Brief Thoughts on Dredd 3D, The Master and Transformers: Fall of Cybertron

            Well guys, it’s time for yet another Brief Thoughts On…post.  Now I know that I promised that I would be doing a review on Dredd 3D and The Master two weeks ago, but unfortunately some personal stuff came up and I wasn’t able to write either, nor was I able to finish the video Korsgaard and I were working on until last Friday night.  But I still wanted to give some quick thoughts on both of these films, and a video game that I recently beat.  So here it is.  Brief Thoughts on Dredd 3D, The Master and Transformers: Fall of Cybertron.

Dredd 3D and The Master

            Dredd 3D, in a nutshell, was a film that was a lot better than it had any rights to be.  The acting was very good, the action was very gory, realistic and satisfying, if a tad mechanical at times, really knew how to use the slow-mo to excellent effect and had a cast of very likeable characters, especially Karl Urban and Dredd and Lena Heady as Ma-Ma.  While most of the film takes place indoors the filmmakers are able to add a lot of context to the city and are able to establish what a hellish place it is with a few good twists as well.

            The downsides to it are that the limits in its budget do show, especially in the art direction and special effects departments, as a lot of the outfits and set designs look like something that they probably could have made for an anniversary film at That Guy with the Glasses or something.  This also shows in the fact that the film often has to tell and not show regarding the state of the city.  The last problem is the plot and characters.  While they aren’t bad they are very basic and aren’t as fleshed out as they should have been.  But again this is something that is more due to the budget than the talent of the filmmakers.

            But still, this is one that I recommend as it is a film that is a lot better than it has any right to be and does not deserve to flop.  At the very least it’s worth an afternoon showing and you will get your money’s worth out of it.

All Around

6.75/10

Comic Book Rating

Good

            And if you’re curious here is a video review that I helped put together.  Sorry again for the late release date and the audio and visual problems as I ran across several technical problems while editing this thing and they are ones that I plan on learning from.

            The Master, however, I really don’t have too much to say about.  The acting is really good and the characters are interesting but beyond that it came off as typical Oscar Bait and I found myself constantly comparing it to Paul Thomas Andersons’ previous film, There Will Be Blood, which happens to be one of my favorite films of all time.  It also constantly distracted by the fact that I was probably the most intimidating looking person in that entire room, (and as anyone who knows me will tell you, that is hilarious), and it made me feel really out of place in the theater.   So, in other words, I don’t have any feelings on this one, one way or the other and can’t recommend it one way or the other.

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron

            And now we get to the main reason that I wanted to do this post, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron.  Taking place right after the ending of War for Cybertron, the game follows the Autobots as they try to fight the Decepticons off, while constructing and getting energon for a great ship known as The Arc as the Decepticons try to stop them and take all the energon for themselves and destroy the Autobots once and for all. 

Now starting with what this game got right, it knocked it out of the park.  The characters are surprisingly compelling and you grow attached to them very quickly, despite limited gameplay time with each of them.  You very quickly get a sense of the relationships between the characters and really want them to succeed in their tasks.  The most apparent example of this is the story of Grimlock and his interactions with other Autobots and Decepticons.  You very quickly get a sense of just how much he cares for his team and how badly he hates the Decpticons and how hostile his relationship is with Optimus Prime in about a chapter and a half of gameplay time.

The storyline is also surprisingly good, especially considering the source material and you really get a sense of desperation in this game from both sides.  The world of Cybertron is essentially dying and both sides are quickly running out of energon, (the Transformers equivalent of fuel, food and basically life essence for those who didn’t know), and you really get the sense that this is the final shot for both sides and if they fail both sides are doomed.  It also happens to have one of the most satisfying endings that I’ve seen in a videogame in recent months and really reminds you of how Optimus Prime and Megatron are really the cores of Good and Evil in the transformers universe.

Now I don’t mean to sell the story as more then it is.  It has a lot of wired continuity issues with the first game, the story could get really slow at times and isn’t as compelling as the storylines in say the Mass Effect games.  But as far as Transformers storylines and characterization goes this one is one of the best that I’ve seen sense the Armada series from the early 2000’s and manages to be far superior to anything that the Michael Bay films ever put out. 

From a gameplay standpoint, the game has radically improved on almost everything that the first one had.  The graphics and character designs have improved and the guns seemed to have a bit more variety to them and were a lot easier to get used to.  The fights were fun and extremely challenging, even on the lower difficulties and go out of their way to remind you that the Transformers you play as are the best by being better than their enemies and not necessarily brutally stronger.  The only downsides to it are that it eliminates the co-op campaign options, the enemies such as snipers and shot gunners on both sides are interchangeable, and lacks the cool boss fights the first game had.

Despite its faults this is a good game and one that I would recommend if you’re a Transformers fan and want to see a more traditional yet serious version of the mythos.  It’s more than worth your time and money and I recommend that you give it a play if you get a chance.

All Around

8/10

            And that’s it for this installment of Brief Thoughts On.  Next time I’m on here will probably be for the two year anniversary and we’ll see how that one goes.  So until next time this is The Illusive One signing off.

Brief Thoughts On...

            Well it’s been a while sense I’ve done anything here on Illusive One’s Reviews for a number of reasons.  This is mainly because there really hasn’t been anything that I’ve really wanted to write about over the past month and to be perfectly honest, their still isn’t as I’ve been and still am distracted with other things.  So I decided to do this post entitled Brief Thoughts On…to give brief thoughts on various things that I’ve seen, done or played over the past few months that I didn’t do any kind of post for one reason or another.  So read on and let me know what you think of these things and sorry for being gone for so long.

