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

Contagion (2011)

After watching Contagion, I am terrified of ever coming into contact with another human being again.  You can all stay the hell away from me forever for all I care… except for the ladies.  No, not really, but it could definitely have that effect on passionate germaphobes, lending credence to their most paranoid of destructive thoughts.  It is a realistic and frightening tale of the world we live in now, and how if something like this happened, well we’re doomed.  I’m not talking The Stand level of human deaths, but religious zealots would have a field day with it nevertheless.

Basically, we can blame Gwyneth Paltrow’s character and her slutty ways for everything.  The film starts at Day 2, and the virus is already in motion.  Her character comes back from a trip to Hong Kong and dies within two days of coming home to her husband, Mitch (Matt Damon).  Then their son dies.  THEN THE WORLD DIES.  No, not really, that would be a really short movie.  There are serious, high tech investigations begun, unearthing all of her activities attempting to pinpoint where the virus began and where it went from there.  There are many smart scientist types, government employees, “real people”, a conspiracy theorist type, and a somewhat reserved media presence.  They all help tell this story of what would most likely happen if an outbreak such as this one ever took place in our modern world.

I realise I’ve been somewhat comically dismissive of the movie, but it’s actually quite well-made.  There’s an amazing level of dread and detail to the goings on that take place, and pretty much everyone is in this movie.  I swear George Clooney had an uncredited cameo as a corpse in a bodybag.  He HAS TO be in the movie somewhere.  I’d like to be all big box office dismissive guy about a disaster flick, but honestly, I enjoyed it and found it to be believable and yes, terrifying.

4 / 5