'The Dark Knight Rises' Review

Film Grade: A

At last.

The highly anticipated finish to the Dark Knight trilogy is here and expectations have been wildly high.

There are two camps of fans for this film — you’ll either be disappointed or deliriously pleased. Disappointed fans expected a film similar to The Dark Knight, the same clever psychotic scheming seen in Joker and more of the same gripping action. If you’re in that camp, know that this film is different from its predecessor. The Dark Knight Rises is more morally themed and grimly realistic, but in my opinion, one of the best finales to a trilogy … just about ever.

Set eight years after Batman’s last public appearance, Bruce Wayne has gone into a self-inflicted hermitage within his home, out of touch with his business, his friends and himself. Until the juggernaut villain, Bane, appears out of nowhere and threatens Gotham City in a way Joker never did. The nearly three hour film packs punches, heart-gripping lines, moral speculations, several incredible characters and ties up all possible loose ends — with a few twists, in classic Nolan style.

Despite the temptation, I’ll not spoil the film for those who haven’t seen it. But know that this film is nothing short of a cinematic work of art, and being a Nolan film, is invariably well done. The acting especially is impressive, given the fact that eight of the leading actors (Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Morgan Freeman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Anne Hathaway) are Oscar winners or nominees or have some related highly acclaimed film award.

Christian Bale, as always, gave a magnificent performance as Batman, but it was Michael Caine who brought me to tears a few times. Alfred shows in this particular film an enormous amount of heart and depth, being Bruce’s father figure and voice of deep wisdom.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt did a phenomenal job playing the idealistic cop, John Blake. Blake is heroic in his own right because while Gotham crumbled, it would have been easy to “duck his head”, as one character puts it, to get by. But Blake doesn’t just have ideals, he lives by them. Blake at one point faces guns point-blank so others might live. And Nolan doesn’t leave Blake’s character as a mere symbol, he explores Blake’s heart and motives.

Anne Hathaway, by rights, was adequate for Selena Kyle. She had several points where she did a fine job, but sometimes looked as if she were trying too hard to be her Catwoman predecessors, rather than giving her own touch to the character. She did handle herself well with the stunts and worked the catsuit to her advantage.

Tom Hardy is no newcomer for Nolan films; for Inception he was nominated for several Best Supporting Actor awards, and his acting chops, both physically and emotionally, were well cast for the role of Bane. As Bane, Hardy is an intimidating monster, with bone-crushing brawn and a merciless look in his eyes. Yet he has the ability to be as sensitive and emotionally genuine as a romantic lead. The shot where Bane had tears in his eyes was gripping.

As cinematography goes, Nolan outdid himself, and there were few things that bothered me about the film. One was that Bane was hard to understand with his face mask in a few scenes. The running time was unusually long. And while the film was not disturbing like the last one, it was violent.  

Sometimes brutally. Rises is violent in a bone-crunching way, fitting Bane’s form. I don’t condone the violence and neither does Nolan. He doesn’t seem to glorify it, but shows how the violence was a product of Gotham’s disordered people, a result of their inability to hold virtue in high esteem.

In all, I consider Rises  a fantastic film. Those of you who are disappointed, remember that The Dark Knight could not and would not be replicated, or topped in any way on purpose. Nolan, out of respect for Heath Ledger, would not touch any aspect of Joker’s story, nor would he try to create a similar film. He did not want the same kind of action, or the same psychotic villain. He purposely chose Bane to face Batman because he was stark contrast to Joker.

He wanted Rises to finish the series with a more moral touch and symbolic note. To use a line from The Dark Knight, this film was not the movie that audiences wanted. It was the film audiences needed.

Let me explain. Gotham, in a way, represents us viewers. As a general culture, we have lost the ability to recognize real virtue when we see it. Batman symbolizes virtue and he carries out virtuous acts when it’s unfashionable to do so. Batman lives a lie, shouldering Harvey Dent’s crimes so Gotham can have the hero it wanted, some kind of hope. Because in a dark world, there must always be a light to look toward.

Like Gotham, we idolize those who don’t deserve to be that light for us. We idolize celebrities, lying politicians. We eat up whatever they feed us through media, without thinking critically. Yes, we are Gotham. We celebrate Harvey Dents and forget the real heroes quite often — from everyday heroes to the Good Lord himself.

This was the film we needed to see. We need to see a reflection of our world where evil seems to win and virtue is unrecognizable. And we needed to see that good still wins and that heroes still exist, despite it.

That virtue, that black and white picture of good and evil, is clear in this film. Batman refuses to use guns or kill cold-blooded, Catwoman’s ambiguity is shown in its true colors — virtue is still virtue, even when no one believes in it or abides by it. Even when darkness seems to shroud all hope, there is always something to fight for. Heroes sacrifice themselves for the lives around us. That’s why superheroes are so popular. They remind us of virtue, that doing the right thing, even if it costs our lives, is how good wins.

Batman reminds us that we too can be that hero. “Anyone can be a hero. Even a man who put a coat around a young boy's shoulders to let him know the world hasn't ended.”