Films

            Unfortunately since the release of The Dark Knight Rises their really haven’t been to many films that have come out in theaters that I’ve had much interest in seeing.  The one exception to this has been The Expendables 2 which was probably the most fun I’ve had watching a film all summer as it had great action scenes, a great sense of humor, great character interaction and storyline that was surprisingly solid for the genera.  The only problems that I had with it was that Chuck Norris and Jet Li were underused, the cinematography was distractingly grainy and unfocused at certain points and the character played by Liam Hemsworth was poorly written and acted and just annoyed the crap out of me.  But still, I really enjoyed it and the reason that I didn’t write a full review on it was because I was helping Korsgaard doing his video review of it and he more or less said all that was needed to be said.  Take a look at it and tell me what you think.

Seriously though, go see this film.  It is a ton of fun.

            I also rewatched The Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers and I have to say that TDKR was a lot better on a second viewing.  Once I got past the facts that Batman is in little of the film,  that it simply wasn’t as good as its predecessor, and the drag of the second act, (much easier on a second viewing), it was a lot easier to focus on the film itself as what it is as opposed to what it could have been.  The plot, while a bit bloated, is again still a lot better than 90% of what is out there in the genera and the way they characterize Bruce Wayne and how they play up the man vs. mask conflict is probably the best they have ever done in a comic book film and is incredibly tense and full of great suspense.  From a technical standpoint the film probably has the best special effects that I’ve seen this year, along with great cinematography and direction and tense, well-choreographed action scenes with an incredibly well used score and I was really able to enjoy these things a lot more on a second viewing.  Granted, I still think that the film could have been a lot better and my previous review still stands but it is a film that was better for me on a second viewing.

            The Avengers, however, didn’t fare as well.  Whereas the good things came out for TDKR on a second viewing The Avengers’ problems came out more on a second viewing.  The most glaring issue was the plot and characterization and how bare boned they are, especially in comparison to The Dark Knight Trilogy, the Bryan Singer X-Men films and the Spider-Man films, (both Sam Rami and rebooted films).  This has been a reoccurring problem with the entire Avengers franchise but here it’s even worse for me given the critical praise of the film and the fact that it has plot holes and things that the writers pulled right out of there asses that rival Prometheus in head scratching moments.  And unlike TDKR the film really doesn’t have a well-used score or cinematography to back it up and many of the composite shots where the actors are acting in front of a green screen look really crappy.  But keep in mind that this is just hot air due to the film’s popularity and my hatred of the franchise and it’ll probably cool down after a while.  But like TDKR my previous review still stands and I do understand why so many people liked it.  It’s a fun summer blockbuster with great action, above average special effects, (for the most part), very good acting, had a great sense of humor and more than deserved the money that it made   Just don’t expect me to share your feelings on it.

            I also got the chance to watch The Gray starring Liam Neeson which turned out to be an incredibly depressing film that layered on soul crushing plot point after soul crushing plot point.  Liam Neeson gave what was, in my opinion, probably the best performance of his career and I really hope that the academy will at least give him a nomination for his performance here.  I also took a look at Chronicle which turned out to be an extremely entertaining and well-made film and it’s one of those lower budget films that can totally back and hope that everyone involved in its makings has a great carrier.  I can say the exact same thing for Cabin in the Woods.  Unfortunately I can’t reveal too much of what happens for spoiler purposes but it is an extremely entertaining film and one of the more obscure films of the year that I highly recommend watching at least once.  I also had the chance to see Snow White and the Huntsman and I surprisingly enjoyed it for various reasons.  But did they really expect us to Kristen Stewart was better looking than Charlize Theron?  Yea…I don’t think so.

            Films that did not fare with me so well with me however included the 1981 film Excalibur that had shoddy acting, un-compelling characters who will often disappear and die off camera and a very weak plot that tried to tell a big story but ultimately failed to give it any real meat and in truth, the only thing worth noting about this film is that it contained early roles for Liam Neeson and Patrick Stewart.  Avoid it if you get the chance because it is not worth your time.  Another god-awful film I had the displeasure of seeing was The Wicker Tree which somehow managed to be worse than the 2006 remake of The Wicker Man and I honestly did not know that was possible.  There was also Wrath of the Titans which, outside of a few moments, failed to impress me and I just felt like I had wasted my time after watching it.  But by far the worst film that I had the displeasure of seeing was Battleship.  In a nut shell, the acting, dialog, characters, special effects and plot were all beyond terrible and I really don’t wish to bring back the memory of this by thinking about why it was so terrible.  If you want to see a complete review of why this film was so goddamn awful read Korsgaard’s review of it because he can do it more justice then I can.  Let it suffice to say, however, that it is easily the worst film I have seen all year and has quickly ranked up there with one of my most hated films of all time.  Seriously, it was BAD! 

T.V. Shows

            Now, I don’t do to many things on T.V. series because there is usually WAY too much to cover so I’m just going to give you some brief thoughts on the latest seasons of certain series that I’ve watched recently and of the complete series that I finished watching this year.  The one that left the biggest impression on me was Battlestar Galactica and what a great series that was.  It had really good special effects for a show series, really good acting and characterization and fantastic storylines and subplots that addressed all kinds of issues ranging from politics, racism and basic human rights.  And it had a lot of kick-ass fighting.  That always helps to.  The most glaring problem with the series is, as any fan of the series know, is the ending.  I won’t spoil it for those of you who haven’t seen it but let me just say that it makes the original ending to Mass Effect 3 look like Toy Story 3 in comparison.  Seriously!  It is that bad and I found myself constantly hoping that the last act of the final episode was some kind of dying dream or something and it remains the finale that I hate above all other finales.  

