WARNING! SPOILERS FOLLOW!
The Dark Knight Rises quite fittingly rises above its predecessors, at least in my view. First, let me get something out of the way: I am not a massive fan of The Dark Knight and I've never seen much of Batman Begins simply because I'm too connected to Batman comic books for me to really enjoyment. I still maintain that The Dark Knight, at least, would be much better if Nolan had created a Batman-like superhero (such as Nocturnus, featured in Mark Waid's web comic Insufferable). However, The Dark Knight Rises is one of the most fantastic films I've ever seen, though I don't exactly classify it as a superhero movie.
I had serious doubts about the story; I'm the kind of person who doesn't like certain types of stories. These include: characters losing their powers, characters foregoing their identities, characters' secret identities being discovered by supervillains or revealed to the public, and others of this nature. I expected the The Dark Knight Rises to have plenty of these, and it had a few. However, the story is very well done and inspiring, despite the fact that I felt there could have been a very good "cheering moment" where the civilians decide to convert and support Batman as he battles evil. There's a very interesting character arc for Bruce Wayne as far as his identity as Batman, and I was saddened inside when Alfred leaved him to try to help him. The prison scenes are especially fascinating, introducing an idea that Batman cannot be a hero if he fears death; there is nothing to drive him to keep fighting if there is no fear of death. On the way home from seeing the movie, the realization came to me that, to me, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight were plot devices in the overarcing story in the Nolan trilogy to set up the story of The Dark Knight Rises. The ending I found to be one of the best parts of the film. I never really picked up on Bruce's nudging to John Blake that anyone could be Batman-that's why the mask exists-until the end when he passes the Batman mantle on to John Blake.
I found a similarity, almost impossibly, with The Avengers. Like the characters in The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises' characters are very good characters, though they are very little like the comic book characters. This is not as valid a point, as The Avengers is more of a comic book movie than The Dark Knight Rises, but I found some real problems in this case with Batman. In this film, he's a bit naive at first and not as sensible as Batman truly should be.
Now, on to my problems with the movie...
Of course, there are my usual qualms with the Nolan films: the costume looks fake, the Tumbler looks more like a tank than a cool Batmobile, and Batman's voice sounds dumb. But on to more valid complaints: First, I felt that giving John Blake the name of Robin was a good intention, but would have been INFINITLEY better if Blake's fully name had been Jean Paul (or John Paul, I suppose) as a nod to Jean Paul Valley, who replaced Bruce Wayne as Batman after Bane broke Wayne's back in the first story he appeared in. This would be applicable to Blake's adoption of the Batman mantle. Secondly, I greatly appreciated how Bane was initially portrated as both brutal and intelligent like in the comics, but at the end he was really someone's lackey. Alright, not a lackey perse, but it wasn't really his idea to achieve Ra's Al Ghul's dream. Talia, similarly, is guided by her father's dream, not the struggle portrayed so well before between her love for her father and he love for Batman. Also, I know the impact of the falling truck killed her, but that wasn't very well displayed. Wouldn't the windshield have shattered? Next, couldn't the government have detonated some kind of electromagnetic pulse to deactivate the timer on the bomb or the bomb entirely? On the topic of the bomb, Batman jostled it pretty severely. Couldn't it have broken in half or even exploded? It probably wouldn't be a nuclear explosion, but still...Next, I think that Batman's triumph over Bane could've been a lot better; He simply won because he knocked the drug tubes from Bane's mask, where he could have trained harder and triumphed over Bane physically and mentally. Finally, I think that adding the Venom element to Bane to make him stronger would've made him a much more interesting character.
In conclusion, The Dark Knight Rises is a must see. I would highly reccomend viewing Batman Begins and The Dark Knight first, as, in my view, they are set-ups for the real story, The Dark Knight Rises.
Hello, true believers! Do you, like me, enjoy fantasy football, but have trouble getting into it because you're simply not that into football? I have solution: SummerMovieLeague.com! This website allows you to choose movies between May 25 and the Tuesday after Labor Day and guess which ones will gross the highest. Whoever grossest the highest at the end wins. You can also put the movies in order based on which will make the most, and you gain a bonus if you're right. Here's a tip: the films that gross the most are consistently animated and superhero movies (the latter more than the former, if you need to compare), with sci-fi coming closely behind. You should also trust that remakes of classic films (like Total Recall, as you'll see in my list) will do pretty well. It's important not to necessarily judge a movie by how good it is or looks, but by how well it will do. A good example of this was Cowboys and Aliens from last Summer: despite positive reviews, the movie didn't connect with Average Joe, or more importantly in this case, Joe, Josephine, Joe Jr., and Joy, the Average Family. In case you need some help with your list, here's mine:
1. The Dark Knight Rises-This one shouldn't be a surprise. Nolan's Batman movies have only done extremely well, and I'll elaborate on why I picked this above The Amazing Spider-Man next.
