This is your new Catwoman

Hey... why WAS Warner Bros. in such a hurry to get a picture of Superman looking more-or-less like himself (big shield, big cape, shadows keeping the "briefs or no briefs" discussion for another day) out into the fanboy-blogosphere when the movie isn't due out until 2013? Well, maybe because they didn't want the ONLY conversation about their increasingly-trouble DC Universe movies this weekend to be "Where are her ears???"

Well, now we know who bought up all the nondistinct black scuba-gear now that the X-Men aren't using it anymore...

Yeah, yeah, first picture, no context, trust Nolan, blah blah blah...

The costume (or lack thereof) designs in pretty-much all of the Nolan Batman movies read like some kind of personal filmmaking challenge: Now they have to make the script/acting/direction SO GOOD that people won't care how boring everybody looks. For my part, I'm not exactly sure why anyone is surprised - what did you expect the result to be when a character built entirely around sexuality and an visually-absurd costume-gimmick is reimagined by a filmmaker thus far singularly-disinterested in sexuality and visually absurd costume-gimmicks? Not bad, not terribly exciting, get ready to not be surprised when she's never actually reffered to as "Catwoman." I'm sure the movie will still be fine.

Look, everybody knows I loved "Begins" and "TDK," and I expect to like this one much the same. But yeah, with this being the last one, I hope "Rises" is also the death knell of this particular era/aesthetic in superhero movies. As far as I'm concerned 'realism to a fault' has been dead since Robert Downey Jr. told his computer to paint his outfit red for no particular reason, and at this point watching Batman and company still going through these motions is kinda like seeing someone still walking around in acid-washed jeans and a popped-collar.