Theater Review: The Dark Knight Rises

I had heard a few times that Christopher Nolan was apprehensive about doing a third Batman film and I couldn't understand why. But, after seeing the film I can sort of see why he was - no matter what he put out it was always going to be compared to The Dark Knight.

The Dark Knight Rises also had another superhero film to contend with this summer that I am sure it was expecting to contend with when it was first announced - The Avengers. It's sort of odd to compare them as they are on two totally different spectrums - but you sort of have to.

Although I feel The Dark Knight Rises is the superior film, I would have to say I will probably watch The Avengers far more. It is just a more fun film - sort of like how Saving Private Ryan is a hell of a film, but I cannot watch it all of the time.

What The Dark Knight Rises was also up against was the amazing performance given by Heath Ledger as the Joker in The Dark Knight. No matter how great a villain that Nolan could cook up for the third film - no way was it going to live up to Ledger's performance.

Anyway, the final film picks up about eight years after Batman (Christian Bale) took the blame for killing Harvey 'Two-Face' Dent. All of the years as Batman has also taken a bit of a toll on Bruce Wayne - and as he stays hidden in his mansion he limps around from room-to-room.

As the guilt begins to tear at Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman), he is captured and brought to the new villain that has risen under the streets of Gotham, Bane (Tom Hardy). Gordon is shot, but manages to escape  despite losing a letter he had written with the truth about Dent.

Police officer John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) finds Gordon at the end of a tunnel and gets him to the hospital for treatment. Because of his detective work, Gordon promotes Blake and tells him to answer directly to him.

Blake was also once an orphan who looked up to Wayne because of all the donations the Wayne family gave to the orphanage - but he also somehow knows Wayne's true identity and tells him the city needs him to resurface.

Batman finds a local cat burglar, Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway), to help lead him to Bane. Kyle uses the opportunity to get a program that can help erase her identity from all databases on the planet - and free her from her thieving ways.

Kyle, however, turns on Batman and turns him over to Bane in order stay alive - and Bane breaks Batman's back and leaves him in a prison in the middle of nowhere - the only way out is to climb out.

As Bane holds the city hostage with a nuclear weapon, he promises to finish what Ra's al Ghul started and destroy Gotham. With Batman out of commission, Gordon and Blake are all that is left to help save the city.

First off, my description above doesn't give the film justice. There was so much going on and all of it was so interesting and fit the story so well - just amazing story telling.

The film returns Bale, Michael Cane, Morgan Freeman, Oldman and another special guest that have been in all three movies and they continue to shine here. Newcomers Hardy, Hathaway and Gordon-Levitt were the main stars in this film and they were amazing.

Hardy was a great villain, and won't get the acclaims that Ledger did, but he held up this movie just fine as the villain. Sure, he wasn't the Joker, but Bane was ruthless and a great equal to Batman. Hathaway was simply amazing as Catwoman - I was a bit skeptical when I first heard she had signed on, but she played both sides of the fence to perfection - and wow did she look good. Finally, Gordon-Levitt - I can't really say much else about him, he has really become one of the best actors working today and here it was no different. So talented and he really shined in this film - even if he was just a cop.

Go see this movie - I am sure you already have. It is a great finale to Nolan's trilogy. I look forward to seeing it again.

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31/50x2: Rescue Dawn

When this film was first released I really wanted to see it. It was right around the time that Christian Bale was becoming (or cementing himself as) a pretty top-notch actor. Plus, for the most part, war films are usually done rather well.

Rescue Dawn stars Bale as Dieter Dengler, who is German-born but is a U.S. Navy pilot. During a mission his plane is shot down over Laos. He is captured, but given the opportunity to go free if he signs a document against the United States - he refuses so he is sent to a prisoner of war camp.

Here he meets a few other P.O.W.'s from around the world, including Americans Gene DeBruin (Jeremy Davies) and Duane W. Martin (Steve Zahn), who have been captive for a few years now - and so they are a bit stir crazy.

The camp is pretty strict with guards with guns walking around 24/7. At night the prisoners are even locked up by their hands and feet and forced to lay on the wooden floor of their "cell".