            The Newsroom was a very good series, with good writing that managed to incorporate personal drama, comedy that comes from it, along with addressing issues that do plague not only the world but the world of the news and how it’s been slowly selling out in order to attract more views for advertisement money and I honestly don’t think that this is something that is not addressed enough in any form.  Needless to say, I really enjoyed it and unless you’re a right wing nut, you probably will to.  The latest season of Breaking Bad, while still good, just doesn’t seem to be as compelling as previous seasons and it seems like the series is on its last leg.  Hell on Wheels on the other hand, seems to be getting better and I can’t wait to see what happens next in the series.

             I also had the chance to re-watch the various series of Bruce Timm’s D.C. Animated Universe.  With the Batman series, I found that for as many episodes that were above average or great, there were just as many that were just ok but it’s still the strongest and most potent of the series’ and I highly recommend that you take a look at it if you’re feeling nostalgic.  The Superman series, while a lot better then I remembered from my youth, kind of comes off as the Batman series’ less talented brother, with villains that aren’t nearly as interesting or compelling and Superman himself is just a boring protagonist and isn’t memorable in anyway save for his powers that are oddly inconsistent in their strength.  What made the series ultimately work, however, was that writing of the series’ storylines were consistently good and the villains really did work, mostly due to the voice acting by people like Clancy Brown, Michael Ironside, and Malcolm MacDowell.  While it certainly isn’t as good Batman and is probably the weakest of the Universe, (with the exceptions of Static Shock and Zeta Project that I never watched), it certainly is worth watching if you’re a fan of the characters and want to see a less hammy adaptation of the Man of Steel.

Batman Beyond likewise was a lot better then I remembered and like its predecessor, knew how to bring in the more human elements that come with these kinds of stories.  It’s only real fault is that it’s villains just weren’t nearly as interested, sympathetic or compelling as those of the other D.C. Universe series and can sadly take away from the experience if you let it.  Justice League, on the other hand, isn’t as good as I remembered it, as three big things kind of hindered my enjoyment of it.  The first was that the episodes were almost always two parters which almost always ensured a lot of padding for the episodes which bored the crap out of me.  The second, sadly, was Batman.  While he is undoubtedly the best hero character in the Timmverse, in this series he came off as being really awkward and out of place among all these other heroes who’s powers were borderline dietic.  The final problem was that if focused a little too much on John Stewart and Hawkgirl and this romantic subplot they had going on between the two.  While I that this was done well, it ended up dominating the entire show, making the two of them the main characters as opposed to the ensemble series you would expect from a show like this.  Justice League: Unlimited, however, was fantastic with great storylines, characterization, and action that frequently addressed the rolls and potentially uncontrollable powers of superheroes and somehow actually managed to be more mature then anything the Marvel Cinematic Universe has come out with, (I know this seems like I’m taking pot shots at The Avengers but I am being very serious on this.  It really treats you a lot more like an adult then those films ever do).  While I think that it went a little downhill in the second half it still was a great series and one that I cannot recommend enough if you’re a D.C. fan.

Videogames

For as much as I love video games, I haven’t been playing to many new ones lately, as their really haven’t been to many worth noting that have been released or good enough for me to finish or recent enough to do a review on.  With Star War: The Old Republic, the storylines and characters are really good but it has too much of the grind and dullness that other MMOs like World of Warcraft have and my playing of it has been off and on.  Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning didn’t really catch my interest and Dragon’s Dogma was just one of the most repetitive pieces of crap I have ever played despite some fast, slick and epic combat gameplay.  The enhanced edition of Witcher 2 was a lot of fun but I had a hard time getting into it, mainly because I had a hard time getting invested in the story and characters as I hadn’t played the first game before this one.  Max Payne 3 was an awesome game with really fun gameplay and a great protagonist.  The only problem I had with it was that the main story just didn’t do it for me and felt kind of like the plot of a half assed action movie.  The only other games of note are the recent Transformers games, which are pretty good, especially for the licensed game genera, which is usually infamously bad.  Hopefully as October rolls around I’ll get back to my usual videogame reviewing self but for now this is all I have.

Comics

Just about everything that I have been reading in this department has been The New 52 and most of my previous opinions have stayed the same.  The only one that I can really think of where my opinion has radically changed is Superman and Men of War as those lines have easily gone from Browse to Read.  Superman, to put it simply, has gotten a lot better and with Men of War I read over the secondary storylines which I failed to do the first time which made the series a whole lot better. 

But then we have Young Justice, which I failed to review in previous months.  Why?  Well, over the past year, as you no doubt have noticed, my interest in this blog has kind of diminished, but that’s actually not the main reason.  You see, I did read over all of the lines in that section and none of them really stuck out and I didn’t have much to say about them.  But sense I have an obligation to say something, here are some brief thoughts on them. Teen Titans is good with good storylines and compelling characters that actually act more mature and believable then The Justice League, (make of that what you will), and some cool crossovers with Superboy and Legion Lost.  But it is flawed with a lot of issues with the dialog and only just in my Read section.  Static Shock is the definition of ok, as it doesn’t really bring anything that we haven’t seen before but nothing that I would consider bad, and there were definitely other titles that they should have axed before this one.  I say give it a Browse.  Hawk and Dove….Rob Liefeld drew it and wrote the last four issues.  Do I really need to say anything more?

Blue Beetle I think is very good as the conflict between the Scarab and the protagonist is a good one and the characters are very compelling.  I have heard complaints that it sucks when compared to the original run of the character but coming from a new comer to the series I say give it a Read.  As far as Legion and Legion Lost goes, I really don’t have much to say as it really didn’t leave much of an impression on me.  I say Browse them both but be prepared for a bit of a learning curve.

And that’s it for this article.  Hopefully this will be the start of me getting back into blogging and over the next few months I’ll probably be back up to speed.  For the more immediate future, Korsgaard and I have another video planned out for Dredd 3D which will be up on Monday at the earliest and Wednesday at the latest so be on the lookout for that.  I also plan on doing a text review of that as well as one of The Master and possibly the prequel comic for Dredd 3D so be on the lookout for that.  In the meantime, it’s great to be back.  So until next time this is The Illusive One signing off. 

