Tag: batman

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The Dark Knight Rises

Yesterday, Michelle and I watched the third and last installment of Christopher Nolan’s Batman Trilogy. I am a big fan of Batman and of Nolan’s first two Batman films, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight and it’s no different with this latest and lastest.

Gotham City is no longer the crime-ridden city it once was. Because of the Batman’s and the police’s effort, the organized criminals have been all but wiped out. However, due to the events in The Dark Knight, the Batman is Gotham’s most wanted and hasn’t been seen in years. Of course, he’s still there, in his Bruce Wayne persona, in his manor. And just when you thought he can’t get any more dark, brooding, and tormented, he is. Yes, Christian Bale remains the best Batman.

However, under the peace and order, in the sewers, in a veritable subterranean city-under-a-city, lies a growing threat. Led by a mysterious villain named Bane, an army is hard at work and growing in strength. Bane can’t really measure up to The Joker of Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight but he can certainly stand on his own. He seems to be a brute but reveals a quite sophisticated plot to destroy Gotham City.

Bane’s plot unfolds and eventually culminates in extreme mayhem as Bane and his army of criminals battle it out with Batman and his army of policemen. Think Transformers but a whole lot less convoluted. And if there’s anything better than real military hardware it is Batman’s gadgets.

Christopher Nolan’s Batman films were never your ordinary superhero movies. The story was definitely not simplified. The politics and social commentary is especially not something the average superhero “graphic novel” fanboy deals with on a daily basis. This is a serious film that just happened to be a superhero movie.

Rating: 5/5

 

 

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Batman: Arkham Asylum Times Two

Michelle surprised me with a copy of Batman: Arkham Asylum aka Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth graphic novel for my birthday. That was awesome because aside from being an avid Batman fan (e.g. see this and this), I was also planning to buy and play the PS3 game of the same title. So reading the graphic novel would be a good start. I was about to open and read it when she sprung her second birthday surprise, Batman: Arkham Asylum the PS3 game! What more can you ask for? Thanks, babe! You sure know how to choose a birthday gift. I love you!

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The Dark Knight

This has got to be the greatest Batman or even superhero movie to date. Gotham City is still a crime-ridden city. The mob controls the streets as the police, led by an incorruptible councilman and police chief, fight a never ending struggle against them. Vigilantes dressed as The Batman roam the street to take matters into their own hands.

Into this chaos, The Joker steps in. A mysterious figure with no history: No past and only a present and future of anarchy. The Batman must find out who he is and stop him before he bathes the city in fire and blood. As he does, he sets into motion things he didn’t expect.

The mood of the movie is dark and somber. It fits The Batman who is as dark, brooding, and tormented as ever. The Joker was absolutely demented and totally terrifying. This movie is as much about him as it is about The Batman. He’s greatest superhero movie villain to date. This last role of Heath Ledger earns him a position in the ranks of great movie villains like Hannibal Lecter and Anton Chigurh (No Country For Old Men).

This is not your normal adolescent superhero movie. Even though sanitized for PG-13, this is more mature material and even disturbing and thought-provoking.

Rating: 5/5

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Batman Begins

The Batman comic books were dark and Batman Begins, although sanitized for a lower rating, is faithfully dark too. As befitting a comic book-based movie, there’s the evil mob boss, the corrupt cops, psychopathic criminals, and, of course, the crafty arch-villains. Against this array of bad guys stand Batman and a few friends: the love interest, the sidekick (Alfred, no yet Robin), the incorruptible cop (played well as usual by Gary Oldman), the gadget maker (Q anyone?), and of course the gadgets. As a prequel, the movie successfully spun the Batman legend into a cohesive beginning. But this is more than just the beginning of Batman, it is the reinventing of Batman back to what he originally was. During the course of the movie, he transforms from a scared young boy to a lost soul, to a knight errant, to a ninjutsu trainee of a shadow society called the League of Shadows, and finally to the Dark Knight of Gotham City. The result is the best Batman movie ever. It helps that Christian Bale fits the role very well. In this movie, he is dark, brooding, and tormented. Typical Christian Bale and fittingly Batman AND Bruce Wayne. I look forward to more and better Batman movies. Batman has begun!

Rating: 5/5