The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

One of the things I love about these movies is that nothing is wasted. If a line is said, you know it's important and the more times it is said, the more important it is. If you know this rule, then you know that not only is Batman going to save the city in the end, but you know how, even before you know what he is saving it from. That certainly doesn't lessen the entertainment value of this film - it didn't for the first two. You just know where you're going from the beginning. But, if you're paying attention to what these films are about - just listen to Alfred to hear what it's really all about - you know that Batman ends up killing Bruce or Bruce ends up killing Batman. There is no other possible outcome. So you just sit back and let the wonderful cast do their thing.
I didn't know too much about the Bane character and am still trying to clear the images of the previous incarnation from my brain. I knew that Bane was big and smart, and I knew that Bane broke Batman's back. Since that was all I knew, my hat's off to Christopher Nolan for being directly on track with carrying over the comic book to the movie. I love the way he was portrayed as the warrior-philosopher who was the ultimate true believer. The very first time that the League of Shadows and Ra's al Ghul are mentioned I began looking for al Ghul's daughter. I'm afraid I know even less about her than I do about Bane, and I think that knowledge is from the Batman animated series and not from the comic books at all. In the context of the movie, it wasn't hard to figure out who she was, since there are only two younger women in Bruce's life and one of them is Catwoman, of I should say Selina Kyle, since they never call her Catwoman.
Ah Selina Kyle. I'm not that familiar with her portrayal from the old Adam West incarnation of Batman, more than knowing that both Eartha Kitt and Lee Merriweather portrayed her. I am familiar with Michelle Pfeifer as Catwoman and also with Halle Berry's portrayal. Pfeifer opposite Keaton was good casting I thought, the two definitely had chemistry, but the portrayal was campy with a bit of the supernatural thrown in. Was that particular Batman film directed by Tim Burton? I kind of feel that it must have been since they kept going for the humor with the Catwoman character, and that's too bad, because I think that was a big part of what turned the franchise towards the campiness of the West days. I don't even know what to say about Berry's portrayal of Catwoman. That movie had nothing to do with the DC universe and the Catwoman that interacts with Batman. But, seeing Berry dressed like that I guess was enough to get the project greenlit. Anne Hathaway, under Christopher Nolan's direction takes Selina Kyle in a different direction. She's a more than capable woman forced through circumstances to do things that she doesn't want to do, but she still tries to be good, even if she doesn't always succeed, and incidentally, looks far hotter doing it than any of the previous incarnations of the character. Okay, I'll admit it, I'm crushing a little bit. Who knows, maybe when she's tired of hanging out with Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman and Johnny Depp she'll read this post and look me up.
I like the way the movie wraps, with a hint that there might be more films to come. I've been hearing that Batman will be in the upcoming Justice League of America movie. But, I've also heard that Joseph Gordon-Levitt won't be playing Batman. I didn't know why that was significant until tonight. After I heard the rumor, I did look and officially there is not one attached to the project yet. I'm hoping that since Christopher Nolan is rebooting Superman this upcoming Summer that he will be involved with JLA movie. At the very least, I hope they use his version of Batman and I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I will want them to use his version of Superman as well. What I really hope is that this means that there is a Wonder Woman movie in the works that will drop before the JLA movie. There is already a Green Lantern film and while it wasn't the greatest, it was as good as Thor, which Marvel seemed to like just fine as a precursor to the Avengers. What other movies do we need? None. I'm going there. We do not need a Flash movie. I always thought the character was only tolerable as part of a team. We do not need a Hawkman movie. I've always liked this character, and Hawkgirl/woman too, but, they've never been commercially viable for some reason, except as part of a combo. Plastic Man? Can't stand the character. The Martian Manhunter? That would be pretty sweet, but it's never going to happen before the JLA. Maybe afterwards if it's a big success and he's a character in the JLA movie. Aquaman? That could be an awesome movie or an awesomely sucky movie. IF they play him as the Prince or King of Atlantis who begrudgingly works with the surface worlders for a joint goal, that might work. Who will the JLA be up against? I never bought the notion that the individual super villains would band together to take over the world worked, past two or three working together and then only the correct two or three. Nearly all of the villains are megalomaniacs, who by definition don't play well with others. I think the best option is Darkseid and his ilk trying to conquer the world. That does seem a bit like the premise for the Avengers movie now that I write it, but hey, it worked for Marvel, it can work for DC. What cannot happen is the JLA going the "Super Friends" route else I will be taking the form of someone who isn't going to watch it.

