THE DARK KNIGHT RISES: 6 OUT OF 10

Finally I had got some time to go out and watch the final chapter of the Batman trilogy in Montevideo.

First of all, thanks to Nolan and all the cast for giving back the dignity into the character on the screen! (indeed, compared to everything before Nolan’s view of Gotham, his trilogy is great).

Now, I’m not going to talk here about any eventual loose ends, inconsistencies, speculations, deux-ex-machina, mythology and what not. Instead, I will mention two things: first, why I am not giving this film 10, and second what I would love to see in the future.

About my 6-out-of-10 score for the film:

• Batman is not presented as the world’s greatest detective.
• Batman exposes himself a lot in open spaces in the City, what goes against his ninjitsu training on the league of shadows.
• Bruce Wayne is always doubting of his role as Batman (in the comics he knows what he has to do and never doubts about becoming the Batman).
• There is no balance between action and quiet moments. In fact, there are many sequences with no action to unveil the plot that could have been short, and long action scenes with little interaction among lead roles (like Batman and Bane who could have got more encounters during the film, imvho).
• Bane is presented as a bully with a nonsense purpose, whose lines sounded with a strange intonations (what is more, his plan also resembles the Joker’s).
• No fight scenes between Talia al Ghul and Catwoman.
• Why waiting months to destroy Gotham? It’s just equivalent to “monologuing” …
• Supporting characters with no added value to the film.

I could go on with my list but I won’t because I like the fact that this time the films are serious about the character.

Now, if a new director shows up with a new vision, please:

1) Stop with the trend of villains with chaotic goals.

In past Superman films, Lex Luthor was presented as a madman with just a fixation with land (even if it’s alien), instead of being presented as a controversial businessman plus scientist with a double agenda for the sake of power and global domination.

The same happens in Nolan’s trilogy with everything related to The League of Shadows, the Joker and Two face. They all seem to have something to prove but in the end they are just breaking havoc.

In short, not everyone has to go mad or become a freak to be a villain in a movie.

For example, The Penguin could be a can high-society mobster that trains birds for deadly tasks, whose umbrella is just a gun in disguise (like a blade inside a stick).

Btw, I would love to see actor Jonny Coyne (Alcatraz’s warden) as The Penguin:

2) Let the Batman be the World’s Greatest Detective.

Besides the incredible gadgets, his strong spirit, determination, and his fighting skills, Batman is the world greatest detective. He moves in the shadows avoiding open scenes.

And please, as a side note, find someone with a voice that does not have to force it to sound fierce.

3) Stop with that line that everyone can be Batman.

Bruce Wayne is the one and only Batman. Period.

Many can wear the cape for a brief period of time even in Comics, but none gives Batman the right touch of presence and solemnity.

Why not adding more characters like Nightwing?

Ok, I can give it that Robin could make things less realistic and prone to guess who the man behind the mask is, easily. Unless you don’t treat them as fulltime sidekicks of Batman but independent heroes them-selves.

4) Write a storyline that can lead to a Justice League film.

If the original Batman is dead, how can this impact on an eventual Justice League film? In particular, what about the legendary friendship between Clark and Bruce? They are not just co-workers. They are friends -despite their different approaches to fight crime for the sake of justice, who trust each other (please, do not remind me of the kryptonite bullet here).

5) And stop with unnecessary roles.

Focus on the lead characters and real supporting ones. Avoid wasting time adding roles that do not add relevant value to the storyline (like Deputy Commissioner Foley and or Bane’s wingman; I am not talking about the actors here –who are great- but the roles them-selves).

Ok, enough words.

To wrap it up, I enjoyed the film and the trilogy but I didn’t fall in love with it. In fact, even with all the flaws one can find in The Avangers movie, I still like it more than TDKR …

My two cents,
~Pete

IMPORTANT NEWS ABOUT WINDOWS PHONE 8

In the last few days there have been tons of news regarding the upcoming Windows Phone 8.

I am thrilled with two of them, especially:

• The addition of new markets, and
• Marketplace pre-compilation of apps.

New Markets

For years I have been sending comments and suggestions to Microsofties (including TPTB), so as to open the AppHub (both WP7 and XBLIG) to devs in countries outside the list of supported ones. Ditto for XBLive services and marketplaces.

As a dev living in one of the unsupported countries, it was quite frustrating that the only two ways to get your app/game to the AppHub were either opening a company in, say, the US, and or talking to a publisher. Being both solutions, cumbersome.

Recently, MSFT announced that for Windows Phone 8, this is finally becoming a reality. So, at launch, over 180 countries will be added to the WinPhone8´s Marketplace (consumers) and its related AppHub (developers).

Please, allow me getting it off my chest: FINALLY!!!

Marketplace Pre-Compilation

On March, 2010, I had submitted a suggestion to the XNA Team through the Connect site entitled “Native Image On-The-Fly” (edit: I am afraid it got lost in the last database purge, so the provided link won´t work).

My suggestion was pre-compiling all approved apps/games to be published on the XBLIG channel to native images. Given the similar architecture of the XBox 360 consoles, this should be a straightforward process to be done once per app/game on the server side, with low-to-none chances of image corruption as target hardware would not change, saving the customer from waits stemming from Jittering during execution.