The Dark Knight Rises

            Well everyone, at long last the year’s most highly anticipated film has been released and dear God, I swear this poor film is jinxed.  First we had a bunch of dumbass fan boys post a lot of angry comments on Rotten Tomatoes pointed at the first people who dared to give the film a negative review before they even saw the film.  And to them I say SHAME ON YOU, FAN BOYS!  I mean, good God!  What is wrong with you people?  You ought to be ashamed of yourselves!  I understand giving a critic crap after seeing the film for yourself and seeing what the general consensus is and if they are against it, (I’ve done it a few times myself), but don’t pull this kind of crap when you haven’t even seen the film and general consensus has yet to been made!  I would expect this kind of behavior from Twilight fans, Skyrim fans, or even anti-Mass Effect 3 ending fans, but from Dark Knight fans?  A franchise of films that requires an average I.Q. to enjoy?  I’m disgusted with you people!  You’re giving other fans a bad name and pulling this kind of crap before you even see the film for yourself is beyond juvenile and this is something you should apologize for!  Then we had Rush Limbaugh’s dumbass accusation that the character of Bane to be a liberal attack on Mitt Romney, (I am not even joking about that one), and just what the hell?  And of course we had the Colorado shooting and my heart goes out to all those that were injured during the midnight showing of this film and my condolences to the families who lost their loved ones.  That whole affair is something that I honestly don’t have any words for.

            But I wasn’t going to let any of this change my opinion, enjoyment or hatred of the film so here we go.  The story takes place 8 years after the events of The Dark Knight and in that time Gotham City has become a city free of organized crime due to the actions of Batman and Commissioner Gordon in the previous film.  However the events of that film have taken their toll on Wayne both physically and mentally and he is now a broken shell of what he once was.  However he is forced to put the cowl back on when a man known only as Bane emerges as the new leader of The League of Shadows and is intent on finishing what Ra’s Al Ghul started in Batman Begin.  So has this film lived up to the hype and joined the ranks of great part threes like Toy Story 3 and Return of the King or will it join the likes of crappy part threes like X-Men 3 or Spider-Man 3?  Well, here are my thoughts on it.  This is The Illusive One’s Review of The Dark Knight Rises. 

            As with the previous film the special effects are fantastic and Nolan proves once again that he knows what he’s doing in this department as everything on screen, CGI or not, looks one hundred percent real and is an incredible breath of fresh air in a decade full of mostly synthetic looking CGI crap.  Likewise, the sound effects are great and again stand out from a lot of other films in this department with everything sounding the way I imagine it would in real life and not sounding like sound effects.  As with the previous two film and Inception the cinematography is once again Oscar level and I could not be happier that Wally Pfister, (the director of photography for these films), is getting the chance to direct his own film.  The man really deserves the chance. 

            Now as I mentioned in previous posts, Nolan has never been the best with action scenes as they always suffered from shaky camera, sloppy editing, or were just poorly choreographed.  This time around he has finally perfected them.  They’re epic, tense well-choreographed and just know how to get you pumped and ready to kick some ass.  Adding to the tension of these scenes is the fact that this film is the end of this story and because of this the threat of death is everywhere and you really have no idea who is going to live or die.  Granted I don’t think that they took full advantage of this but the threat is their all the same.

            Then we have our cast.  For starters, you have no idea how happy I am to see a good interpretation of Bane and Tom Hardy did a great job playing him.  He’s menacing, badass smart, intimidating and his plan to destroy Gotham is incredibly cruel and is very eerily up to par with current events and politics.  Gary Oldman, Michael Cane, and Morgan Freeman were all once again great in their roles, even if they have less to do in this film.  Anne Hathaway was perfect as Catwoman and they just could not have gotten a better person for the part.  New comers Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Blake and Marion Cotillard as Miranda are also pretty good in their roles even if they did seem a little tacked on.  I also really liked the way certain characters tried to push Wayne in different directions, with Alfred trying to get him to give up Batman and try to live a normal life and Gordon and Blake trying to convince him to put the cowl back on and it made for some interesting conflicts.

            Now the film has gotten a bit of criticism for the plot but we’ll get more into that in a minute.  Now, starting with what they got right, they knocked it out of the park.  Whereas the first film was more about Batman, second film Gotham City itself, this film is more about Bruce Wayne and the way everything has affected him both physically and mentally and the first and final acts of the film do a very good job of showing this.  In the first act, he is basically a broken man who has lost everyone he cares about and wants to become Batman again, possible out of suicidal tendencies and by the time the film ends you get the feeling that his arc is complete.  The final act of the film is one of the best I have ever seen, with incredibly tense action scenes and more than makes up for some of the drag in the second act of the film.  Adding to this is the general feeling that the characters may not live to the end which adds layers of intensity to the climax.  There are also a few really good twists throughout the film, especially concerning Bane’s identity that were genuinely shocking.

            And speaking of which, the ending is incredibly satisfying.  The less said about this the better but as of right now, you are not going to find a better ending to a superhero story on film.  Yea, there are a few loose ends that I wish they had done a better job of tying up but they do a fantastic job of ending Batman’s story and I could not be happier with the final ten minutes of the film. 

But the best part of this film, however, was easily the score.  Whenever that Deshi Basara music came on everything got better.  The action scenes were tenser.  The suspense build up was stronger and it just knew how to get the blood pumping and how to keep you on the edge of your seat and if Hans Zimmer doesn’t at least get an Oscar Nomination for his work on this film the people running that think should be burned alive for the snub.  Seriously, it is that good and well used.