2. The Amazing Spider-Man- The brand alone should give this movie plenty of money, and superhero movies are always the big money makers. What puts this below The Dark Knight Rises? The public at large, unlike comic book fans, doesn't understand reboots-that is, at least concerning the Spider-Man movies, whose latest entrance into the franchise was nearly five years ago and fresh in people's minds. This contrasts with movies in the Superman or Batman series, whose latest films, at the time of their reboot, were separated by around 1-2 decades. In the case of the upcoming The Man of Steel, the latest Superman film, Superman Returns, was somewhat unremarkable. Too much confusion is generated from the material and altered portions of this movie that it'll fall below The Dark Knight Rises. The extra cost for 3D movies will make this movie perform even better, so luckily, the site still gives you a bonus if you're one off in the list.
3. Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted - As I previously said, animated/kids' films always do very well, and this is the third entry into an already successful series. Is it just me, or has this series jumped the shark with this one?
4. Ice Age: Continental Drift - And speaking of jumping the shark...it's the fourth Ice Age. This movie was only beaten out by Madagascar 3 because the Madagascar series has more exposure with kids, between the more recent films and the cartoon on Nickelodeon.
5. Madea's Witness Protection - Say what you will about Tyler Perry's Madea films, but they make money. Oh, you doubt me? This is the seventh film in the Madea series. Seven. It beat out Star Wars! I wouldn't be surprised if the series gets more movies than Friday the Thirteenth, Nightmare on Elm's Street, or Halloween.
6. Diary of A Wimpy Kid: Dog Days - Hopefully, most young readers of the Diary of A Wimpy Kid book series. However, I don't have a great amount of faith in these young readers, and based on the success of the previous films (and once again, a third film in a series), I can see this movie doing quite well.
7. The Expendables 2 - If there's two things Americans like in movies, it's these: Sequels and mindless explosions and violence. The Expendables and its sequel are old fashinoned action films, and they feature casts that audiences gravitate towards: Statham, Rourke, Stallone, Crews, Schwarzenagger, and-yes, you're about to read right-Chuck Norris. Chuck. Fracking. Norris.
8. Brave - While this is a darker movie than others by the studio, Brave is a Disney-Pixar movie. That alone is a money maker, but it also is a lot about woman-power and freedom, which are draws for a movie audience.
9. Total Recall - Like I said, remakes make money, and sci-fi thrillers like this are bound to make money. The reason it's so high up in the list is that, though a good movie, Total Recall is not exactly fresh in people's minds.
10. Prometheus - I really hope this movie does well, and better than 10th best in the Summer. It's a sci-fi thriller, so it'll make good money, and it looks incredible, so it'll get good money from people in the geek community. However, it seems strange and scary to the public at large, who don't know it's sorta-kinda a prequel to Director Ridley Scott's Alien. Ridley Scott isn't exactly a household name in non-geek homes, so putting that in the trailer, in my opinion, can't draw enough people to bring this movie higher on the list.
To make your own list, you can go to SummerMovieLeague.com.
As many may know, Tuesday night, Avengers vs. X-Men, or AvX, hit many store shelves in an early release event. I attended one of these events, and found it was well worth the money I paid. First, probably as a part of the promotion, the comic was 25% off of its $3.99 price, and with tax, it was just $3.25. Granted, this is slightly more than other of Marvel's comics not in the Avengers line (excluding Avengers Academy), but it included a large amount of additional content that made it quite worth it. In an effort to encourage the purchase of print comics, Marvel included a code in the back of the book that could be redeemed on Marvel.com to get AvX #1 for free digitally. In addition, it included the first of Marvel's Unlimited comics, comics made to be viewed exclusively in digital form. This purchased separately from AvX #1 is an additional 99 cents. Essentially, I paid just $3.25 for content and other materials that have a value upwards of $5. To top all of that off, the comic itself is good! I'll review the content itself tomorrow when I finally am able to read this week's comics, but needless to say, it is a quite good one.
I created this image myself using Microsoft Paint and two other images I got online. It was inspired by a scene from The Empire Strikes Back.
I walked into this movie expecting it to be horrible. I'd read the reviews, which were, putting it nicely, negative. On top of that, I had seen Ghost Rider, a film that is perhaps the last entry of Marvel's early 2000s period when, after the success of Spider-Man, the company commissioned new films to be made chronicling their darker heroes. It worked with movies like Blade-not so much Ghost Rider.
In terms of what I was expecting, this film surprised me greatly. Don't get me wrong-it was a truly terrible film. However, it was only terrible in the sense that it was supposed to be a dark, serious film. Instead, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance accepts how horrible it is and uses that. This film does not take itself seriousley in the least. It is almost parodying itself, and I found it's type of humor to be akin to what is found in Saints Row: The Third. It is completely over the top, though it plays this for laughs rather than any wow-factor. The writers of the film realize that Nicholas Cage cannot possibly appear serious, so they go out of their way to portray him that way. When Johnny Blaze (Ghost Rider's alter ego and Cage's role) interrogated a man brutally and threateningly, my brother and I burst out laughing at how ridiculous he seemed. It seems that Cage even plays this to his advantage. If it was a comedy, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance would be almost a little bit good.