The benefit, simple: faster start-up and running times of games since the console would be executing native images of assemblies instead of the (MS) intermediate-language versions of them (please note that memory would still be “managed”).

As a result of one of the new features introduced to WinPhone8 devices (that is, support of native code), there was no reason why the above-mentioned rationale would be kept away from the upcoming product.

Well, … MSFT also announced that the Apphub will introduce a new service: pre-compilation of assemblies.

So, if you build with managed code, the assemblies you submit to the AppHub will be compiled by the servers to native code before they make it into the marketplace.

Please, allow me again getting it off my chest: FINALLY!!!

Both news are a huge step forward. Let us hope MSFT eventually extend them to the XBox360’s AppHub …

Cheers!
~Pete

WINDOWS PHONE 8 … YOU MEAN 7.8? NOPE …

Microsoft is letting a very interesting group of cats out the bag these days. First the news of its tablets (Surface) and now the news related to a new phone: Windows Phone 8.

You may be probably thinking that is not a new phone after all but a whole rebrand of an existing phone packed with a future update. If that is the case, you would be wrong. So wrong in fact, that you missed the lines that explain/claim that:

1. The phone will be bundled with a new OS, which require a more powerful hardware than the one existing on WP7 devices,
2. Windows Phone 7 devices will NOT be receiving this new OS but an update (to version 7.8), which will help to reduce the UX-gap between phones, and
3. The new devices will allow devs to use native code and do native calls. Yes, C/C++ …

Let us talk about each of these points for a moment. Shall we?

(I) The new OS

To keep the story short: if Windows 8 will be out soon, what else could you expect?

Now, the long explanation …

Microsoft is trying to extend the success around the XBox 360 console –yes, despite the RROD problem- to other platforms in order to unify the user experience on the multimedia front to compete with others big players for their marketshare, like Apple and Google. And the new OS is a step in that front.

A broad set of hardware will be powered by the Windows 8 OS in the near future (PCs, tablets, …, consoles?), which in turn will help MSFT to position as a strong provider of a unified multimedia experience. So, providing a new OS branded with the number “8” for window phones is something one could have been expecting some time ago.

Will its strategy succeed? Well, that leads me to the discussion of the second point.

(II) The “Old” Phones

In my previous post, I briefly mentioned the doom of a device that seemed promising by the time it came out: the Zune HD.

Let me be clear here. The first Zune devices had nothing to offer against their “i” counterparts. But that was not the case for the Zune HD: neither in hardware, nor in software.

The Zune HD device opened the door for the Windows Phone and also influenced, to some extent, the look’n’feel of both, the current 360’s dashboard and the UI of the “8-based” OS. And yet, it was left behind in the dust …

Now, if the “old” 7 phones will be receiving an update in order to let users experience a taste of what the new OS will offer, why mentioning what happened to the Zune, then?

Because users (customers and devs) could deem this behavior as a tendency, as if the were treated as mere beta testers of MSFT’s experiments with mobile hardware: Zune, Zune HD, the infamous Kin, developer WP7 devices, and eventually retail WP7 devices.

Not to mention that this may represent a slap in the face to one of its newest and major partners, Nokia, which recently released into the market a new line of WP7 devices!

One can understand that a new OS may require new hardware to enjoy the full set of features it might offer, but rushing and or pushing things into the market this way, in a track-record of “no-more-support” deeds in a short period of time, could only become eventually a winning move if MSFT shows a strong commitment from now on to support its upcoming devices, for a reasonable minimum number of years.

Make no mistake, I am a MSFT supporter, but it does not prevent me to chime in and do a wake-up call when I see a warning signal.

As usual in life, time will tell …

(III) Native Code

“Developers, developers, developers …”

Allowing native code on a Windows Phone is a fantastic move!!!

But stating that by allowing native code it would be easier to port existing frameworks to the windows-phone environment is, imho, vague. It depends on a combination of factors: how many platforms you want to support, the techonologies you use to develop apps, and or how sensitive you are to fragmentation of code (since this feature will not be available to WP7 apps), to mention just a few.

Now, does this mean that you must use native languages for WP8? The answer is “No”. You can still use managed ones like C# (specially if you want to create apps and games for both, WinPhone 7 and 8 devices).

Does this mean you can still use XNA to produce games for WP8 devices? In spite of the fact that more and more it seems that XNA will be no longer updated –and no other official managed solution would take its place, the answer is “Yes”.

However, the answer for XNA-based games seems to be “No” for other platforms like the new “Surface” tablet and Windows 8 on ARM (on desktop mode you could still use it), unless you switch to unofficial solutions like Monogame or ANX.

Personally, I do not care whichever languages/techs a dev picks to develop apps and or games. But I do care about using the same languages/tech for the most amount of target platforms out there to economize resources. That is why solutions like Unity3D are so popular these days …

So I hope MSFT eventually returns to the dream of “The N Screens”, allowing for all its devices with the less amount of key differences (that is, on what can be used/called/consumed), both, native languages and also native calls from managed code, so that devs can pick the right combination for their needs and or preferences …

To wrap it up, some may be in favor, some may argue about pros and cons, and some may complain, but let us be honest and recognize that interesting times lay ahead.

The only news left behind –at least, for now- is related to the rumored XBox 720. But who knows? Maybe we will receiving some official words from MSFT sooner than we expect …

Cheers!
~Pete