The Dark Knight Rises Review "Mind Blowingly Awesome"

    Leaving the movie theater and processing this movie is no easy feat, your legs don't want to move and your head is spinning with amazement and curiosity, your heart is pounding with excitement and the lingering emotions brought on by the movie are still ever present, this movie is just that impacting. Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight Rises" changed the Batman game forever, there is no going back after this one, of course when adding this movie to the other two preceding it this statement becomes even more true, but honestly after seeing this trilogy reach its end one can't imagine a better combination of movies put together by any other director, in fact there is a part in all of us that saw this movie that wish that Nolan will continue this story, that he'll change his mind and take the project further, the movie is just that good.

     Prepare yourself though before going to watch it, if you couldn't tell already by what they showed us on the previews this movie is dark, very dark, not Joker dark, but very human dark, mental even at times. The movie messes with your psyche and your understanding of not only how Bruce embraces the world but how you yourself look at the world. This movie moves you to ask some tough questions, it's as if Nolan is including some personal truth time between you and him within the movie, there has not been a more engaging movie than this one in a long time, and yes saying that about a superhero movie was something many would never have said in the past but those days are over, this movie is just that amazing.

    The first person that needs to be praised is Tom Hardy for his performance as Bane. There will never be a better representation of the psychotic mercenary, Hardy hit the target in every way possible, he was fearsome, loathsome, and represented pure evil in such a pure and crude way that you couldn't help but to look away whenever he was on screen, in fact some people within the theater would place their hands to their eyes whenever he came on screen for fear of what he might do next, here's the kicker though, nothing he did was overall too gruesome or barbaric but he did it in such a raw fashion that you couldn't help but be scared of him, there is something in him that just brings out that emotion. Bottom line, Tom Hardy was a boss, no lie, this man did what many thought no one could ever do, he successfully captured the Bane of the comics within a movie.

    Anne Hathaway is delightful throughout this flick, she is everything we all want her to be, she is seductive, she is fierce, she lies like a villain, but expresses care for those around her like a saint, she is a master thief and the way Nolan spun her story is freaking amazing, no one was expecting a Selina Kyle the way that Nolan depicted her, many even brushed her off as some side character before seeing the film, but Anne Hathaway would not have things be that way, Anne stole the show in many scenes throughout the movie, she was so good at playing Selina that it made some people want a Catwoman movie to come from this flick, meaning, her performance was so good that it made people forget how bad the last Catwoman movie was, that is quite a feat indeed.

    And finally how can we not mention the great Christian Bale finally giving us the performance we have been wanting to see from him since the beginning, don't take me wrong Christian Bale did well in the first two movies but he wasn't great, it was in this film that he really pulled through, he pulled no punches in his performance as the Bat and kicked some serious ass. This movie was a lot more challenging of a role for him for he needed to play a broken bat who gets even more broken before coming back to evolve into something new, it was a masterful performance and one cannot help but wish an encore performance by him in the future. Though Nolan and Bale have both stated that this will be their last Batman movie one cannot help but wish that this is not the case, that they change their mind and bring us another film, this film was just that good.

    Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Gary Oldman, Marion Cotillard, and Morgan Freeman were fantastic as well, especially Joseph Gordon-Levitt, I've purposely not talked much about these characters in order to not give anything away, anyone who spoils this movie for another person should be punished, this movie is just that good.

  Love from your humble blogger,

The Comic Books That Inspired Nolan's Trilogy

The reason behind the Nolan films being so good is that all the movies are based off of some of the greatest Batman comic books ever written, most people are not aware of that but if you were to read the books prior to watching the flicks you will actually learn to appreciate the movies even more than you had before. As it turns out the last installment in the series is coming out this Friday and it is hosting Bane, one of the most infamous Batman villains, though most people have no idea who Bane is and thus I've had to sit down often with people and explain the significance of his character and why this movie is going to be amazing, thus inspiring this post. It felt wrong to not mention the first two movies as well thus we'll be focusing on the three comic series that inspired Nolan and changed the comic book movie game forever.

Batman: Year One

     The first Nolan film set the scene for what was going to be one of the best concepts ever, basing a comic book movie off of a comic...yeah, one would imagine that more directors would have thought of this sooner but Nolan was the first and by sticking to the comic he created the best Batman film at that time. Batman Year One follows more or less exactly like the movie did, the comic is obviously better but Nolan did do a good job illustrating the main story on the big screen. It doesn't matter if you love comic books or not, every comic book that inspired the series is fantastic, this one is equally great, one you should definitely think about picking up and giving it a read.

  The Killing Joke

     There are a ton of Joker stories out there, a ton no joke, but none of them are as good and as well presented as The Killing Joke. This was the comic that inspired Heath's performance in "The Dark Knight", the movie is not necessarily based off of the comic but it is inspired by the comic, which was a pretty cool deal being that this was by far the most "real" presentation of the Joker in the series. Most of the time directors have done the Joker in the past has been a more carefree silly villain and not his psychotic self that we see in the comic books, the feared and maniacal Joker, it was refreshing to finally see the infamous villain being played correctly on the big screen. Needless to say "The Dark Knight" was the best Batman film ever made so far, it blew every other Batman film out of the water.

    Kightfall

    So finally we reach the third movie where we are introduced to Bane who was made famous by the great "Knightfall" series. The Knightfall series has three parts, Knightfall, Knightsquest and Knightsend, there is a ton of speculation going around about how Nolan is going to join all three epic arch's together into one movie, but we do see various elements of each one of the comic books within the preview, thus enforcing that Nolan did in fact decide to follow some of the core elements found within this story arch. Keep in mind that we're talking about the comic books so this is not a spoiler to what is going to happen in the movie but it is a guide to what might happen in the movie and why it is a big deal that Bane is going to be the villain within it, so take this as your warning, if you are worried that knowing what happened in the comics will spoil the movie then stop reading this post now.

    Knightfall opens with Bane getting a group of villains together to take over Gotham, he explodes the entrance of the Arkaham Asylum (as seen in the preview) and lets loose the scum of Gotham into the city. He later makes brilliant moves in order to strike fear into the people of Gotham and not only fights Batman but wins and breaks his back leaving Batman half-for-dead in the streets of Gotham City. The second volume is Bruce choosing Azrael as being a suitable replacement to go and take on the mantle as Batman in order to clean up the city a bit, this seems to be working well but in the end the mantle goes into Azrael's head and he goes crazy. The third volume is Bruce recovering, picking up the mantle of the bat once again and reclaiming himself as the one true Batman by defeating Azrael and then Bane.

    The movie will obviously not have all that in it, but a few things will probably follow from the comics, things we see in the preview, first Bane is a feared criminal mastermind just like in the comics, he will defeat Bruce and humiliate him, Gotham will fall, and Bruce will have to evolve as a man in order to rise and defeat this threat. If you are interested in more details on Bane and his background I recommend that you pick up the graphic novel and give it a read, it's a good read for sure, and will give you a better appreciation of what Nolan is trying to do for the last movie, more or so bringing it to life. All we can hope is that this movie will not disappoint and that it will live up to its hype, you never know, but personally I can't wait to watch this flick.

  Love from your humble blogger,