When I moved to Southern California last fall, one of the first day trips I made was to Los Angeles to show my brother around. He had never been to California so this was all very new to him. On one of those early visits, I dragged him with me downtown to check out a couple of museums and to ride Angel's Flight. While my brother was not that excited to try the mini railroad, he's a good sport and happily wandered around the area with me while we killed some time. When we arrived at the top of the hill near Grand Ave, we were shocked to find ourselves on a movie set. It was a hot September afternoon, but the set designers had turned Grand into a winter wonderland with snow on the sidewalks and bushes, fake fall leaves on the trees, and a giant tank truck of some sort hanging out in the middle of the Avenue.
We talked to several of the people hanging out around the tank, but no one would confirm what movie it was for. We finally talked to a security guard who gave us the name rumored to be a cover on the internet ("Magnus Rex"), which led us to believe that this must be for the new Batman flick. When we finally saw some Gotham Police Department cars on our way out of downtown, our suspicions were confirmed. It was so cool!
Needless to say, we were pretty stoked after that to finally see the movie. And the movie didn't disappoint - it was a great end to the recent trilogy. As a film fan, the movie itself was great... but as a fashion fan, the costume design was awesome! I was keeping my fingers crossed that the costumes would eventually be on display at the FIDM Museum's Annual Art of Motion Picture Design exhibit the following February. Luckily, I didn't even have to wait that long...
In December, my brother (who normally hates Los Angeles) suddenly asked me if I wanted to go to LA to do some Christmas shopping and to go to check out a Batman exhibit. Apparently, Warner Brother's was hosting a free exhibit of Batman memorabilia in honor of the Dark Knight DVD release. We couldn't find a whole lot of information about the exhibit online, but both of us are big enough nerds that we decided to check it out anyway. Upon arrival, we were told that the exhibit was broken into three main areas - the entry included various art from the DC Dark & Light exhibit, the middle area contained various costumes and props from the Dark Knight trilogy, and the back room included various vehicles and larger props from the Batman TV show and each of the various movies.
O - M - G! I don't think anything could have prepared me for this!
The art from the DC Dark & Light exhibit included a lot of amazing paintings... and a LEGO Catwoman!
The costume hall included many of the most amazing costumes from the trilogy, including...
Ra's al Ghul from Batman Begins!
Heath Ledger's Joker costume from The Dark Knight!
Plus...
Joker's Calling Card
And the Joker's Thugs' Masks!
We also saw Harvey Dent/Two-Face's Costume!
And The Scarecrow! (This costume was the source of many nightmares for me afterwards)
And let's not forget, the creme de la creme, both of the recent Batman costumes!
There was also a ton of Dark Knight Rises stuff, including....
BANE!!!
And Catwoman!
The vehicle/large prop hall included...
The Original Batmobile
The Tumbler
And the Dark Knight Rises Bomb!
This was an AMAZING experience, and I can't believe it was free. While LA can be a pain sometimes (*cough* traffic *cough*), it sure is nice to live so close to a place that has so many awesome opportunities. Unfortunately, the Dark Knight exhibit is now closed (it was only open for two weeks in December), but you can still check out some of the vehicles on both the Warner Brothers Studio Tour and at the Petersen Auto Museum (no word yet if the costumes will also be on display on the Warner Brothers tour or at the FIDM Museum, but I will update this if I find out that they are). I highly recommend checking those out if you ever have the opportunity.
Have I mentioned how much fun it has been living in California? Ha!
Until next time...
--- Becks
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