible. As far as “copying” the comic, well, yeah it should follow it pretty closely actually. The comics are the universe and movies are another way for them to reach more people, not the other way around. I didn’t like Batman Begins for that reason. As for the voice, it’s not a voice changer. That’s Christian Bale. No one is saying that he shouldn’t have changed his voice, just that it could’ve been better. Take the animated series, for example. Kevin Conroy does an outstanding job of having 2 distinct voices for Batman and Bruce Wayne. No one expects Bale to be that good, but as an actor he should be able to come up with something better.

    • abraXXious

      abraXXious 2:57 am on October 10, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Bingo!

      Ledgers portrayal was competently acted, but not really in the spirit of the comic book.

      Also I completely agree that Bales voice as Batman sounds ridiculous, difficult (at times) to understand and silly.

  • Tschai

    Tschai 11:40 pm on December 2, 2008 Permalink | Reply
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    Best of 2008 for designers: 2008+ tips, tricks, resources and inspirations! 

    Best of 2008 for designers
    A compilation post with the best posts of 2008 was inevitable. Below you’ll find more than 2008 tips, tricks, icons, tutorials, inspirations and more design stuff. For beginners and advanced designers. Also make sure you check out the other posts on these great blogs.

    So for your and my own reference here are the best posts for designers this year I’ve came across and which are worth (re)reading.

    Tutorials (562)

    30+ Exceptional GIMP Tutorials and Resources
    25 Ways to Spice Up Blog Post Photos
    50 Great Photoshop Tutorials for Clever Beginners
    31 Practical (Web) Interface Design Tutorials
    (More …)

     
    • Adam

      Adam 6:56 am on December 5, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Nothing says Digg-worthy like a list of lists haha! I’m just glad I don’t have to scour the internet for this info, thanks!

    • farbige kontaktlinsen

      farbige kontaktlinsen 10:15 am on October 20, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      With these great twitter tips I should be able to improve my business.

    • satya

      satya 9:43 pm on February 5, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      Great tips about web design.

    • business help

      business help 2:19 am on February 15, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      hey these are great tutorials for the newbie web designer. I think these techniques are still for the most part effective today in the web 3.0 internet world we’re in now. good job!

  • Tschai

    Tschai 10:27 pm on November 24, 2008 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , ,   

    25 Anime remakes: Hollywood's new cash cow 

    Now that comic movies have definitely been accepted by a general audience it’s time for Hollywood to find another cash cow. They just might have found that in Anime (and Manga) movies.

    Beneath you’ll find a list of 25 Anime movies with a ‘Live Action’ or a Computer Generated version on their way. Some of these Anime have already been ‘transfered’ into a ‘Live Action’ version by Hollywood (or Asian) studios.

    Hollywood knowing they just pump a massive amount of money in this genre until they get the box-office hit they want. So we shouldn’t be surprised if we’ll see a lot of remakes, reboots and prequels like they’ve done with the comic genre.

    Already ‘translated’ into a Live Action versions:

    1.Casshern

    casshern
    I found this one hard to digest: a bit chaotic and somehow hard to follow. Couldn’t tell if it justifies the original though.
    Rating: ★★½☆☆

    2.The Guyver

    the guyver dark hero mark hamill
    An Anime which actually deserves a big budget remake. A true great anime up to par with Akira and Ninja Scroll. This version however was just a small production, which couln’d justify the original series.
    Rating: ★★★☆☆

    3.Fist of the North Star

    fist of the north star
    A very cheesy (read B-movie) and over the top post apocalyptic martial-arts movie. Just like the original Anime, which had a very poorly drawings. Actually a great conversion and maybe an example for the rest?
    Rating: ★★★★☆
    (More …)

     
    • Design Bliss

      Design Bliss 4:50 pm on December 1, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Looking forward to Gatchaman.

    • Mahrahia

      Mahrahia 7:31 am on March 9, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      I heard Keanu Reeves is playing Spike Spiegel. I have lost faith in that move now.

    • Tschai

      Tschai 11:06 pm on March 10, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      @Mahrahia
      I don´t know whether he can pull this one, but I certainly am charmed by Keanu and even more after having seen The Day the Earth Stood Still.

      I´m not that sceptical after all, actually…

    • Sirwan

      Sirwan 3:08 am on April 21, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      and what about pokemon?

    • stephanie

      stephanie 8:38 pm on April 29, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      I heard, found out that they are making a full metal panic remake too, and zac efron is signed on.
      there are also rumours of a Monster remake.
      and there is in production i think a manga… battle angel/

    • Reichan

      Reichan 10:51 pm on June 26, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      I very much doubt Hollywood will be remaking Sailor Moon since Toei has pulled the plug on all Sailor Moon licencing around the world, and doesn’t seem to intend on renewing any licences.