However, a large part of what makes this film so bad is that it was not at all portrayed this way. It was portrayed as a serious superhero film close to the tier of Iron Man or Thor. Every fan within the comic book community knew it wouldn't be that, but they at least expected the film to appear like its creators had taken time to craft the story or at least provided good action. The one point in the movie where I actually predicted what would happen (though not exactly how), right before the climactic battle, could have been a scene that met either of those films, but fell short.
The action does not make for an especially good break from the "humor," as most of the interesting and cool tricks feel done and bland. The CGI is nominal at best. The comic book backstory, other than the names of three characters, is totally ignored. The story itself took a step back to the midpoint of the first Ghost Rider, as Blaze now believes he is a Hulk-like monster that cannot be controlled.
The key to appreciating this film is to turn the brain off and enjoy the lunacy of it as much as possible. Even then, however, it is still a relatively bad film. If both the director and the writers had spent more time balancing the hillarious lunacy of the film and its potential for great action or how scenes progress, the film would have been a mediocre one, and a step up from Ghost Rider. Taken seriously, the film is worse than the original. Embracing the over the top nature of the film, however, will make it much more, but still just barely, palatable.
Welcome to my first post of 2012, ever faithful readers! There were some pretty great comics this week; check them out!
Annihilators: Earthfall #4
It's the final issue of this series, and I have to say...thank goodness. I loved all of Abnett and Lanning's work up until Annihilators. At that point, it became lackluster, boring, and repetitive. The art is horrendous. In the last Annihilators series, Tan Eng Huat's art was sub-par in this series. In this series, however, everything looks wrong. In a previous issue Captain America looked like he had the bone structure of a stereotypical African American character. In this one, Huat pulled a Liefield and gave Iron Man square breasts. Ms. Marvel has gigantic hips. Quasar's quantum bands are gigantic. Also, why does Valkyrie looked scared when she's about to kill a kid version of the Magus. Like Annihilators, the whole series feels like it has no significance, even though it takes place on Earth. That seems to be what happens when you get six super powerhouses on one team. Furthermore, what kind of roster is this for the Avengers: Captain America, Iron Man, Valkyrie, Spider-Man, Wolverine, the Thing, Ms. Marvel, and Red Hulk. What the hell? This is another thing that annoyed me about this series--how they just threw eight random Avengers together, only four of whom are even on the same team! I mean, seriously DnA! If you're going to use the Avengers, choose regular, New, or Secret. ONE TEAM, please!
Defenders #2
This book, on the other hand, is what I'm talking about! While it feels a little shorter than last issue, Defenders #2, like the previous issue, is fantastic. The art is good, even though I'm not a huge Dodson fan. I can already see events from Point One starting to play out. These new Avalonians (?) are characterized well, and have a good reason for wanting to mess up the universe. Iron Fist and Namor, though they don't interact with each other much, are hilarious in their own way.
Avengers Annual #1
Where New Avengers Annual #1 had almost entirely action, Avengers Annual #1 has meaning. There's not a ton of action, but Bendis and Dell'Otto certainly make up for it with a fantastic story and art. We really get into Simon Williams' head. This isn't just a phase-Wonder Man really is insane, in that scary kind of way that almost makes sense. Dell'Otto's art, as I said, is just phenominal. One of my favorite moments was Beast's horror upon seeing what Wonder Man had become.
Avengers Academy #24
As usual, this series is great. The quality of the art has gradually gone down since June 2010, but it's still great. Mike McKone was easily the greatest artist, and my favorites go in order along with the order of the artists, though it certainly dosen't reduce the quality of this great comic. I'm happy to learn more about White Tiger, and I definitley found a little bit of myself in Butterball. I'm happy nobody's died so far (besides Jocasta, that is).
Warning! Spoilers follow!
Avengers #20
This issue feels like sudden buildup to something major that I feel like I'm missing. Of course, I haven't been reading the Avengers/H.A.M.M.E.R. War storyline is Osborn and New Avengers, so I just feel a little rushed into this story. Parts of this issue read like classic comics-and not in the best way. Oh well. At least there isn't any wonky Bendis dialogue or anything.
Green Lantern #4
This is the kind of comic that ends too soon. It's short and sweet-Johns writes a great story, like always, and Doug Mahnke's pencils are phenomenal. The cliffhanger is decent (though not as good as last issue), but the entire thing feels like it could've been done in the opening ten pages of the book. I'm not sure I understand how Hal was un-disintegrated.
Justice League #4
Johns is being Johns here, doing something few others can do: make Aquaman a badass. When Hal starts mocking Aquaman, you almost know what's going to happen. Now, we've got the entire team together. I'm just wondering how they'll come together as a real team and understand what the heck is going on in one issue-but I'm sure Johns'll manage it.
Avengers Academy #23
God, I love Avengers Academy. X-23 was a bit of a tease, as her presence is a bit of an add-on in this issue. There are great plot developments-Striker is--well, if you really want to know, look around in some older "Axle In Charge"s on CBR. I absolutely cannot wait to see more developments-both with the future Academy members and with the present day ones.