Immediately after being taken to the camp, Dengler begins his plans for escaping, despite the concerns of the other captives who have been beaten down both physically and mentally during their time at the camp. But, the others agree to help once Dengler comes up with a plan.

Possible Spoilers Ahead

Dengler and the others eventually do escape, but a few of the other captives don't follow Dengler's plans and thus both he and Martin are forced to trek though the jungle without any shoes because one of the men didn't grab some for them.

This is sort of where things get annoying for me. I was all ready for the small group of people that escaped to work their way through the jungle and to possible safety - with of course obstacles along the way - but they all split up and Dengler and Martin head of together without anyone else.

In fact, we never hear or see from any of the other characters at all, not even at the conclusion of the film. That irritated me. I wanted to know what happened to Davies' character. Did he make it? Was he killed or recaptured? But, we got nothing.

Then comes the strange occurrence at one of the villages that the pair we do get to follow come across. The two get on their knees in hopes that the villagers will see that they are not threatening and will offer them food and shelter. But, instead, one of the villagers chops off Martin's head. At first I thought this was all a dream or mirage that one the guys was thinking about. And I got even more confused when not much time later we actually see Martin walk up and sit down next to Dengler - but no, that was the actual mirage, the dude was killed, decapitated.

And, the decapitation looked horrible and fake.

As much as I would love to actually love this movie. As much as I enjoyed the acting and all of the main actors. I just could not get past some of these things at the end of the film. It's two hours long and almost immediately are dropped into this camp and get to know the prisoners there - but no closure is given on more than half of them. That truly bugged me.

Bale, Davies and Zahn gave top-notch performances, but the overall film left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I can't hate it completely, but it drops my grade because of it.

Grade:

9/50x2: The Fighter

I am a sports writer by trade, but there are a few sports out there that just don't really appeal to me. Some of those sports are those involving hand-to-hand combat. Boxing, MMA - heck even hockey - are just a few sports that I really have no desire in ever watching (except the occasional Pens game).

That being said. Why is it that boxing seems to almost always make a great movie?

The Fighter is based on a true story about Mickey Ward (Mark Wahlberg) and his rise in the boxing world. And, may be to an even bigger extent, his brother Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale).

Eklund is Ward's trainer and former boxer himself. His claim to fame is that he once knocked Sugar Ray Leonard to the mat during a televised match. Since then he has found himself getting addicted to drugs and spending time in jail.

Mickey is also being managed by his mother, Alice Ward (Melissa Leo), who despite Mickey's talent and being an all-around decent person, still treats brother Dicky like her favorite.

Dicky also happens to be filming a documentary on what he is claiming as his comeback attempt into the world of boxing.

Mickey values and loves his family, and that may have been what kept him as what some people claim as a punching bag for other fighters as they make their way up through the ranks. He is saddled with a manager/mother who seems content with keeping him nearby and not allowing him to flourish - and a trainer/brother who would much rather be getting high than spending time in the gym helping his brother get better.

Mickey, however, gets involved with Charlene (Amy Adams) who sees the greatness in him and what his downfall has been - his family. She encourages him to sign with a place in Las Vegas that will pay him as he trains. The lone stipulation is that Dicky must not be allowed to help him.

Just a great film filled with tons of amazing performances.

Bale continues to impress with the way he can transform his actual body image for a film, and then throw himself into that role. Leo has proven just how good of an actress she can be, and here is no different. Adams was amazing as the girlfriend who helps push Mickey in the right direction (and she wasn't too hard on the eyes either). All three were recognized for the effort with nominations for Academy Awards, with Bale and Leo both winning in the Best Supporting category.

The one who wasn't nominated was Wahlberg. I feel the guy gets a bum wrap for the most part - perhaps because he was once known as 'Marky Mark'. I don't know, but I thought his performance in this film was outstanding - and he continues to improve as an actor. His struggle between what he wanted and what he thought he wanted was amazingly portrayed. I felt he deserved some recognition as well.

You've all heard that The Fighter is a great movie - and I can tell you for a fact it was. Again, not a fan of boxing, but they sure do make great films. Check it out if you haven't yet.