      But even if they did manage to obtain the rights to this series, I very much doubt they’ll be able to do it justice without making it too kiddy, too digital, and too far-fetched from the original concept. Personally they should just spare us another Dragonball flop and leave it alone.

    • erik

      erik 9:04 am on September 24, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      way stupid this list…. a few good ones like blood, ninja scroll. akira, evangelion, and ninja scroll but all the other animes listed suck. why dont they try to film some great anime like perfect blue. id say vampire hunter d, but blade already snagged that story line and ripped it off.

  • Tschai

    Tschai 9:35 pm on November 14, 2008 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: popular, ,   

    10 reasons why 'Top List' posts are great to read and write 

    There are a lot of opinions whether ‘top list’ post are good or evil and even a top list with tips how to write good ‘top lists’ and other posts are claiming that this trend is dying.

    Whatever the case, I love to write and read in this style. And here are my reasons why.

    1.Easy to write

    If you have already the list completed in your head, you can finish the whole post rather quickly. And if necessary ‘pimp’ it up with images and links afterwards.
    Examples:

    • This post :)

    2.Fast to read

    I visit and stumble upon a lot of different blogs. Or read via my reader. I found out that I only ‘really’ read the fast paced posts. Most of the time these are ‘top list’ post. And I hop on to the other blogs or posts: Too much to read, too little time!
    Examples:

    (More …)

     
  • Tschai

    Tschai 11:26 pm on October 29, 2008 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: statistics,   

    Wordpress Stats twice as good as Google Analytics? 

    Wonder whether you’ve noticed this also if you’ve installed the Wordpress.com Stats plugin and if you’ve got an Google Analytics account: their numbers are not the same!
    But the difference is almost all the time 100%: Wordpress statistics are twice the amount of Google Analytics for the same period.
    I was very amused to see the double amount of ’success’…

    No, I can’t believe the ‘almighty’ Google is not as accurate as Wordpress Stats. So I thought Wordpress.com Stats screwed up. And this post titled http://wordpress.org/support/topic/153553">How accurate is WordPress.com Stats (vs. Google Analytics)? seemed to prove my theory.
    (More …)

     
    • dani

      dani 2:03 pm on October 30, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      I think that you’re wrong.
      GA allows you to see VISITS not only VIEWS, but this stats are different in all case.
      So you’re theory are not reasonable.

    • John Deszell

      John Deszell 2:16 pm on October 30, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      I run Wordpress Stats on my personal site and I feel I’m missing some things. When I launch my new design here in the coming days, I’m going to add the Google Analytics plugin to see how things compare. I noticed before that Wordpress Stats shows views not visits, so I am missing how many people actually come to my site, not just how many pages they view.

    • Tschai

      Tschai 3:02 pm on November 1, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Dani, thanks for your clarification.

      I’ve updated the post with your comment, which was actually clear to me.

      However the discussion, also at http://wordpress.org/support/topic/153553” rel=”nofollow”>How accurate is WordPress.com Stats (vs. Google Analytics)?, was about the initially grafx screen.

      Hope it’s clear to them also, now…!

    • m

      m 2:33 am on December 10, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      I love GA. One HUGE gap though is the amount of visits, hits, etc, of the individual files on the system.. For example, I have a video that 5 other sites are streaming from my server. None of those hits show up in either GA or Wordpress. They only show if they went to the page and not just the file. ALWAYS run server side stats on your logs for the REAL DEAL!

      Mookie

    • felipe.lv

      felipe.lv 7:46 pm on December 26, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      There’s also another factor that might cause different numbers between WordPress.com and Google Analytics stats when comparing the same metric (pageviews), and that’s caused by the way that each system gathers information: Google Analytics gets information by calling a javascript file, while WordPress.com stats analyze traffic information based on the requests of an image file.

      Even when javascript is enabled by default by most (if not all) modern browsers, there are a few agents that won’t process this (and so, will pass unobserved by Google Analytics), such as users with javascript off or blocking javascript, old text-only browsers, search engines crawlers (Googlebot and others) and spam bots; all of which will be recorded as visits or views by WordPress.com stats since practically all of them process images or at least generate a request for them, thus marking a hit in the stats.

    • Zeya

      Zeya 2:44 am on April 8, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      I am curious about this issue also, given that I am using Wordpress stats on m newly constructed website and have been getting curious and unsatisfactory results.

      It has already been documented here and elsewhere that Stats and GA provide measurements of entirely different things. As i understand it GA tracks the number of individuals viewers who access your site, while Stats tracks the number of times each viewer clicks on a page or even refreshes it.

      In my case, I am running the WP theme Atahualpa, which has a header image that rotates to a new photo each time the the main page (or any sub page) is refreshed. Because the photos that rotate through are good and my viewers want to see them all, one viewer my refresh the page or repeatedly click the header photo any number of times. Given that the order of the rotating photos is random and not linear, a viewer could potentially have to click through 100 times to view all 25 or so photos. And as i understand it, Stats will measure this in its graphing as 100 views, rather simply keeping track of the fact that one person visited and refreshed the main page 100 times. This leads to a gross distortion of data if what one wants to track is their total number of viewers. My site has only been up for 4 or 5 days, but for example two days ago Stats recorded 143 views when i am pretty certain only 5-10 people visited the site.

