THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (2012)
US/UK
Directed by Christopher Nolan'

CAST:
Christian Bale - Bruce Wayne/ Batman
Tom Hardy - Bane
Anne Hathaway - Selina Kyle/ Catwoman

PLOT:
     Eight years on, a new terrorist leader, Bane, overwhelms Gotham's finest, and the Dark Knight resurfaces to protect a city that has branded him an enemy.

REVIEW:
     The final of director Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy is here. Compared to the other films in the series, the promo material for it such as TV spots and trailers, even print ads, were a lot more low key. This isn't really a bad thing as not a lot of information is out about the film. Yet the one thing that is hanging over the film is the film before it, The Dark Knight. Can this film get out from under the shadow of that film, as it will have to, to make sure it can stand on it's own.

     Let me start out by saying that all the actors and actresses were firing on all cylinders in this film. Christian Bale has always done a good job playing dual roles. One as Bruce Wayne and the other, the more true character, Batman. Bale gives his usual gravely voice speeches that we have grown accustomed to over the past seven years he has been portraying Batman. Yet most of the film centers on Bruce Wayne and Bale is more than up for it. Anne Hathaway, who plays Selena Kyle and Catwoman, adds a another character that fits perfectly into Gotham City. Michael Caine though plays the heart of the film. Caine as Alfred Pennyworth has always stated the facts straight to Bruce Wayne and it's no different this time. Like Batman and Commissioner Gordon, Caine's character has been carrying around a secret for the past eight years and it has eaten him alive the whole time and when the secret comes out it destroys Bruce but frees Pennyworth. Yet the stand out performance in this was Joseph Gordon-Levitt as John Blake, who adds a youthfulness that is missing from the rest of the movie.

     I'm not going to ruin the film by saying what happens at the end and I try to stay away from doing that in my reviews unless I cannot think of no other way around it. Thankfully with this film I don't have that problem. What I will talk about is Bane. Bane in the comic was the one person that completely broke Bruce Wayne and Batman. And that happens here as well almost in the exact same way with Batman. The breaking of Bruce Wayne though is what drives the first two thirds of the film. From the ruinations of Wayne Enterprises to the loss of his one true friend and confidant, Wayne is taken apart piece by piece as the film moves forward. While with The Dark Knight, the Joker was all about chaos, and you can even say that the Joker was a force of nature in that movie, Bane is a completely different beast all together. Bane was all about planning and deception, a terrorist, which is more in line with Batman Begins villian, Ra's al Gul. In fact this is the conclusion of storyline started with that film. To say more about it than that is to ruin a major plot development later in the film. If there was one flaw with the film though it is Bane as well. Not the character or his action, but his speech. The reason why is because even in an IMAX theater, which is the only true way to see this, some of Bane's dialogue is not understandable and garbled.

     Now I'm going to geek out a little bit and talk about one the things I love about the film and that's the Batpod, or that cool as hell bike. Every time that bike took a corner or had to turn around quickly and the wheels became unlocked and then start spinning a smile crossed my face over how cool it was. The action is more intense in this film than the other Batman films and that is what most people will more than likely go and see this for and if they do and only pay attention to that they will miss what makes these movies so special and different. The main reason to go and see this is to be involved in the story as this film is story driven more than anything else and that is where these films have shined the most. In the character study of what drives these people we have come to know. And their insanity that motivates them. The best example of this is Bruce Wayne in this film. As he starts out broken already, or so he thinks he has sunk as low as he could go, only to find out that he was wrong on every level.

     Director Christopher Nolan has always been a competent director from his first full film Following and has improved with each and every film he has made. This is due to his ability to focus on the human aspect of the characters more that the action. The action is there to help move the film along but it is not the motivation for the characters. It's trying to do what is right no matter what happens. Don't get me wrong though, there is action in here and the third act is almost all out action on a scale Nolan has never done before. Nolan though hits it so far out of the park when the action does start that it's just amazing and thanks to the camera staying on the action and following it it just makes it seem more grand.Yes, people will say that The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises are political movies. Yes there is commentary in there about politics but it is just a background to the main story. For a final act in a trilogy this is a perfect way to end the series as all plots are wrapped up and there isn't a single person left out at the end. In the end all I can say about The Dark Knight Rises is go and watch it and enjoy it, for Nolan has again made a film that is far above others.

BEST LINE:
     "Rise."

FUN FACTS:
     Christian Bale has stated that he would not play Batman if Robin appeared anywhere in the trilogy. Christopher Nolan agreed not to include Robin as it would undermine the dark tone of his series.

     Cillian Murphy as Jonathan Crane or Scarecrow is the only Batman film villain in recent years to appear in all three films.

     According to Christopher Nolan, Bane was chosen as the film's main antagonist "to test Batman mentally as well as physically."

     At 165 minutes long, this is the longest Batman film released to date.

     Tom Hardy described Bane as an absolute terrorist: "He's brutal, but also incredibly clinical in the fact that he has a result-based and oriented fighting style. The style is heavy-handed, heavy-footed... it's nasty. It's not about fighting, it's about carnage!"

NEWS ROUNDUP Ver 6

NEWS ROUNDUP Ver 6

EXORCIST
     In just the completely wrong category, the remake of The Exorcist has been green lit. But, it won't be in theaters. Instead it is going to be a mini-series on TV and concentrate more on the "emotional" impact of what is happening. Enough said of this one......

