The Dark Knight Rises: A film review

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - The Dark Knight was a towering success, both financially and critically. After its release, it would become the second highest grossing film in the United States until Avatar came in a year and a half later and knocked it down to third. But what this started was something that was bigger than Batman. What happened was that Warner Brothers funded Christopher Nolan's dream project, Inception, which was also a massive hit, albeit not to the degree as The Dark Knight, but that's to be expected. This showed that the mainstream was no longer just a fan of Batman, but also becoming loyal followers of Nolan himself and his creative output. This adds a certain amount of pressure to the project, after all, Inception was almost as well received by fans as his Batman films. The Dark Knight Rises would have to be a movie to top all movies in order to please everyone.

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Batman Begins: A film review

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - Batman is one of the most legendary comic book characters, not powered by radiation or alien powers, but just a detective's mind and a fat wallet. Batman movies have been a cinema staple for many years and have seen many incarnations. There has been Adam West prancing around with a cartoon bomb in tow, there has been a gritty version based around the animated series of the early 1990s, and starting in the late 1980s a couple of film makers made very visual cinematic versions of the character. Most of these movies started before comic book movies were the blockbuster powerhouses they are now. Of course, it started with Tim Burton directing Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne and Batman. I enjoy his two movies, Batman and Batman Returns, to varying degrees and appreciate what they were at the time they came out. Then afterwards, Joel Schumacher made 1995's Batman Forever, which wasn't as well liked, but still a fairly big hit. Then his follow up movie, Batman and Robin was such a big critical and commercial flop that it pretty much killed Batman's big screen viability for years and probably put comic book movies on hold for years until X-Men came in and sparked interest again. I was flirting with the idea of reviewing all of these Batman movies, but maybe I'll get to that another time. For now I wish to focus on Christopher Nolan's trilogy.

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The Dark Knight: A film review

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - With Batman Begins having raised the bar so high for Batman films, and comic book films in general, the next film would be a crucial one. The last movie ended with a bit of a teaser, with a Joker card handed to Batman. This promised a lot as The Joker is a long time favourite villain for a lot of fans. I'm one of them. The Joker in the 1990s animated series, as voiced by Mark Hamill, is one of my favourite characters from any sort of Batman show. He is just the right mix of hilarious and evil, which is a fun combination. I remember that when it was announced that Heath Ledger would be cast to play The Joker there was some instant backlash, which I always felt was unfairly placed. You see, I knew that Ledger was a great actor and I knew that he wouldn't have been given this coveted role without having done something to earn it. And as images of the character and a voice in the teaser trailer came out, backlash became excitement as people were suddenly enticed by Ledger's mostly unseen portrayal of the iconic mad man. It was clear we were getting a much more gritty incarnation of the character than any before, as true to this new vision of Batman.

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