The Bat Man might have met his match in the villainous Bane in THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (Christopher Nolan, 2012)
Opens Friday, July 20
www.thedarkknightrises.com
Christopher Nolan’s dazzling Dark Knight Trilogy comes to a rousing conclusion with The Dark Knight Rises. It’s been eight years since the death of Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), and things have been relatively quiet in Gotham City under a new prison initiative enacted by Commissioner Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman). The Bat Man has disappeared, believed to have gone into hiding after being accused of murdering Dent in cold blood, with the real story kept buried by Gordon. Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) has become a Howard Hughes-like recluse, limping around stately Wayne Manor with a cane and refusing to see anyone as his grand fortune wastes away. But the sudden appearance of a new master criminal, the Darth Vader-esque Bane (Tom Hardy), a crafty cat burglar named Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway), and a potential hostile takeover of Wayne Industries brings the Bat Man back to try to save the city against seemingly impossible odds. The Dark Knight Rises is the darkest Batman movie yet, as Wayne searches even deeper into his soul to find his reason for being and to determine his future — and that of his beloved city. He is joined by financial wizard Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard), Wayne Industries technical mastermind Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), and determined cop John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) in a race against time, something they have precious little of. Various plot elements and imagery evoke such previous movie series as Star Wars, Star Trek, and Mad Max while, to the film’s detriment, also calling up the 9/11 terrorist attacks and even the Occupy Wall Street movement. But the film gets past those faults as it rises up to an absolutely breathtaking, sensational finale. Nolan wraps things up brilliantly, even bringing back Ra’s Al Ghul (Liam Neeson) and giving a cool cameo to Cillian Murphy (a veteran now of all three movies), but it’s Bale’s complex performance as a man in search of his identity that is the driving force behind what has been a magnificent trilogy.
Heath Ledger gives a spectacular performance as the Joker in THE DARK KNIGHT
THE DARK KNIGHT (Christopher Nolan, 2008)
www.thedarkknight.warnerbros.com
Christopher Nolan’s follow-up to his 2005 hit Batman Begins is one of the most brilliant superhero films ever made. Christian Bale is back as billionaire bachelor Bruce Wayne, who spends his evenings fighting crime in Gotham City, which is under siege, victim to a brutal crime spree led by the vicious Joker (Heath Ledger in a massive, Oscar-winning performance). As the madman with the wild hair and evil clown face starts knocking off public officials, mob bosses, ordinary citizens, and even his own minions, Wayne is also beset by the blossoming relationship between Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhall), the woman he loves and who knows his secret, and the new DA, Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), who has come into his high-profile job with both arms swinging, determined to make Gotham City safe. The Bat Man is joined once again by his faithful butler, Alfred (Michael Caine), Wayne Industries exec Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), and police lieutenant Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman); the film also features Anthony Michael Hall as a television talk-show host who finds himself in danger, Eric Roberts as a smooth-talking gangster, and Cillian Murphy as Scarecrow in a brief cameo. The Dark Knight is a carefully constructed tale of good and evil, love and death, and everything in between, working as both a thrilling action movie as well as a psychoanalytic examination of what lurks deep in the soul. Although there are special effects aplenty, it is primarily a very intimate, personal film about one man’s tortured existence. In a summer of the high-octane superhero flick (Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Hellboy II, Hancock), The Dark Knight towers above them all.
Christopher Nolan puts a new twist on the Caped Crusader’s origin story in BATMAN BEGINS
BATMAN BEGINS (Christopher Nolan, 2005)
batmanbegins.warnerbros.com
Christopher Nolan takes over the Bat controls with spectacular results in this thrilling examination of the origins of the Bat Man, written by David S. Goyer and Nolan. Like his previous efforts, Memento and Insomnia, Nolan takes a psychological approach in telling the story of Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale), a wealthy young man fighting deep-seated fears from his past, including the violent murder of his parents. Determined to get justice and revenge — he is selected for special training by Ducard (Liam Neeson), a Qui-Gon Jinn-like character whose master is the mysterious Ra’s Al Ghul (Ken Watanabe). When Wayne finally returns home, he goes on a one-man mission to save Gotham, with the help of Sgt. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman), assistant DA Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes), old-timer Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), and the dependable and loyal Alfred (Michael Caine), as they do battle against the likes of mobster Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson) and Dr. Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy). Bale plays Wayne/Batman as a tormented, troubled soul, lost in a dark, dangerous world, a more realistic hero than those previously portrayed by Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, and Adam West. And for the first time in a live-action Batman flick we get to really see Arkham Asylum as Nolan lays the groundwork for a pair of sequels. Sci-fi fans will get an extra kick out of all the Blade Runner influences, including the casting of Rutger Hauer as the head of Wayne Industries.