Grade: 

Pocahontas

I can't believe that a Disney freak like me had never actually sat down to watch this film. Last year before we visited Disney World we tossed in numerous Disney films to get geared up - and allow my son to watch them for the first time.

Well, Pocahontas was watched by my wife and son on a day I was not there. So, I missed it again.

We are preparing for our surprise Disney trip coming up in a few weeks, so we have been watching some of the movies again. This time, I made sure to watch one of the few Disney animated features I had not seen previously.

So, the story of Pocahontas is pretty knowledgeable to most, but of course this is a Disney film so they obviously take liberties with the story.

Anyway, Governor Radcliffe (David Ogden Stiers) has compiled a bunch of men to take the journey from England to the New World. It is here that they will try to discover gold like the Spanish before them.

In their way, the savages as they call them - or the Native Americans who were here before them.

With Radcliffe's crew is an experienced savage hunter, John Smith (Mel Gibson). Who would have thought it would be him befriend one of the savages.

As Smith is exploring the new world, he is followed by Pocahontas (Irene Bedard) and her raccoon friend, Meeko (John Kassir). Smith discovers his spy and they develop a bond - soon falling in love with each other.

The Native Americans and the English, however, have other ideas and begin a small war against each other. Thanks to Radcliffe's lust for gold, many are killed. Smith is captured by the Native Americans and they threaten to kill him - but Pocahontas throws herself on top of him to spare his life.

Seeing this, all but Radcliffe tosses down their weapons - in hopes to bring both the Native Americans and the English together.

This was not one of the best Disney features, but it was still pretty good. A handful of the musical numbers were also pretty fun, especially "Colors of the Wind" and "Dig".

It was also fun to see - er I mean hear - a young Christian Bale in the role of Thomas, one of Smith's friends on the ship.

Final note: It's kind of ironic to see Gibson in the role of Smith. A role that basically fights for equality, especially after some of Gibson's recent rants.

So, cross off one of the few Disney films I have not seen yet. I think there may be a few more, so I will need to get to those as well.

Grade:

19/50: The Prestige

What do you think you would do to become the absolute best at your craft? Would you steal? Would you go to jail? Would you, possibly, kill?

That is just one of the many ethical questions being asked in Christopher Nolan's The Prestige. Which, despite being very good, may be my least favorite of Nolan's film that I have seen.

Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) and Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) are each part of a magician's show - as they each try to become magicians themselves. Angier's wife, Julia (Piper Perabo), is the magician's assistant, who gets lowered into a bucket of water and releases herself.

Borden believes that the show could be better, and despite being told not to, ties Julia up in a different way - which ends up not allowing her to escape, and she is killed.

This is the start of the dismantling of Bordern's and Angier's friendship. Borden is quite possibly one of the best magicians, but his stage presence is lacking. Angier, however, has a ton of stage presence, but doesn't have the tricks that Borden is able to come up with.

Angier begins to obsess over becoming the best and beating Borden, especially have seeing one of the most amazing tricks he has ever seen - Borden's 'The Transported Man'. In order to figure out how he does it, Angier sends his stage assistant, Olivia (Scarlet Johansson), to become Borden's assistant and steal his secrets.

Like most of Nolan's films, you really have to pay attention. There is a lot going on in this film and just like Angier with Borden's diary, we have to try and figure out what is going on. Angier feels that being the best magician is the most important to him - even more important than the one's that love him.

Nolan really gets great performances out of his actors - Bale and Michael Caine continue to be his go-to guys and they perform great in this. Jackman also stands out, and you can see just how obsessed he has become to dethrown Bale's character.

Much like the Pixar films, Nolan has really begun to out do himself. It is hard to move The Prestige passed his newer films like Batman Begins, Dark Knight, Inception and even Memento. Although I would need to watch Memento again from what I remember I think it would still be ahead of this film.

That doesn't mean this is horrible, far from it, just that Nolan's lesser films still standout against most other films that are out there.

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2/50: 3:10 To Yuma

For some reason I have never gotten into Western films. However, a little while ago I watched the series Deadwood and I have sort of become a little hooked on 'some' Westerns.

