The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

I don’t even know how to go about starting this review.  Having just watched it, I feel both emotionally and mentally exhausted while at the same time thrilled and ecstatic over what I’ve just borne witness to.  The Christopher Nolan Batman Trilogy is one of the greatest accomplishments in cinema history, not just for a comic book movie, because as I stated in my Avengers review, the Nolan Batman movies are above just being classified as comic book movies.  Despite attempting to avoid any and all spoilers for The Dark Knight Rises, I had read a Cracked article last year that had mentally prepared me for anything Nolan might have in store for us.  At least I thought it had.

When we last left Batman (Christian Bale) at the end of The Dark Knight, he had told Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) to lay the blame for Harvey Dent’s death at the hands of Batman, thus giving Dent a martyr-like status in the eyes of the citizens of Gotham City.  Between Dark Knight and this film, eight years have passed and Gordon has used The Dent Act to clean up Gotham with his police forces, as Batman retired to his secret identity of Bruce Wayne rather than be hunted.  Wayne has become a recluse, appearing to only communicate with his butler Alfred (Michael Caine) in regards to affairs of the outside world.  When an attractive cat burglar named Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) makes off with a Wayne family heirloom, something is awakened in Bruce and he begins to come alive again.  All the while, a cerebral and brutal villain by the name of Bane (Tom Hardy) concocts a plan to bring the city of Gotham to its knees.  Then there’s also Officer John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a hotheaded young man who comes to the attention of both Wayne and Gordon.

That’s as vague as I can get without giving away any surprises in the plot, but also identifying the major players.  As with many Nolan films, he brings back a lot of familiar faces in his casting, and just take a look at all the tags if you want to see identifiable names jump out at you.  A couple of them are minor spoilers, but not really surprises at all.  While I’m writing this review, I’m taking time to read the Wiki entry for Dark Knight Rises and it says numerous times that Nolan was unsure about coming back for a third film.  Nolan might just be a great actor himself, because there are certain aspects of the story that would suggest just the opposite: that Nolan had been planning the entire Trilogy from the very first film.

There are few movie trilogies that I have given perfect marks to all of the installments.  The Toy Story Trilogy is the only one I can think of off the top of my head, and now even that is going to fall by the wayside since apparently Toy Story 4 has been announced to be in production.  The Batman Trilogy is exactly that.  Nolan won’t come back to make a fourth film, neither will Bale, neither will any of the principles.  Even the way Rises ends should not fill people with hope for that to happen.

Everything in Rises is excellent in my eyes.  From the casting, the acting, the set pieces, the direction, the writing (minus a couple little things that I won’t go into here, and may just be inconsequential in future re-watchings), the action, all breathtakingly great.  During the opening sequence I was legitimately catching my breath, wondering if my nerves could handle the end of this storied franchise.  The sheer menace that Bane brings with him is astonishingly well-executed, and Hardy doesn’t let the mask control his acting.  Hathaway is probably the best Catwoman/Selina Kyle ever, because she’s not used as just a vehicle for puns.  Bale and his familiar cast mates deliver exactly what they did in the first two films, sheer awesomeness.

Better film critics than me will write more detailed reviews than I did, because mine just seems to be what ultimately can only be construed as nothing more than a Thank You note to Christopher Nolan and the team he put together for these three films.

5 / 5

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

Much like the movie Munich, I sat through much of this film knowing that it was quite good, but not something that I would want to re-watch time and time again.  It’s not that the subject matter was too heavy, the pacing ponderous, or anything negative.  It was just that it was something that I personally wouldn’t benefit from viewing multiple times.  I’m not a filmmaker though, just a critic, and I would highly recommend it for someone looking to get into the industry as a near masterpiece of intrigue and the intelligence genre.

I have never read a John le Carré novel at any point in my life, but I imagine I wouldn’t enjoy it as there is just so much going on, so many characters and motivations to keep track of.  I have a hard enough time trying to figure out what the hell is going on during “Game of Thrones”.  Director Tomas Alfredson does a tremendous job with all these plot lines and characters, though with all that juggling, there’s a loss of emotional connectivity.  While George Smiley (Gary Oldman in a rightfully Oscar-nominated performance) digs up all this information, very little of it seemed to resonate with me on an emotional level, other than Ricki Tarr’s (Tom Hardy) feelings for Irina (Svetlana Khodchenkova) because that’s a real human feeling.  Everything else just seemed to be atoms, important yes, but ultimately something that we all overlook.