There are, however, some problems with the film and they are big ones in my opinion.  The main thing it suffers from is that it’s just not as good as its predecessor.  The with the exception of Bruce Wayne most of the returning characters just aren’t as interesting or as fleshed as they were in the last film. Characters like Blake, Bane and Daggett just aren’t as interesting or compelling as characters like Harvey Dent, The Joker or Maroni with the latter of the three feeling a bit like a throwaway character.  The storyline likewise, while better than most of the stuff out there, just isn’t nearly as good and lacks the same levels of depth, complexity and realism as well as the daring of it which really takes away from the experience. 

The plot also suffers from two other major problems.  The first is the length.  It is a long film and unlike the last one this one can drag a bit, particularly during the second act of the film which was easily the weakest part of it and I just can’t help but wish they had taken that act in another route.  It also doesn’t have enough of Batman “being Batman” as it goes straight to his battles with Bane, mostly ignoring any kind of other crime fighting or battles with the police and I really wish that they had taken a few more plot elements from the first part the Knightfall story arc, (where Batman has to fight off a crap-ton of criminals who escaped prison before fighting Bane), rather than the direction they went in.   As a result it ultimately came off more as a broken warrior’s final battle then it did a superhero film.  While this is good in its own right I just can’t help but think that they could have combines the superhero elements with the final battle elements. 

All around, this is a very good film and great ending to Chris Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy.  But it is a flawed film.  Had it not been for the drag and relatively poor writing of the second act, (Seriously Nolan brothers?  I know you could have done better than that!), and the fact that Batman didn’t get enough screen time, this one could have easily been a rival to its predecessor and ultimately keep it from being a masterpiece and in my “Dark Knight” category.  What the film does have are some spectacular special effects, a great character study of Bruce Wayne, incredible action scenes, a few mind blowing twists, a solid villain, a great first and third act, an incredible and well used  score by Hans Zimmer, and one of the most satisfying endings that I have seen to any series.  While it doesn’t rank up there with great part 3 films like Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King or Toy Story 3 it is certainly not nearly as bad as films like X-Men 3 or Spider-Man 3.  It’s an all-around satisfying conclusion to the series and I highly encourage you to go see it if you liked the first two.

All Around

8.75/10

Comic Book Movie Rating

Great

The Dark Knight

Deshi!

DESHI!

Basara!

BASARA!

DESHI! DESHI!

BASARA! BASARA!

DESHI! DESHI!

BASARA! BASARA!

HOLY FUCK!  I AN HYPED FOR THIS MOVIE!

          And why shouldn’t I be?  It’s the sequel to what is easily the greatest superhero film ever made with arguably the best director to emerge out of the 2000s at the helm and is the most highly anticipated film 2012.  Now granted, this does leave a lot of room for disappointment but I’m keeping myself optimistic.  Chris Nolan has yet to let us down and I seriously doubt he will on this one.  But unfortunately, we still have some time before the film comes out and, as is customary here on The Illusive One’s Reviews, I’m going to give my thoughts on the film’s predecessor, The Dark Knight.  Now, before I go any further on this post, let me just warn those who haven’t seen the film that this post will contain spoilers as this one will be more about what I took away from the film and how I feel it has aged in comparison with the other superhero films out there.  It other words, it’s probably going to be more me going on like some crazy fanboy, (I get really passionate about comic book movies.  You should all know this by now), rather than a traditional review.  If you don’t wish to read something like that, I understand.  But I promise you, you will have a really, really, bad day if you don’t….

            But before I get into the magnum opus of comic book films, I want to give a few thoughts on its predecessor, Batman Begins.  To put it simply, I didn’t really care for it.  Why is this, you may ask?  Well, as I mentioned in my Amazing Spider-Man review, there was this odd period between 2004 and 2008 when comic book movies just seemed to suck and I just wasn’t into them anymore.  And, sadly, Batman Begins was not spared from my empathy and I just wasn’t into Batman any more.  It also didn’t help that the last major things that I saw him in were Batman and Robin and pre-Unlimited Justice League Animated series where he just came off as useless and out of place to me for the most part.  When I got around to watching it the film didn’t impress me and quite frankly, it still doesn’t.  Granted I do understand why so many other people like it, but it just didn’t do for me what it did for other people.  For starters, I didn’t think Christian Bale was a very good pick for Batman, mainly because of his voice, (like everyone else).  Katie Holms was just terrible, and I mean, terrible in her role as Rachel and I just can’t help but wonder what the casters were thinking when they put her in the role.  While I thought Liam Neeson was good as Henri Ducard, type casted though he may have been, as Ra’s Al Ghul, he failed to impress me.  Not that I didn’t like how they made the character more realistic, but his performance as the big bad of the film just didn’t do it for me.  The biggest problem I had with it, however, was the story.  Mainly, the second half as it just felt rushed.  This is something that all origin superhero films suffer from but this one just seemed really hurt by it.  In short, everything in the second half seemed like it took place over three days and it just seemed too compressed and was ripe with SSBS.  The whole twist with Liam Neeson turning out to be Ra’s I saw coming a mile away, as I did with the Scarecrow’s secret benefactors.  And finally, the action scenes sucked.  Redundant to say I know, but they just sucked. 

            However, there are good things to note in this film that I have noticed as I got older and they’re good if for no other reason than how they were expanded on in the sequel.  While Bale and Neeson were miscast the rest of the actor did pretty good jobs in their roles.  Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Michael Cain, Cillian Murphy, Tom Wilkinson, and Rutger Hauer were good in their roles but couldn’t bring the film up for me.  It’s also worth noting that this is one of the few superhero films where they acknowledged that this is a real world with real problems and just beating up a bunch of criminals isn’t going to necessarily change anything, (something that most superhero films failed to do).  But in the end, it just wasn’t for me.  Maybe it was the time period it came out in.  Maybe there are more people out there who share my opinion of it and I just don’t know it.  Or I’m a complete minority on this.  Either way, this film just didn’t impress me the way it did others and remains one of “those” kinds of films for me.