ROBOCOP

     In some good news in response to the previous story, Gary Oldman has joined the cast of the Robocop remake. His role will be the creator of Robocop who has a moral dilemma between helping the machine find it's lost humanity and the needs of the corporation backing the project.

THOR 2

     In some casting news for the now in production Thor 2, and movie that adds Mads Mikkelsen to it's cast automatically gets better right away. His supposed role would be for the Executioner, the constant companion to the Enchantress. For the Loki fans, he is scheduled to be in the film as well.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

     On another Marvel comic movie front, there is rumor going around for a Guardians Of The Galaxy film now. The basis for the group is they came together after two back to back wars in the reaches in space left a void that is easily filled by conquerors to keep that from happening.  I don't care what the team will be, but if they don't have Rocket Raccoon, the foul tempered, anthropomorphic, gun loving raccoon I'm not watching it!

MAD MAX

     Charlize Theron let slip in a interview recently that filming for Mad Max: Fury Road will start next month. I just have to say after this film has been in pre-production for the past five years, it's about damn time!

TOONAMI
     What looked like a nice thank you from Cartoon Network on April Fool's Day could have possibly been a test run for the return of Toonami starting tonight. Two new animes are joining the line-up as well. These are:
 DEADMAN WONDERLAND:

   A young boy in the future is convicted of slaughtering his class and is sentenced to life imprisonment in a massive theme park like prison.

 CASSHERN SINS:

   A cyborg with no memory of the past is on a quest to find out what happened to the world that has become full of poison and how the human race is almost extinct and how he might have caused it.

RED RIDING HOOD

RED RIDING HOOD (2011)
US
Directed by Catherine Hardwicke

CAST:
Amanda Seyfried - Valerie
Gary Oldman - Father Solomon
Billy Burke - Cesaire

PLOT:
     Valerie falls for an orphaned woodcutter Peter, much to her family's displeasure. About to run away together, they find out that her sister is killed by a werewolf breaking the truce the village has had with it for years.

REVIEW:
      Hardwicke who left the Twilight series due to the fact that she wanted more money and time wound up making the exact same type of movie: a soulless love story with hollow main characters and wooden acting. She stuck to the same formulaic approach as she took in those crapfests. Female lead with overly breathy and dry narrative. It almost felt like the same movie with different actors. I mention Twilight as this film gives me the same feeling for some odd reason. Yet when I went into Red Riding Hood, I went in with no expectations. Hell, it has Gary Oldman in it and was produced by Leonardo DiCaprio so it can't be all bad. Can it?

     Well, it was mostly bad. While some movies know they're bad, other movies try to be something more serious and deep. Red Riding Hood definitely tried to hard to be something that it clearly wasn't. You could open a fish market with the amount of obvious red herrings they were throwing around. They were discredited just as fast, and I mean right after they were revealed, sometimes even 10 seconds after. The story was just misfire after misfire. There were plot holes all the way through that even the characters saw and said nothing about. Now I don't mind love stories in movies, sometimes it actually helps. Just don't make it contrived. The main character goes back and forth so often in who she likes it actually made my head hurt the next day. As for the incestuous story line in the movie, yes that is a spoiler, it was just weird and pushed this movie into the next level of wrongness.

And what the hell was up with the ever expanding red cloak?

Now I have to talk about the acting in this movie as there were two sets of acting schools at work. In one corner you had the older actors who knew what type of movie they were making and just decided to start chewing scenery to see if they could escape the mess they got themselves into. The chief person in this was Gary Oldman. The man just showed up and ruled the screen as a holy roller executioner Father Solomon. Even when he was spewing his past history with werewolves you paid attention. Even when he was begging for his life he never groveled as most actors would, and gave this scene some respect that would have been lost otherwise. Michael Hogan in the short screen time he had was chewing through the movie as well until he got slammed by the werewolf like it was a freight train. For a movie that had so many great actors in it, it wastes all most every single one of them. Virginia Madsen is wasted as a mother that longs for her lost love. Michael Shanks who has charisma to spare is like a ghost in his role. As for the two main actors, if you can call them that, there was no chemistry between Amanda Seyfried's Valerie and Shiloh Fernandez's Peter at all. Fernandez's acting is so wooden it was laughable at best and painful the rest of time. As for Seyfried, I was wondering how her eyes didn't dry out as they were bug eyed throughout the whole movie.

Not everything was terrible with this movie, just most of it. The set design was actually quite brilliant. It felt like a fairy tale setting. The thorn forest in the movie was a wonderful idea as well. The art direction should be mentioned just for the shot of Valerie kneeling in snow while wearing her red riding hood. This shot almost felt out of place.

I still can not recommend this movie in the slightest to anyone. It could have just as easily been called Twilight Of The Wolves (thank you JeNee).

BEST DEATH:
     Dr. Daniel Jackson's weight loss by  guttural dilation.

LINE THAT MAKES YOU SCRATCH YOUR HEAD IN CONFUSION:
      They killed again.....the wolf!

FUN FACTS:
     The film was originally titled The Girl with the Red Riding Hood.

     Catherine Hardwicke directed the first Twilight movie.

      The films main writer worked as an assistant to Frank Darabont while he was filming The Green Mile. (What happened there?)