Movie Review: The Dark Knight Rises

*** My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families of the Aurora shooting last night. Any shooting is tragic, but to happen at such a neutral, family environment is sickening and terrifying. The shooter is a terrorist and should be treated as so. ***

Eight years have passed since the death of Harvey Dent. Batman and Commissioner Gordon have decided to hide the truth to keep the street criminals behind bars. Batman has taken the blame and has not been seen since the night of Dent’s death….until a mysterious figure known as Bane comes to Gotham with a terrorist plot that holds all of Gotham hostage.

Christopher Nolan has forever set the blueprint of what the standards of comic book films should be. Reflecting back on this trilogy, Nolan has created some of the best storytelling I have ever seen and he should greatly be praised for his accomplishments, so allow me to praise him for a moment. As I caught up on Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, I paid close attention to the detail he puts in his films. He really raised the bar between Begins and Dark Knight. The action sequences are beautiful, notice how he hardly uses explosions, and when he does, it’s not a CGI fest, it’s almost a humble explosion. It’s believable. The characters are believable and the circumstances are real. He’s created a masterpiece of a series and that’s what the film industry needed.

The same can be said for what he has done in The Dark Knight Rises, except once again he upped the bar. The cinematography is top notch in this one. I never thought watching a city being destroyed from the inside could be shot so beautifully. I really enjoyed the final showdown taking place during the day, a rare occurrence in film. Directors need to be lined up around the block with notepads on how to shoot action sequences. The Dark Knight Rises is a truly beautiful film.

Not a lot needs to be said about Heath Ledger, and they don’t in this film. In fact he is the only character from the series not to be mentioned in this installment. Ledger’s performance was one for the ages, but Tom Hardy makes his own name for himself as Bane. Unlike the love/hate relationship The Joker had for Batman, Bane is a pure terrorist. He wants to watch Gotham burn and he kills without question. The sound mixing used for Bane’s voice is the cherry on top making him a truly terrifying character.

Anne Hathaway portrays Selina Kyle/Catwoman spot on. She is neither hero nor villain; she plays each scenario to what’s the best advantage for her. She has some great scenes as Selina Kyle, who appears determined to make Bruce Wayne miserable for some reason, stealing a pearl necklace from his home and then later telling a parking attendant she is his wife. The chemistry between Bale and Hathaway was much more memorable then the Keaton/Pfeiffer from Batman Returns. Now if we can all forget about that Halle Berry film, we could have another franchise on our hands.
Bale gave his best performance yet. He toned down the Batman voice which was pleasing for I think everyone. But he really takes the backseat in this film which I think hurt it some. He spends a large chunk of the film out of commission and doesn’t have a lot to do.

The supporting cast was almost too good this time. Michael Caine gave some heartwarming moments. He only pops up at the beginning and end, but I’ve loved the chemistry between Alfred and Bruce throughout the entire saga. I wish I could have had just a little more Alfred as Caine’s final performance of him. Gary Oldman is finally given more to do as Commissioner Gordon. While the city is under siege, he is one of the few who are able to their own while Batman is out of commission.

New to the franchise is Joseph Gordon-Levitt who plays Officer John Blake. Blake takes on the role of Gordon’s right hand man while Gordon recovers in the hospital and plays a very pivotal part in the film. In fact his part was entirely too large in the film and that is coming from a Levitt fan. He was fantastic in the film, but this is a Batman film and Levitt is in the film double the amount of time Bale is.
This leads us to the main flaw in the film, the lack of Batman. With a runtime of 2 hours and 47 minutes, there is no excuse for the lack of Batman scenes the film experienced. There wasn’t nearly enough, plain and simple. It took forever for Batman to hit the screen and once he does it’s not long after until he disappears for the entire middle of the film. It needed more.

Not only did it need more Batman, but it needed more of Batman interacting with Bane. Bane does some serious damage in this film, more so than The Joker ever dreamed of doing. Batman has to redeem himself, and the film is building up to this for two and a half hours. And once it finally arrives, it sizzles out just as it gets going. I was so blindsided by this, I was sitting in the theater expecting at least another thirty minutes of the film because I didn’t think there was any way that was the final stand Batman took.