            But then came along The Dark Knight.  Where do I even begin?  In a nutshell, this film is just great all around.  As I’m sure we all know, the story revolves around Batman as he, along with Lieutenant Gordon, and the new D.A. Harvey Dent as they try to take down the remaining mafia organizations in Gotham.  In retaliation, the mob hires The Joker, a freelance bank robber and psychopath to kill Batman and return the city to the status quo.  Little do any of them know, his plans are much bigger and darker in nature. 

            Now the first thing that this film got right was the acting, casting, and dialog.  To put it simply, nearly every cast member in this film deserved an Oscar Nomination and is a quantum leap from what they had before.  While Christian Bale is still kind of sketchy as Batman, (more on that in a later), his dialog with people who were on to his secret was spot on and well performed.  While I felt that Michael Cain, Morgan Freeman, and Gary Oldman were just ok in Batman Begins, in this film they get a lot more screen time, an update with their dialog and brought their A Game to their performances and, in my opinion, each deserved an Oscar nomination for the performances they gave.  The same can be said for Aaron Eckhart’s extremely underrated performance as Harvey Dent/Two-Face who was fantastic as both the charismatic D.A. and broken vigilante and in my opinion is the best version of the character ever brought to film, television, or videogames.

I have to say, Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel was a huge upgrade from Katie Holmes in terms of acting abilities.  It is true that she isn’t as attractive as Holmes, (shame on you people who thinks that automatically makes Holmes better), but she was a lot more believable in the role.  In short, she actually looked and acted like a lawyer and unlike her character in Batman Begins, actually serves a purpose in the film other then to be Batman’s love interest.  Many of the minor cast members were also great in their parts, giving it their all and are all still somehow memorable with limited amount of screen time, such as the characters of Stephens and Ramirez just leave a big impression despite having so few lines and screen time.  Easily the most un-appreciated actor in this whole film was Eric Roberts as the slimy, confident, cocky mob head Maroni and it just shocks me that this guy is still doing B movies after that performance.  Easily one of the most underrated comic book movie performances ever.

The guy who stole the show, however, and the one everyone remembers is Heath Ledger as The Joker.  What can I honestly say about him that hasn’t already been said?  The writing is for him is great, (I’ll go more into that later).  The performance is great.  The way his scenes are directed are great.  It’s just a great part.  The only thing that I can really do in this regard is bring up what some of the other fans already have and the inherent criticism that comes with the popularity of the portrayal.  The most common complaint that I’ve heard against it is that he’s not funny and that he should have been more like The Joker from Arkham Asylum and that’s the way the character should be.  But let’s really think about this for a second.  For starters, like a lot of other long running comic book characters, the character has changed so much over the decades it’s really impossible to say what the Joker is “suppose” to be like.  So saying how the Joker is “suppose” to be is a very loose statement at best.  Second, this portrayal, despite what some of the more hardcore fanboys say, does keep the essence of what the Joker is but at the same time does something new with the character.  For one thing, this Joker is funny.  The humor is darker and a bit more subtle but is their all the same and it’s all designed to make you crap your pants in fear.  And he is a psychopath who does deranged things often just for the sake of doing them.  The main difference between this version and others is that he actually has a major plan for Gotham and this is what ultimately makes this version of the character better but still a bit questionable among the more hardcore fans.

         But my opinion of this whole debate is just stupid.  All of the Joker’s are good in their own way.  However, I personally believe that this one has the best writing, as it trades in all kiddish jokes and ridiculous antics for a serious plan that was for Gotham’s sole, demented jokes that were scary as well as funny and an all-around shit you pants scary portrayal.  And that’s why so many people like this version.  It’s a very disturbing performance that gets under your skin.  The Jack Nicholson and Mark Hamill versions are funny and enjoyable, but they never reached the same level of memorabilia, depth and intensity.  As far as Heath Ledger’s death is concerned, I really think that critics of the portrayal have blown that whole thing out of proportions.  It does account for a lot of added interest in the film prior to release and for its initial finical success but they did not blow his portrayal out of the water and it deserved all the praise it got.  

But what is good acting and good characters without a good plot?  Well, as The Avengers proved, a billion dollar grossing movie!  Ha, ha, ha, ha! (Seriously, though it was a good summer blockbuster and deserved its financial success).  But in all seriousness, the story of The Dark Knight is easily the best of any superhero movie and among the best I have seen for any film, rich with complexities, dark tones, and serious themes that hit you like a ton of bricks with layers of realism that had yet to be seen in any superhero film and still hasn’t been seen sense.  And quite frankly, it’s is a little difficult to talk about.  It expands on everything that was established in the first film and takes it to new heights.  For starters, the realism factor has been upped.  Batman doesn’t just beat the criminals up and leave then for the police to find or deals with everything on his own.  He actually coordinates with Jim Gordon and Harvey Dent and shares relevant information with them that will help take down the mob in a court of law.  It establishes that just doing the usual hero thing like beating up criminals doesn’t really solve anything and that it takes real people in power like cops and D.A.s to bring criminal to justice.  This is something that you NEVER see in other superhero films and gave it a very neo noir feel to it that perfectly blended with the Batman story line.

It also happens to be the only superhero film where the world they are trying to protect feels like a living, breathing entity on its own.  In other words, it was something that you were fully invested in and most superhero films just fail to do this effectively.  In this film they establish that this is a city in trouble and needs help.  It isn’t just some random alien invasion, or a CEO who wants control over people.  This is a city that has problems, with people in despair, where criminals run wild and is truly in need of saving and by the time the film comes to its end you are fully invested in said city’s fate and how things will work out.  Again, it is something that no other superhero film has done effectively before or sense. 