All My Ladies - The Poison of Comparison

As women, one of the biggest traps we fall into is comparing ourselves to other women. Our wardrobe is never good enough if we look at the girl next door, that girl has more friends than us, she’s in better shape than me — whew! It takes so much energy to keep up with it all!

Comparing poisons our internal self-image and seeps out to our external life. It makes us discontented with ourselves and destroys our relationships. If we aren’t satisfied with who we are or what we already have, everything else looks better.

This is especially detrimental to friendships. We become bitter towards friends and blame them for our insecurities. Needless to say, that friendship becomes unhealthy, it eventually falls apart, and the cycle never ends!

Or does it? How can we stop the poison of comparison? You’ve probably heard the mantra “be the change you wish to see” several times, or at least something like it — but it’s true. To have better relationships with others, you have to start with a healthy relationship with yourself.

Change the way you look at yourself. Focus on the positive qualities you have, gifts and talents you have no one else does. If you can’t see them, spend more time thinking about them, because they’re there. Sure, you’re not perfect, and no one is, but there are beautiful qualities you have that are unique to you.

Next look at the beautiful things going on in your life. Come up with a list of at least 10 things. Recognize that there are more positives than negatives, and if negatives seem to outweigh the positives, remember that your happiness depends on your attitude and how you look at things. Decide today to focus on the good.

Once you realize the beauty within yourself and within your own life, you can look at others and recognize the beauty in theirs — without trying to possess it. You can be genuinely happy for the good in others, while knowing of your own inherent goodness.

If more women see the beauty in themselves before they look at everyone else, friendships would be a safe, drama-free zone to support one another and encourage each other in becoming who we are meant to be as women — beautiful, inside and out.  It all starts with how we look at ourselves.

'The Amazing Spiderman' - Not Quite Amazing

Andrew Garfield in The Amazing Spiderman

Film Grade: B- (B for not a bad film, but seriously, you've got to come up with something better.)

Rewind 10 years back — way back, I know — and that’s when Sam Raimi’s Spiderman first came out. I don’t know about you, but I feel older saying that. Those 10 years flew by, nevertheless, and in movie time, that’s no time at all.

Filmmakers must be desperate for good material, then, because that’s hardly enough time to redo the film so soon — another “nail in the coffin” to their lack of originality, as film critic Leonard Maltin put it.

What’s different about this Spidey story, The Amazing Spiderman? Well, it’s slightly closer to the comic book in that Peter Parker dates Gwen Stacy in high school, instead of Mary Jane. There’s also a new villain.

Otherwise, it’s the same fill-in-the-formula superhero flick — Peter gets bit by a spider, becomes Spiderman, power and responsibility, etc. The trailer looked like it would explore more of Petey’s past; and while the film certainly hinted a direction, especially with the disappearance of his parents, it largely left it unexplored without tying in the loose ends.

As actors go, Andrew Garfield and Martin Sheen fit their parts especially, giving depth, sensitivity and quirks to their characters. Andrew Garfield is a less dorky Peter Parker than Tobey Maguire’s, but more perfectly captures the real teen struggles, in a kind of chagrined, nervous, and yet charming fashion. He is motivated to do good because he desires justice; he respects authority but still defies it; he knows in his head what’s right to do, but struggles ordering his heart to do it. All very relatable qualities that Garfield has no trouble making us believe in.

Emma Stone too adds a fresh face to the franchise, exuding confidence yet vulnerability. The film, however, leaves her skills without much breathing space and her character unexplored for the most part. Most of the film’s meat is focused on the romance between her character, Gwen Stacy, and Peter, providing all of the heart and humor. But its passion, while having the potential to lead to deeper themes, leaves it at just mostly passion.

The best quality of the film, undoubtedly, is Spiderman’s tale of using the gifts one is given for common good. It's a lesson we should all be reminded of from time to time. Uncle Ben, like in the first Spidey film, reiterates it saying, “We have a responsibility to (do good) if we have the power to do it.”

I guess, going into the movie, I was expecting a reason as to why they remade it, some drastic change or updating of the franchise, like Christopher Nolan did with Batman. I was as little disappointed then, that besides giving Parker the proper girlfriend per the comics, it didn’t look or feel any different. It’s certainly not a bad film; it’s just that we’ve seen the story told the same way before, with different actors.

To compare superhero franchises, Christopher Nolan reinvented the character of Batman, exploring philosophical questions and the deeper recesses of the human heart. Nolan treats the character of Bruce Wayne almost with reverence, as Wayne symbolizes virtue, and living out virtue when no one else believes in it — a far cry from Tim Burton’s Batman. In this film, director Marc Webb could have taken similar artistic rein — but merely recreates the same formula of his predecessor, lacking both creativity and a unique stamp of his own to put to the franchise.

Still, it’s worth a watch simply because Spiderman himself is a timeless hero. We relate to him, as he was a normal guy with normal struggles. That essence in this film — a normal guy living a heroic life —doesn’t fail to inspire.