The conclusion of the film is definitely a unique one. It took me some time to warm up to it, but after much thought I finally decided I liked it.

This might shed some light on it for those scratching their heads like I was, and of course, it’s spoiler free.

There are currently four different Batman comic titles in print, along with hundreds of stand-alone graphic novels. The four titles each have their own story and after six issues, the story is resolved and then begins a new story. What is unique about the graphic novels is that the writer can do whatever he wants with the story; it has no effect on what is going on in the on-going comic series, these are often referred to as multi-verse stories. Once I thought about that, it occurred to me, this is what Nolan has done with his Batman trilogy. He told the story he wanted to tell, borrowing elements of all the best titles. Even though the ending isn’t straight out of the comics, it’s straight out of Nolan’s, and he deserved to go out on his terms…..and he did.

Final Verdict: 7/10

Movie Review: The Amazing Spider-Man

Plot: Peter Parker is your average high school teenager, but after discovering his father's old briefcase he begins to question his parents past and their mysterious disappearance. This leads him to OsCorp to question his father's old business partner Dr. Connors, a one armed scientist, experimenting with reptilian gene splicing in hopes to regrow his arm. While there Peter is bitten by a radioactive spider. You know the rest.

WARNING: There will be some very tiny spoilers throughout the review.

I was very unhappy when Sony announced their decision to scrap Spider-Man 4 and reboot the series. It was even more questionable when they hired on Marc Webb to direct, when his only other film had been the brilliant but complete opposite end of the spectrum, 500 Days of Summer. Did we really need to take Peter all the way back to high school or could we have simply just continued the franchise on with a new cast?

I watched the originals and they have not aged well, nor after seeing this film did I like the way Sam Raimi handled the characters. This film is better. It’s better than all three of Rami’s films.

Sony has come back and told the true origin story of Spider-Man. The first film was good for its time, but it wasn’t accurate in terms of how the story went in the comic. Yes, you have to sit through fifty minutes of the exact same movie you had to sit through the first time around, but this time they got it right.

The cast in this film packs a better punch than the previous films. Andrew Garfield is a more accurate portrayal of Peter Parker. He looks like he’s in high school, something Tobey Magurie’s Peter Parker wasn’t as convincing of. He has more charm as the struggling teenager as well. They also nailed Parker’s Spider-Man persona better. Spider-Man is a wise-cracking, cheesy one liner type character and they did a better job of portraying Spider-Man as what he really is, a teenager trying to handle being a superhero. Parker is now set up for a proper franchise where he can mature along the way.

Instead of diving right into the Mary Jane love interest, fans get to see Parker’s first love interest, the lesser known character Gwen Stacy, played by Emma Stone. If there was one thing I always hated from the original series, it was Kirsten Dunst. I’m not a fan and never was. Emma Stone is actually treated as an intelligent woman in the film. Gwen doesn’t have to be rescued by Spider-Man three times in the film like Mary Jane did every go around. She is intelligent and holds her own. It’s a shame we’ll have to lose her when Mary Jane ultimately comes into the picture. Hopefully Mary Jane won’t show up until the third film, and this time I hope she is portrayed as a more intelligent character instead of a dumb girl who gets kidnapped by the villain in every film.

I loved Aunt May and Uncle Ben from the previous series, but this time they get a little more star power with Sally Field and Martin Sheen. They really took the time to build a better relationship between Peter and Uncle Ben this go around, but strangely once Uncle Ben is shot they downplay the affect it has on Peter. Uncle Ben’s death is what pushes Peter to be the man he becomes and after they build this great relationship between the two, they kind of just skip over the affects his death had on Peter and Aunt May. The same goes with Peter and Aunt Mays relationship. Aunt May is a major character but she really takes a backseat in the film. I hope to see more of her the next go round.

And finally Rhys Ifans and Denis Leary round out the cast as Dr. Curt Connors and Gwen’s father Captain Stacy. Ifans doesn’t do a terrible job portraying the disfigured scientist, but they certainly don’t give him much to do. However I really liked Leary in the film. He doesn’t have a huge role, but he really makes his scenes count. Overall, the cast makes a better impression this go around.