And then we have Batman’s battle with the Joker and everything about this was just fantastic.  Now, I give superhero films like The Avengers a lot of crap because their villains have very simple motives, be it just trying to get rich, take over the world, or just simple revenge.  The Joker’s motive for doing what he does and how he does it is a lot more complex and, again, are more realistic.  His motive is to spread anarchy and chaos, to prove to Gotham and Batman that deep down everyone is just as insane as he is and if pushed to a certain extent they will become just like him and how he actually does this is just brilliant in every aspect of the word, using what he knows about certain people to his advantage.  Essentially, it was a much grander and better thought out version of his plan in The Killing Joke.  And all of these things mentioned before moves the story along at a great pace ensuring that every plot device and line of dialog has some kind of use in the long term and never drags.   There really isn’t any other word to describe it other than say it’s the plot of The Dark Knight.

And of course we have all the themes that are intertwined with the film and are what really push the film into what I call “Dark Knight” comic book movie territory as opposed to just being “Good”, “Bad” or “Great”.  Now, other then maybe the Spider-Man films, the Bryan Singer X-Men films, and Watchmen, most superhero films don’t even try to have complex themes and thought provoking questions.  And even these films don’t quite hit you the same way as this one does as it take them to a whole new level.  Now all of the aforementioned things, (the living city and actual use of a legal system), make the film great but it’s the themes that solidify it.  The first is Batman’s no kill rule.  Again, this is something that most superhero films don’t address.  Sure there are superhero films where the hero never kills anyone intentionally, but they never really establish that it’s bad for the hero to kill off the villains.  This in turn, leads to the big themes of the film; escalation and how far one can go for justice and what is acceptable?  Like the animated series of the 90s it does address the possibility that Batman maybe doing more harm than good as The Joker was unleashed by the mob directly due to his actions and again is something that is rarely addressed in other comic book films.  The justice part was addressed in the first film but ultimately came off as a little preachy to me.  In this film, however, it was a very well addressed issue.  How far can and should one go for justice?  Are the prices you pay ultimately worth it?  Should one lie or kill in order to obtain that end?  In fact, by the time the film ends, you really don’t have any clear answers to these questions.  While what they ultimately do does resolve the problems the city faces it leave the audience free to interpret whether or not it was all worth it.  Was that what Chris Nolan intended?  I honestly don’t know but that’s the way I interpreted it.  

From the technical side of things, this film is easily one of the best I have ever seen.  In an age full of overused cartoonish CGI effects, The Dark Knight manages to have special effects that look completely realistic throughout the entire length of the film.  Unlike other films this one uses actual shots of cities, miniatures, and real explosions instead of computer generating everything and this resulted in me believing everything that I saw on screen which is an incredibly rare feat for any film to do.  The sound effects were likewise great and it’s probably the first time that I noticed just how different sound effects like gun shots and car crashes are from the spoken dialog in a film.  The action scenes are a vast improvement over those of the first film and are nail bitingly intense and keep you on the edge of your seat the entire time.  While they aren’t the best action scenes in the world, (Chris Nolan has been steadily improving on them but they still leave something to be wanted), compared to all the overblown, tensionless action sequences that most films have nowadays, The Dark Knight manages to pack a lot more emotion and tension into these scenes which is something worth noting.

            Despite all the good things that this film have, there are some legitimate faults with the film that I need to address and snuff out things that overanalyzes have tried to use to downplay the film.  Now, before I start bashing the over analyzers and bringing up said faults, there are some things that, as a Batman fan, annoyed me.  There are a number of little things that annoyed me and at times I wish that they called one character “this” instead of “that” but the big one for me was Two-Face.  Now as I mentioned before, this was easily the best version Harvey Dent/Two-Face to ever come to any adaptation and as a big fan of the character I couldn’t have been happier about how he turned out.  So, as you can imagine, it really ticked me off that they killed him off in the last ten minutes of the film.  Granted I understand why he had to die from a narrative point of view but it’s still irritating to see one of my favorite villains get killed off right after they get the character right after so many attempts.  But that’s just a personal issue I have with it and it’s not a real flaw with the film.

As far as legitimate faults go, however, this film has little to none and most of the so called “faults” don’t really amount to much more then overanalyzing.  Normally this is something that I don’t bother myself with as people who look at things like this usually tend to be idiots who need to get a life and stop being contrarians looking for attention.  But given the fact that a certain blogger has told me that he’ll bring this stuff up in a future post, I have to give my take and counter arguments to these opinions.  Now, unfortunately there are people out there who don’t know the difference between a legitimate problem with the plot and overanalyzing, so allow me to explain the difference.  Take The Avengers for example.  Bringing up the fact that Bruce Banner was suddenly able to control his transformation into the Hulk during the climax, when on that very same day he was completely out of control during the act on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s flying aircraft carrier is a legitimate plot hole.  Bringing up the fact that Black Widow and Hawkeye should have been killed during the final battle because they don’t have any superpowers is overanalyzing.  Bringing up the fact that Thor’s return to Earth doesn’t amount to much more then “It’s magic bitch” is a legitimate fault with the film.  Bringing up the fact that half of the impacts Tony Stark takes throughout the film should have broken every single bone in his body is overanalyzing. 

So, where am I going with this?  Well, it’s about the most common overanalyzing complaint against the film.  The most common one and the only one that I’m going to address here is that some people say that the Joker’s plan was to complex and should have failed much sooner than it did; especially considering the fact that most of his men consisted of mentally disturbed thugs.  The overanalyzing in this case is a little more complex in this case as I’ve heard people bring up the fact that Navy SEALS couldn’t pull this off to questioning how the Joker would know people would act the way they did.  And quite frankly this is the kind of overanalyzing that give film critics and film buffs a bad name and it just disgusts me that people still do this.