      So…does anyone know if GA will provide a more accurate measure of VIEWERS, rather than views?

      Thanks! The site in question is http://www.zeyaschindler.com, if anyone wants a visual example.

    • felipe.lv

      felipe.lv 4:24 am on April 9, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      GA records both viewers and page views, but even so you’ll likely get two different results with GA and WordPress Stats… what you should ultimately be looking at is the trends rather than brute numbers

    • Zeya

      Zeya 10:42 am on April 9, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Update:

      In addition to Stats i have now installed Wassup.

      While i still cant speak for GA, i must say that i am amazed by what Wassup offers. Not only are views recorded as separate from visits (as discussed in my previous post), but specific visitors can actually be tracked via an internal googlemap all the way down to a streetview of the address from which they are accessing your site. Its totally awesome, and totally creepy. Big brother is alive and well, and hes watching over my website…

    • Stuck Serving

      Stuck Serving 4:29 am on November 11, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Thank you for the clarification!

    • Will

      Will 5:36 am on January 8, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      I have a similar problem with Statpress. Its showing 100% more traffic than Google Analytics.

      When you say:
      [quote]Wordpress Stats shows the views and Google Analytics show the visits.[/quote]
      You are incorrect! Statpress shows the visits and page views as does Google Analytics. So the mystery continues!

    • Dick Whyte

      Dick Whyte 8:35 pm on January 24, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      Actually – I have found that my Wordpress stats are more than twice my Google Analytics numbers. The reason is, I believe, that Wordpress counts Google image searches even when they don’t come to the page, while Google Analytics doesn’t count those. Google Analytics shows a variety of pages being visited as well, but Wordpress stats shows a limited amount of pages being viewed – they are WAY OFF each other.

      My theory was that everytime Google Image Search accesses your site to make a thumbnail image, Wordpress stats records that as a page view, while Google Analytics does not. Does anyone know if this could or would be true??

      Sorry for posting so late in the thread.

  • Tschai

    Tschai 9:05 pm on October 25, 2008 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , ,   

    The Coolest blog…with the Unstandard theme 


    The guys (and dolls?) at WP WebHost have organized a Coolest WordPress Blog competition. And since any Wordpress powered blog can contribute and there are cool prizes to be won, I thought I just join along.
    WP Webhost is not being a ‘Scrooge’ and the prizes are worth the effort.
    (More …)

     
    • Design Bliss

      Design Bliss 3:44 pm on October 29, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      I haven’t made the switch to the Unstandard theme yet (probably coming next week), but I thank you for the work you’ve done on it so I definitely think you have a cool blog.

    • Steve

      Steve 12:29 am on December 13, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      I’m using the Unstandard theme!

    • Cadence

      Cadence 2:19 am on March 18, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      I love the Unstandard Theme. I’ve made a lot of changes though. I added another widgetized sidebar in the showcategories php file so I could add post excerpts the usual way. Check it out! I call it the Unstandard Theme Modified.

  • Tschai

    Tschai 12:42 pm on October 25, 2008 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: bubble, , web 2.0   

    Web 2.0 bubble bursts: 10 reasons why (you should be happy) 

    It seems that the credit crisis has speed up the process of the inevitable burst of the Web 2.0 ‘bubble’. Yahoo, Veoh, Break, SearchMe, Wikia, Zillow, Jaxtr, Heavy just to name a few. All of them had to let some of their staff go recently. And more Web 2.0 companies probably will follow, which will mark the burst in the bubble for sure.
    And here are 10 reasons why and why you should be happy with that.

    1.Too much Web 2.0 companies and services

    Let me start with saying that there are too many Web 2.0 companies and services. I actually started once too bookmark the interessting ones, but I gave up soon enough. Now I simply search for them when I need them.
    With a so much crowded web area it is only natural that some of these are doomed to be…doomed.

    2.Too little time for so much Web 2.0 services

    Maybe it’s because there are too much services, maybe it’s that because we have so little time. Even in the same niche there a lot of choices. Work, friends, family, hobby’s, sport. And internet. Although Web 2.0 is the ideal concept to combine all of these most of us still have to deal with all of this in real life.
    (More …)

     
    • kuanhoong

      kuanhoong 2:47 am on October 29, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      I guess I am happy that the current economy downturn because the rate for USD is higher. Thus more online income.

    • Jon

      Jon 1:46 pm on November 16, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Great site and a good run-down of all the problems facing startups in a slowing economy… cloning your way to success is always more difficult and sadly, an approach followed by far to many companies out there!

      Jon
      http://WoodMarvels.com – Create Unique Memories

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