Even before that, however, I was very interested in seeing 3:10 To Yuma and had heard a lot of great things about it. But, I never got around to watching it - thus why it was added to my list.

Let me first start out by saying that I totally forgot that Christian Bale was in this film. I am not sure why, but I remembered Russell Crowe, but forgot Bale - so that was a pleasant surprise.

So, anyway, Crowe stars as Ben Wade a very well-known criminal that leads a pretty rugged gang. Bale is Dan Evans, a struggling farmer with a huge amount of debt.

Wade has eluded the law for many years, but manages to get himself caught after a recent heist. In order to stay ahead of Wade's gang they get together a small crew of their own, including Evans who makes a deal to help lead Wade to his train for a price and to get out of debt.

The rest of the film is the journey that the crew heads out on to get Wade on a train to take him to his trial. Which could sound rather boring, but it was nothing but.

Crowe's Wade was a lot less of the bad guy than I was expecting, he ended up being more of a psychological villain while in custody. The larger villain ends up being Wade's right hand man, Charlie Prince (Ben Foster). It's Prince that convinces the rest of Wade's gang to track him down and get him out of custody.

The film was great. I have had by issues with Crowe in the past, but I thought his performance was amazing here. As I said before, I wasn't expecting to see Bale, but he was outstanding as well. I have become a fan of Foster and it was great to see him play such a great villain.

There was great action and a lot of good dialogue - especially between Crowe and Bale. I figured this movie was going to be good, but it was even better than I thought it was going to be.

Grade:

The Dark Knight

I went into this movie expecting greatness. I had read the early reviews. I had read the reviews of some of my fellow bloggers who were lucky enough to see the movie right away. Each and every one of them had nothing but good things to say about this movie.

Well, I am here to tell you something.

They were absolutely right.

My lone negative of the film is I was left wondering, but those questions could be answered in the absolutely has to happen sequel, or in another one down the line.

I found myself looking at my watch, not because I was bored and the movie was too long - but because I was hoping the film would last longer.

Right from the start, the introduction of The Joker, I was immediately into the movie. Heath Ledger does have another film on his resume that will be released after The Dark Knight, but this is a movie that if you have to go out - you want to go out with a performance like this.

I didn't even know he had it in him. Sure, he was an amazing actor - but this shot him into the likes of Tom Hanks in my book. Amazing performance, he truly made The Joker his own - and it was spectacular.


I wasn't sure how they were going to handle the villain aspect of the movie - I had heard rumors about the inclusion of Harvey 'Two-Face' Dent, but was under the impression that it would be a quick cameo in order to setup the next film (sort of like the joker card at the end of Batman Begins). The older Batman films got a little out of hand with so many different villains on the scene at once, much like Spiderman 3 sort of got a little too jumbled.

*SPOILER* Director Christopher Nolan did a tremendous job including two villains in the same movie, without really going over the top. This movie, as it should be, was devoted mostly to The Joker, but the introduction of Two-Face was done very well, and it worked with the film's overall premise.*SPOILER OVER*

Before heading to the theater, I re-watched Batman Begins and I have to say the flack that Katie Holmes received for portraying Rachel Dawes was a little unjustified. I felt she gave a pretty good performance, but nevertheless, she wasn't totally missed in the sequel as Maggie Gyllenhaall did a marvelous job picking up where Holmes had left off.

Morgan Freeman's Lucius Fox wasn't a central piece in this film, but his performance was, as almost always, very top notch. Michael Caine's Alfred was very well done - and I enjoyed the little back-and-forth that his character shared with Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne.

Finally, I have always been a Michael Keaton as Batman guy. I was not too happy when he was replaced by Val Kilmer, then again by George Clooney. But, Bale has done a stellar job portraying the Dark Knight. As others have pointed out, I am not a huge fan of the deep, throat-like voice that he uses when in the Batman suit - but that is not that big of an issue for me.

This film was easily the best superhero movie I have ever seen. I do hope they continue to make Batman films, but I hope they continue at this current depth - the original films sort of lost their place after the second film, I would hate for history to repeat itself.

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