The film itself has a more serious tone to it. It’s not dark in the sense of The Dark Knight, but it isn’t a kid friendly film like the previous films have been. It’s more violent and more graphic. When Spider-Man takes on The Lizard he bleeds, he doesn’t get a ripped suit like Maguire did. He gets ripped open, he’s hurt, he can’t walk. As an audience, you really feel the struggle instead of the happy go lucky fighting from the previous installments.

I really like the way Webb handled the characters. Now looking back, Sony had no choice but to reboot the franchise because Raimi kept killing off characters. It’s nice to know that The Lizard is still in the back pocket for another film. He teased us with OsCorp. Norman Osborne is never seen in the film, nor is Harry, but he is mentioned multiple times. Norman Osborne is a major villain in the Marvel universe and Raimi killed him off on the first go around.

This film surprised me on every level. It is a little drawn out the first half of the film, but they have good groundwork going forward now. I’m going to give Sony credit for this one, but if I have to sit in a theater in 2022 watching another reboot, I won’t be happy.

Final Verdict: 8/10

Movie Review: Ted

Plot: John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg) is a lonely, eight year old boy with no friends. When he receives a teddy bear (Seth MacFarlane) for Christmas he makes a wish for his only friend to come to life. John wakes up the next morning with his wish granted. Ted becomes a huge celebrity during the late 80's but still remained faithful to his best pal John during the craze. Twenty years later the fame has worn off and both pals are headed nowhere in life. John must then decide whether he is going to grow up to keep his longtime girlfriend (Mila Kunis) or forever be the eight year old boy with no friends.

Seth MacFarlane is best known for his hit animated series Family Guy, a show I feel has long overstayed its welcome, but when it was in its prime, boy was it funny. MacFarlane has now made the jump from the small screen to the big screen with his first live action project and directorial debut film Ted.

Going into Ted I had a bad feeling about it, but then early, positive reviews came rolling in and I thought maybe a film about a foul mouthed, pot smoking teddy bear can make if a full hour and a half without beating the horse dead……I was wrong.

The problem with Ted is the same thing that has in my opinion plagued Family Guy, it gets old quick. I thought the first few seasons of Family Guy were hilarious; there wasn’t a show quite like it. But after it was brought back from cancellation, its formula was predictable and wore thin.

I haven’t been a fan of Mark Wahlberg’s attempts at the comedy genre, this one being no different. Wahlberg didn’t feel right for the part of John who is supposed to be a 35 year old guy with a dead end job as a rental car worker and is somehow dating the highly successful, gorgeous Lori played by Kunis. In reality Wahlberg is 41 and Kunis is 28 and the age difference shows on screen, making the relationship a stretch to the imagination. A James Franco type actor would have made for a much more believable character. Wahlberg came off more like Tom Hank’s character Josh Baskin from BIG then an actual adult who can’t get his life together. It was painful to watch.

The film was repetitious; John promises Lori he is ready to grow up, Lori gives John second chance, Ted talks John into coming over and getting high and they get into trouble, Lori gets mad but gives John second chance. That formula is repeated up until the third act. You can literally sit there and know exactly what is coming up next.

The only bright spot for me were the surprise cameos that are sprinkled throughout the film. Patrick Stewart is funny as the film’s narrator. Sam Jones, whose fame comes from playing Flash Gordon in the 80’s, makes a funny appearance as himself in the film. Tom Skerritt appears very quickly at the end with a hilarious line as well. The only cameo that didn’t work for me was Ryan Reynolds two brief scenes. He had no lines and it felt they threw him in for more of a shock factor.

Nothing about this film connected with me. It was good for a few chuckles but then fades out quickly. If you still find Family Guy funny after all these years, then you’ll probably like the film. It has all of MacFarlane’s go-to jokes throughout the film. There’s the random flash back sequences and an extremely too long fight sequence between John and Ted, both reminiscent of Family Guy. If you haven’t been a fan of Family Guy for a while, stay away, it’s that much like Family Guy.

Final Verdict: 4/10