The Dark Knight Rises, Falls, Rises Again...and Falls Again (sorta)

How does he get the gasoline to make shapes like that?

Yeah so I just got out of an early screening of The Dark Knight Rises (TDKR) and have had a couple of hours to process it. I have an opinion and I do intend to share it. Are you ready? I have to say that I did enjoy it. Again, I am a nerd of the highest order of comic geeks and whenever a new film about a superhero is committed to celluloid, I must view it. TDKR  is no different and when I look at the film overall, I have to say it was quite good, bordering on great. The acting was excellent, the cinematography to die for, the soundtrack amazing, and the lighting was fantastic. It's a very well made film and that's easy to see.

That having been said, you may be asking yourself why I don't feel this film is better than simply "good." Well, as good as the performances are, the film seems like it's trying hard not to be The Dark Knight. Perhaps this was out of respect for Heath Ledger or maybe it was just shooting higher because it's (at this time) the last film in the Nolan/Bale Batman series. I mean, you know that we will see the character rebooted again (probably soon) but this is the end of an era. The man who resurrected the franchise that imploded in the 90's is walking away and taking the cast with him.

Okay, let me try to be more clear. This film follows the formula of its predecessors: evil badguy is trying to destroy Gotham City. He has a plan to somehow do that. Batman suits up, battles evil badguy and saves the day. The end.

I bet Bane drinks this.

This film is no different, except that the villain is bigger, stronger, and has much larger aspirations than any that has come before him. He has more than thugs and hired goons, he has an army of followers ready to die for him. He has resources and cunning and muscles that ripple in high definition. Bane is a villain for the 21st Century - better, faster, meaner. Evil-er. He's like f Ra's Al Ghul and The Joker had a baby, pumped it full of steroids and made it read The Art of War. It's just the same thing we've already seen done TO THE EXTREME.

Another thing that bugged me was the lack of Batman in this Batman movie. I mean, his name is in the title and Bale has very little screen time in the suit. I understand why Nolan did this, but come on...this is the third film. We should see a lot of the Caped Crusader instead of being "treated" to a glimpse here and there.

The cast is quite good and I have no real complaints to speak of. The usual suspects are back and doing their thing. Bale is fine as Batman, Michael Kane is awesome as Alfred, Gary Oldman is rocking Comissioner Gordon, and Morgan Freeman nails it as Lucius Fox. They have all found a great respect for their characters and it shows in this third installment.

As for the newbies, Tom Hardy is okay as a faceless Bane but his voice sounds like a badly dubbed tin can effect. On a side note, I am the first to complain when a superhero takes his mask off constantly in a film *coughSPIDERMANcough* but the fact that we NEVER get to see Bane's face in this film actually hurts his character because we don't get anything but muscles and mumbles. Maybe I was wrong to criticize...

...nah...

Sorry Halle Berry but Anne nailed it!

Anywhoo, we have Anne Hathaway as a subdued and supercool Selena Kyle. I don't call her Catwoman because the film doesn't call her Catwoman, and that works. She's excellent in the role, so all the naysayers can relax, she handled it well and you will not be disappointed. Another new cast member is Joseph Gordon Levitt as a young cop trying to make a difference in the nasty world of Gotham City. He's nothing short of amazing in the role and it makes me wish that Nolan would agree to do one more just so we can see this character develop more.

By the way, be on the lookout for a couple of really cool cameos and the long awaited return of Matthew Modine as a high ranking police officer! Where has has he been for the last 20 years? He must have been hanging out with C. Thomas Howell and they both scored small roles in big budget superhero flicks. Cheers, guys!

Bottom line for me, I think it was a good movie. I enjoyed it. I think most people will as well. I just couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't as good as I wanted it to be...maybe I am just all done with the uberdark superhero movie. Maybe  that's why Avengers was so epic for me - it wasn't trying to be all dirty and gritty. It was colorful and fun and edge of your seat awesome. TDKR was just covered in pessimism, despite an honest attempt to force the theme of "hope" down our throats. I walked out satisfied but not astounded. That's all well and good but I wanted to be astounded and when I wasn't, well, you know.

That's my 2 cents. Feel free to comment or not. If you got this far, thanks for reading.

NOTE: Before the film started, the theater quite respectfully called for a moment of silence for the victims of the Aurora, CO, shooting. My heart goes out to all the victims, their families, and anyone impacted by that terrible event. I know a lot of people have said this, but I am going to say it too - there is a lot of gun play in this film and every time I saw a scene where shooting was taking place, my mind went there. Yours will too, so if you intend to see the film, it's important to be aware of this. I just hope that those most affected by this event may someday find both justice and peace.

Larry Crowne and Me

Two actors on a scooter. Cool.

So I caught the Tom Hanks film Larry Crowne on cable this week and I have to say, it really had an impact on me. The thing is, the film itself isn't really anything to write home about. It is hardly up to par with the films that we know and love Hanks for and it certainly isn't going to win any awards. Julia Roberts phones it in and Bryan Cranston is wasted as a single dimension loser husband. It's just a predictable and safe little film that doesn't make anyone nervous or uneasy.

The reason I liked it was because of the titular character's interactions with the world around him. He is a walking example of how we should all interact with one another and with the world in which we live.

In other words, if we were all a little more like Larry Crowne, this country would be far more pleasant to inhabit.

Let me back up for a second. A week or so ago, I was driving somewhere...doing...something...and the car in front of me tossed a huge wadded up wrapper or bag of some kind out its window. As luck would have it, the car was also one of those God awful giant SUV's that guzzles gas by the tankful, getting 4 miles to the gallon and spewing enough smoke into the atmosphere to burn a softball sized hole in the ozone layer directly above New England.