I highly enjoyed the film, and there are numerous great acting performances to carry the film, but ultimately it feels as though anyone could have performed in most of the roles.  Did Ciarán Hinds even have a line of dialogue in the entire film?  Mark Strong hasn’t been this watchable in a movie since Kick-Ass, and I have to fault the casting directors of other movies for that.  The man is a great actor, underrated for sure.  All in all, a solid and watchable film, but avoid multi-tasking while watching it to maximize your enjoyment of it and to figure out just what the hell is going on.

4.5 / 5

The Dark Knight (2008)

With The Dark Knight Rises releasing in less than two months, I figured the best way to get more hits would be to actually have a Dark Knight review up, and my old one went into far greater detail than a new one of mine would, so here it is:

The Dark Knight begins around six months after the events in Batman Begins, with Batman (Christian Bale) finally taking care of most of the criminal trash from Begins.  There’s a new District Attorney in town by the name of Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), and he’s being proclaimed as Gotham City’s white knight, bound and determined to clean up the police force and the streets.  The newest terror enveloping the city comes in the form of a killer clown, a rampaging murderous criminal that pisses off the established mafia as much as he terrifies the citizenry.  The Joker (Heath Ledger) has been waging a humanistic war on the morality of Batman’s vigilantism, while further plunging the city into a desperate state of decay.  Or I could just describe it as “Batman.  The Joker.  Two-Face.  It’s not Batman Forever.” and that should be enough to give even the most jaded fanboy a shiver of anticipation.

What director Christopher Nolan crafts in two and a half hours is, in a word, breathtaking.  He gives us amazing action sequences and thoughtful meditations on what makes a hero a hero.  Some of those meditations might actually be too thoughtful for the megaplex crowd, since most comic book blockbusters aren’t really known for being too cerebral.  As well, it’s not the most colourful of movies, and while I appreciate the dark look and tones of the film, it makes for some confusing and occasionally muddled fight scenes (thankfully viewing it on Blu-Ray cleans it all up).

Christian Bale continues to be able to deliver two separate and believable performances as both Batman and his secret identity, millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne.  Maggie Gyllenhaal takes over the part of Rachel Dawes that Katie Holmes previously portrayed, and well, it’s essentially a damsel-in-distress role, what with Rachel becoming the girlfriend of Harvey Dent and the transformation of Dent into Two-Face looming over the whole relationship.  I really hope no one is spoiled by the fact that Harvey Dent actually turns into Two-Face, and oh by the way, Aaron Eckhart deserves some high praise as well for the grey areas he put into his portrayal of Dent / Two-Face.  He’s transformed but he doesn’t suddenly become insane, just righteously pissed off.

Michael Caine as Alfred and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox are two supporting players you never have to worry about and they performed admirably well, hitting all the right notes for their father figure character types.  Speaking of father figures, Gary Oldman is even more perfect as Jim Gordon than he was in Begins, and I don’t think enough things are being said about his performance since most of the audience only wants to see the freak show.

If you’re wondering whether or not the advance billing for Heath Ledger’s performance lives up to the product on the screen, well no matter how amazing you thought it may be, it will most likely surpass those levels.  Ledger’s fearless portrayal of the Clown Prince of Crime is one of the most nerve-twitching, eye-catching, depraved and darkly hilarious acting displays in recent memory.  The previous year had Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men, and even Chigurh would be a little off-put by Ledger’s Joker.  There is little doubt in my mind that come next March, Heath Ledger will be awarded a posthumous Oscar for his part in The Dark Knight (and of course he was).

I’ve tried not to get myself all excited for movies these days, as too many disappointments have dampened many of my old fanboy tendencies.  The Dark Knight was the one exception, and I have to say that it lived up to the hype.  As an old school comic book fan and as a movie czar, I can appreciate it on both levels.  Christopher Nolan could spend the rest of his career making Batman movies and I doubt that I’d ever be disappointed by them.

5 / 5

A Christmas Carol (2009)

For the life of me, I cannot conceive of an audience that this movie is for.  Immediately upon hearing about the movie I couldn’t think of a single person that would want to see another Jim Carrey Christmas film, let alone one where the filming style was Robert Zemeckis’ horrifying motion capture experiments that he keeps foisting upon people.  WHY make motion capture movies?  Either animate them, or shoot them live action, WHYYYYYYYY MELD THEM IN AN UNHOLY TERRIFYING FASHION?  It is a crime against humanity, and I speak without hyperbole when I say that Zemeckis is a human rights criminal and should be strung up if he continues these mad scientist experiments.