The Dark Knight Rises on IMDb

The Dark Knight (2008)

One thing really bothers me about this movie, in fact it bothers me in all movies where they do this particular thing, and that's sub in one actor for another. In Batman Begins, the character of Rachel Dawes was played wonderfully by Katie Holmes. In The Dark Knight, the character of Rachel Dawes was played wonderfully by Maggie Gyllenhall. Where's the problem? I spent most of the movie looking at Maggie and thinking about how she wasn't Katie. I would have been fine if either one had played Rachel Dawes in both movies, but it sticks in my craw that they swapped in one actor for another as if it didn't matter. Maybe there was a really good reason why Katie couldn't back for this film and I should just get over it, but I kind of feel like the original Batman movies, though of course this movie was still awesome. Oh, and X-Men franchise, don't think I'm not going to name names, and let it slip how you've had Kitty Pryde played by three different actresses in three films, when we all know it should have been Ellen Page all along.
There is one other thing... [removed because I decided it's between me and the other person, not me and the internet]...
I liked The Dark Knight. I think it was one of the best sequels I've ever seen. The themes of the first movie are continued and expanded upon. Characters undergo further development. The action was more intense and even the drama was more intense. It does clock in at almost 15 minutes longer than the first movie, and i'm pretty sure that was to add more chase scenes which to be honest I could have done without quite so much, but at least they looked cool.
Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent and Heath Ledger as the Joker are the two stand out performances of the movie. They both step right up to the line and push at it, but don't go over it. They both get so intense at times, and I find most of their screen time riveting. They are quite a contrast from Tommy Lee Jones and Jack Pallance in the respective roles.
I thought the character of Gordon, first Lieutenant and then Commissioner, was the most interesting. I think it says a lot about Gary Oldman as an actor that I totally forgot that I was watching him and just thought about Gordon. It's very interesting to see this character walk the fine line of legality versus illegality and legality versus justice. He has a strong moral sense that allows him to break minor rules in order to achieve more important goals, first and foremost being that he works directly with Batman even though the police force is technically hunting the 'vigilante' Batman.
I love that Nestor Carbonell plays the mayor of Gotham. The other project that I know this actor from is the live action Tick televsion show, where he played the (not so) super hero Bat-manuel, where he spends all of his time trying to use his super hero persona and super suit and super car to pick up women. I doubt that had anything to do with him getting cast, but I'm amused by it.

The Dark Knight on IMDb

Batman Begins (2005)