Anyway, as I watched the litterbug in action, I had to wonder why. Doesn't the person driving that massive vehicle want to live in a nice place? Does he or she like how dirty wrappers piling up in the gutters makes the streets look? Maybe I had it wrong. Maybe the driver was creating some sort of living art, or thought that the addition of this piece of trash might gussy up the road just enough to bring the real estate prices up a modicum.

Better get that toxic paper out of your car before it melts you!

Maybe the paper was toxic when it came into contact with the faux leather seats inside the car, releasing a green poisonous gas which would turn anyone who came into contact with it into some sort of gelatinous blob.

Maybe he or she saved hundreds of lives.

Probably not, though. Probably it was just a bad person who couldn't wait until  they were home to toss out their trash properly. This brings me back to Larry Crowne.

Larry is a man who takes pride in everything he does. At the beginning of the film he works in a big box department store that is kind of an amalgam of WalMart and Target and despite his fellow employees' disdain for their jobs, he works hard and goes above and beyond because "it's the right thing to do." The film makes a point of emphasizing this quality of Larry, including him stopping more than once to pick up someone else's trash and throwing it away properly.

I think we all need to adopt this simple, yet rare attitude. Most of us know right from wrong. Now I am not making a plea for the world to just get straightened out through one small blog post. However, if we do something simple like picking up trash that we see on the ground, or at least not tossing it out our car window as we drive through a residential area, that's a start.

The Amazing Mediocre Reboot

It should have been left untold.

Okay, so I went to see The Amazing Spider-Man. Why, you may ask? Well, being the repeatedly confessed geek that I am, I can hardly let a movie based on a comic book go unseen by my eager eyes. Yeah, I am one of those - I devour these types of films and, considering the streak that Marvel properties brought to the silver screen is currently on, I figured it had to be at least decent, right?

Wrong.

Now we all know that Sony had to make a new film about Spider Man within the next couple of years in order to maintain the rights to the property. Marvel is dying to get their big money makers back in house so that they can include them in the whole Avengers continuity. The same goes for The X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and to a lesser extent, The Punisher.

I guess I can accept that the Raimi/Maguire Spider-Man films are over and done with. In fact, considering what a horrible mess Spider-Man 3 was, I am glad that they all called it quits on that one. Unfortunately, this film is coming out a little too close to the last trilogy which has left a lot of heads scratching as to whether it needed to be made at all (other than for the reasons outlined above). It's damn near impossible for any viewer to look at this film and not compare it to it's recent predecessors. Right there, it's behind the eight ball and we haven't even seen the opening credits yet.

Okay, so I don't need to go scene by scene to make my point here. Let me just (in the immortal words of Inigo Montoya) sum up. The characters were flat. Andrew Garfield looks like Peter Parker, but that's it. He can't seem to commit to any one specific persona for him. He runs the gamut of emotions, motivations, and action and not in that good way. In a way that makes you constantly go "Huh? Why would he do that?" or "Wait, he's really damned stupid for a supposedly smart teenager."

The villain is a scientist whose obsession with his work leads him to self-experimentation causing him to turn into a giant green monster who is unstoppable and tears through metal and stone like tissue paper...wait does this seem familiar to anyone else? Right...LIZARD SMASH!

Anyway, Rhys Ifans is a competent actor given a character so poorly written that I almost feel sorry for him, but for the undoubtedly huge paycheck he got  for this schlock. His motivation for his actions starts with "I have a stump for an arm and that sucks" to "everyone else needs to be a lizard person so I can be king of the lizard people" with no real reason for the shift other than, that's what mad scientists do, they take over the world - or they want to.

Emma  Stone's Gwen Stacy is a real shame because the character and the actress are both fan favorites. She just has nothing to work with here, try though she might. The only bright spot is that she never really takes on the role of "damsel in distress" at all. Granted, the need for a love interest is questionable at best. Romance is optional in these films and, in fact, as The Avengers has proven, completely unnecessary to the degree that you can make a better film if we aren't worried about who the hero has to kiss at the end.

Oh, and on that note, I avoided the Twilight films because I didn't want to watch two hours of teenaged characters staring at one another unable to say what they feel. In my experience, teenagers won't stop telling the world how they feel. Between Facebook, Twitter, and texting they express themselves publicly 24-7. Don't tell me that two kids with emotions can't muster the gumption to share them with one another.

As for the plot overall, we've seen it done before and a lot better. Peter is an outcast who gets himself bitten by a super spider and he becomes a super powered acrobat. His Uncle Ben dies as an indirect result of his actions, sort of, and eventually he realizes that he needs to use his powers to defend the city from the Hulk Lizard.

Then the movie ends.

No, wait, there's something about Peter's parents, mainly his dad, who is a scientist who vanished or died or something...I couldn't tell you because the film abandons that plot (which was a major lynchpin of the trailers) less than halfway through. Presumably they are saving that all for the sequels, God help us.

The bottom line is that this film is pointless in character, plot, and existence. It didn't need to be made for any reason other than to protect Sony's stranglehold on the rights to make films about the web slinger. It's going to make a lot of money because suckers like me will pay to see them every time. I can only hope that I will make a better decision in two years when the sequel rolls into the local megaplex.

So this is a new blog. Like many other new blogs on Blogger, it might vanish without a trace as soon as it appears. Personally, I am hoping that is not the case, and since I am the person responsible for avoiding such a tragedy, I guess it's up to me to make sure that doesn't happen.

So if you got this far, you might be interested to know what's going into this little corner of the Interwebs. Well, as the title says, it's honesty, my honesty. You'll hear a lot about what bothers me, a little about what doesn't bother me. Basically, what's on my mind that day.

You never know.