The only way I could recommend this movie to anyone would be in the rare instance where a parent actually wants to terrify their child to the point where they will not fall asleep on Christmas Eve.  Rare?  I don’t think it has nor ever will happen.  It is like a shiny legendary Pokemon, an event so rare that you will wear out your DS power button trying to accomplish it.  It will make you curse Zemeckis for trying  again and again to make his horrible idea accepted by mass audiences.  When Scrooge laughs at the end, his eyes are so dead that you think he’s just fucking with Bob Cratchit and THAT IS UNINTENTIONAL AND NOT THE POINT OF THE SCENE.

Much like Kevin Nash, no matter how many times you repackage him in WCW, until you let him be himself, he will never get over.  So Robert Zemeckis, please, let motion capture animation die.  Just let it be animation.  There is no reason to haunt people with scary Christmas movies.  Oh, and while I’m at it with Christmas wishes, STOP ANY ATTEMPTS TO MAKE Ghostbusters 3.  Thank you, Jesus.

0 / 5

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011)

Much like the movie itself, this may be one of the most anti-climatic reviews I’ve ever written.  Almost all of the films in the Harry Potter franchise are of uniform greatness, and even the ones that aren’t at that level are still good movies.  It may be one of the most high quality film franchises of all time, no matter what you think of the books or J.K. Rowling or the fanbase.  Director David Yates certainly put his stamp on the series, directing half of the eight movies, and all of them very well.  He’s not going to see any thank you Oscars for his work (like Peter Jackson did for the unbearably long The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King when the one film in the trilogy that should have won Best Picture was The Two Towers), but they were all almost excellent fantasy films.

Acting in a Harry Potter movie appears to be akin to being British Royalty, so I’m not going to write down everyone that performed in the movie ably well, because there was nary a bad actor to be found.  Just look at how bloated the tags are on this movie, and you’ll see that there are tonnes of name actors that performed in it, and numerous young stars that hopefully still get acting work now that their meal ticket is done.

It’s a gorgeously well-made film, although I do have a problem with about 30-40% of it appearing to be shot in pitch blackness.  There were scenes where I could literally not tell if anything was going on at all.  I can’t go 5 stars on it for that reason alone, but it’s a very good movie, and a fitting end to the franchise.  It also didn’t feel as artificially stretched out as Deathly Hallows Part 1 did (for the record I gave that movie 3.5 / 5), and I’m a little sad that there won’t be anymore new Harry Potter movies to look forward to.  That is until Warner Brothers finds a way to milk more out of the name.

4.5 / 5

Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)

For the most part, I’m not the biggest fan of Dreamworks Animation movies.  They tend to just be riffs or ripoffs of Pixar movies without someone having the good sense to say “Now wait, this doesn’t make sense.” (See Robots, Shark Tale, etc. for examples.  Actually, don’t see them and trust me.)  That being said, I really didn’t mind the first Kung Fu Panda movie, aside from wishing that they reined in Jack Black’s madcappery just a tonne.  I thought it was alright, looked gorgeous, had a solid vocal cast and while yes, it did included clothed talking animals, in the context of the film it made sense and I suppose if I really thought about it, no, it doesn’t make sense because how did animals create Kung Fu?

Nevertheless, I felt no strong feelings one way or the another when it was announced that there would be a sequel, because of course there would be a sequel.  People ate that shit up.  In fact, I didn’t even bother reading up on the new additions to the cast, so it surprised me pleasantly when I heard Dennis Haysbert’s distinctive tone.  But I couldn’t place Lord Shen, and it turns out it was the awesome Gary Oldman, and that is A Good Thing.

The animation is fast and fluid and really is gorgeous.  The action scenes are ridiculous but also seem to respect the actual Kung Fu-ness of the discipline.  The madcappery of Jack Black is still there, but as the character of Po grows, he seems to be toning it down enough to be tolerable.  It kind of blows my mind that for the first year in who knows how long, the best animated picture of the year won’t be a Pixar movie, with this one and Rango currently being front-runners for that lofty title (in my books).

It’s a sequel that surpasses the original, and there’s enough goofy stuff in it to entertain youngsters too.

4 / 5