Long before I discovered the X-Men or even the comic book version of Spider-man, there was Superman and Batman. Superman was simplistic and moralistic even to me as a young boy. It was so clear cut because it was a story about good versus evil. Every time out. Batman was more complex, more dark. It dealt with the notion of justice as well as good versus evil. What I think I found to be most interesting was that Batman/Bruce Wayne questioned himself about his beliefs and convictions. Now, somewhere around the age of 11 or 12 I discovered the "back catalog" of both Batman and Superman thanks to my local library and I discovered that earlier incarnations had been very silly at times, but most shockingly, more alike than they were now, er, then in the mid-80s. Just as I discovered the historical Superman and Batman, I started collecting more books including the Justice League pf America which featured both heroes, but used Superman as a tank and Batman as the mad-scientist or engineer. I started to lose interest, when the Batman, Year One storyline hit. It was brilliant. It ended and so did my subscription to Batman and not much later to all comics.
I wasn't just a fan of Batman in comic books, but the early serials and the show with Adam West. They weren't the same quality as the comic books, but historically they matched the flavor of the time they were created. But then something wonderful happened. Tim Burton made a Batman movie. My buddy and I went and saw it in the old Fox Theatre in Dallas. It was so enthralling that I didn't even notice how the broken down seats gave you a back ache by the end of the first hour. Michael Keaton was a new kind of Batman, the kind I had wanted to see, moody and complex, well more complex than he had been portrayed before. I remember two things about that movie 25 years or so on, first being that I didn't much want to go to the movies with that friend again because he was not a good movie watcher, and that while we both liked the movie, it was for two very different reasons. I predominantly liked the scenery - Tim Burton's Gotham City was indeed Gothic and a great backdrop for the Batman tale, but ultimately I had found the movie not serious enough. Batman was indeed darker than the Adam West version, but Bruce Wayne was distracted and not handsome enough (sorry Michael Keaton) and Kim Bassinger and Jack Palance were throwbacks to the West show. Little did I know what was to come with these movies. My friend? He liked the movie because he had never read Batman before. This was earth-shattering stuff for him. But then, getting his new model railroad magazine and hearing the latest Billy Joel song were about as exciting as his life got at that point.
I won't say that I didn't watch or even enjoy the other Batman movies, they were a fun romp, equivalent to a super hero James Bond (Bond before Daniel Craig of course).
Fast forward to a British bloke who wants to make a new Batman movie, a reboot, that takes the movie along a darker path than the previous franchise. I was completely hooked. Once names started dropping as to which stars were attaching themselves to this project, I became more and more excited. But, if The Phantom Menace was good for anything, it was good for teaching us not to get our hopes up. When Batman Begins finally hit the screen I was completely bi-polar about it. I knew it was going to be brilliant. I knew it was going to be horrible. Secretly I hoped that it split the difference, I could live with that.
To my great surprise, this turned out to be one of the best action movies I've ever seen, and I think the best super hero movie. I don't just mean up to that point, I think this might be the best super hero film. I just checked my movie shelf, and the only movie that comes really close is Hellboy (if Spawn had been consistent throughout, it would be the number two film). Yes. I'm sure about this. The Marvel movies have all been real-worldified or are just not great or both. The DC movies are all over the place, but one thing is consistent, they're not great, but most of them are entertaining enough, the exception being the Watchmen which misses the mark on the comic book in a couple of ways, but is one of the best super hero movies I've seen. Then you have the independents - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Tank Girl, Aeon Flux, Mystery Men - all entertaining and funny, with the exception of Aeon Flux which was also real-worldified, but great because of Charlize Theron. The other movies with super heroes in my collection at least are not tied to a comic book and entertaining enough, but not really in competition.
Christian Bale is a very intense actor. I remember first becoming aware of him for a film called the Thin Man where he played the leading role and must have lost 60 or 70 pounds to play the role - he looked like a strong wind was going to snap him in two. He brings the same intensity to Batman Begins. He very definitely is playing Batman who has a secret identity of Bruce Wayne instead of the other way around. I think that's magnificent. This is the darker Batman that I've wanted to see for the last 25 years.
The list of supporting actors in this film is like a who's who of the craft's best: Liam Neeson, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman and, yes, Katie Holmes. Cillian Murphy, Rutger Hauer and Tom Wilkinson round out the main characters and the actors whom I am familiar with and all three really stepped up to the bar in their performances.
The only complaint I have about this film is the notion of Ra's al Ghul being either played by a Westerner or being so easily defeated and replaced. In the comic book, at least back when I was still reading the series, Ra's al Ghul was a mystic who had come across a way to extend his life to hundreds of years long, and was smarter, faster and stronger than everyone around him, and was also, not English. But, in the context of this movie, this rendition of al Ghul was certainly formidable and an interesting take on the character - I guess achieving his immortality by being the namesake and not the man.
I forget when I learned that this was the first of a trilogy by Christopher Nolan. I was certainly excited, though. Everything that happened likely happened with the endgame in mind, as opposed to the earlier open-ended goofballness. If the next two films were half as good as this one, this would be the best super heor trilogy ever.

Batman Begins at IMDb