But, because I’m me, I have to make some kind of overanalyzing counter argument to this and quite frankly, these arguments have some very simple explanations to them, as is usually the case.  It can all be summed up by simply saying that the Joker is a genius and just knows how people will more the likely act in certain situations.  Batman going after Rachel?  He saw the way he leaped after him earlier in the film.  Placing the bomb in the schizophrenic’s stomach?  Just needed a guy crazy and desperate enough to do it.  How did he know he could provoke the cop into a fight?  He killed like a dozen cops!  And cops are not known for their fair treatment of cop killers!  As far as the plan itself goes, a good deal of it was probably improvised as much as planned out due to the ever changing circumstances.  While he probably did know to a certain extent where he wanted to go with his plan he probably didn’t know how he would pull it off up until the later parts of the film.        

There is, however, a much more simple explanation to this and is the one that I personally prefer; IT’S JUST A FUCKING MOVIE!  AND A COMIC BOOK MOVIE AT THAT!  I mean seriously, if people can suspend their disbelief long enough to believe that a billionaire dressed up like a bat fights crime with the help of his butler and CEO are you really going to tell me that the Joker’s plan for forever tainting Gotham’s soul is too much and overly complex?  That is what made the movie so damn good!  Seriously people!  Stop the overanalyzing!  It’s pointless and there are much better things to do with your time!

Ok, now that I got that out of the way, there are some things that I do consider to be legitimate faults with the film.  While these aren’t things that cripple the film, they do keep it from obtaining a perfect score on my rating system.  The first major problem is Christian Bale as Batman.  Not that he’s terrible but when compared to the other people who have played him in the past like Kevin Conroy and Michael Keaton, his performance doesn’t really hold up.  The main problem is him trying to blend in normal society as Bruce Wayne the drunken Billionaire.  As people have pointed out, he comes off as someone who is looking for attention or as someone with something to hide.  In other words, if someone told me that this guy was Batman, you would probably believe it.  When in the Batsuit he uses that infamous voice and it gets old very fast.  When he has conversations with Alfred and Fox when not in his Batman outfit it does work but still doesn’t make up for the rest

Another gripe I had with it is hand to hand combat action scenes.  While they were a lot better than the ones in Batman Begins, they just seemed really staged.  A perfect example of this is Batman’s opening fight with the Scarecrow’s men.  It just looked like they were lining up to get their asses kicked or something.  Hopefully this is something that Nolan has stepped up his game on for The Dark Knight Rises but in this one it was sub-par.

And that’s really all I have to say about the film itself but to be honest, I don’t think I’ve done it justice in this post, as it’s really one of those films like Jaws, Star Wars, or The Godfather that’s beyond review and you just have to watch it and get your own opinion of it.  As it stands, this film is almost universally considered to be the greatest comic book film of all time, and maintains the highest approval rating and average score of the genera on Rotten Tomatoes, and the highest rated of the genera on IMDB and Metascore.  It also happens to be the only superhero film to win and be nominated for widespread Academy Awards and was the major cause for the criticism the Academy faced that year for its failure to give the film a Best Picture Nomination.  While there are some people who argue against this, you won’t get away with saying that films like The Avengers, Iron Man, or Watchmen are better films.  You may argue that they’re more faithful to the source material and that as adaptations they’re better or that you enjoy them more, (which I have no problem with), but as films standing on their own you simply won’t.  This was a film that showed that superhero and comic book films don’t have to be crowd pleasing shitty summer block busters and that they can be intelligent with thought provoking themes and complex storylines and characters and it really depresses me that more films of the genera haven’t followed this one’s example.

But anyway, as you can tell I love this film and not only consider it the greatest comic book film of all time but one of my personal favorites.  Nearly everything about it I just love from the casting, to the characters, to the dialog, to the story, to the special effects, to the direction.  It was fantastic all around and created the filmmakers created a movie that can only be described with one word: Masterpiece.

All Around

9.75/10

Comic Book

Movie Rating

Dark Knight Level

            So now that I’m done praising this movie up the ass, what are my expectations of The Dark Knight Rises.  Well, as anyone who have read my posts or talked to me when I first heard that they were going to do a sequel for sure I was indifferent.  This was just a film that I didn’t think needed a sequel as the ending to this one more or less wrapped everything up.  But when I saw that Bane was the main villain, Ann Hathaway was cast as Catwoman, the initial teaser trailer, and heard the Deshi Basara chant, I was as hyped as everyone else and my anticipation has only continued to build due to the insanely good advertising campaign.

As you can imagine, there are a number of things that I’m expecting from this film.  First, I’m expecting a great version of Bane, (one of my favorite Batman villains who has sadly been fucked up the ass sense the Knightfall Story Arc), action sequences that blow the first two out of the water and for it to be better than Batman Begins and The Avengers.  What I am not expecting, however, is for it to be better than The Dark Knight, (although I am hoping).  I just don’t think that THAT can be done.  The biggest fear that I have for it is that it’s going to borrow to much from its predecessor, (although given its 164 minute run time I don’t see that being likely), or that it will regress from the summer blockbuster Oscar bait tones The Dark Knight has and go for more shitty summer blockbuster tones and based on what I’ve seen in some of the later commercials, it looks as if it could go in that direction.  Still, I’m keeping my mind open and hoping for the best.  At the very least I could rant on about this The Dark Knight and am finally able to use this meme. 

            Did that make any sense?  Only if this one proves to be what we all hope for it to be.  So until next time, this is The Illusive One saying….

DESHI! DESHI!

BASARA! BASARA!

DESHI! DESHI!

BASARA! BASARA!

DESHI! DESHI!

BASARA! BASARA!

DESHI! DESHI!

BASARA! BASARA!