Maybe I need to see TDKR again?...

There will be spoilers...

Filling cinema seats by the thousand up and down the UK, The Dark Knight Rises opened on Friday.  After lots of scheduling clashes, and rearranging, I managed to be one of the faithful who went along on the opening day.

My wife and I had watched Batman Begins a few nights before, during which she made a great point.  It's the first time we see on screen what goes into making Batman so kick ass.  I get that's the point of an 'origins' film, but in all the other films Bruce Wayne just puts on a Bat Suit and takes on a slightly super human quality.  In Batman Begins, we see what goes into it, and it makes it more believable once the suit goes on.

Then we were treated to The Dark Knight.  I will very shortly be watching it again, as it sits waiting in my iTunes library.  As action films go, it's a corker, and Heath Ledger's performance has ensured The Dark Knight's place as a timeless classic.  The kind of film that I will sit down and watch 20 years from now and enjoy just as much (a great example of this I watched just last night in Aliens).

So then we have TDKR:

What a mouth watering prospect.  Bane, Batman and closure.  3 things that were, in my opinion, heavily touted by all involved.  That rare thing, a compelling and well told story, allowed to run it's course and then end.  All things pointed to modern day greatness in the making.

I left the film on Friday, and for a good hour I felt frustrated and disappointed.  My wife and I spoke at length about the ending, which she loved, and I tried to reconcile my differences with it.  I will undoubtedly see the film again at the cinema, in a final attempt.  I didn't know quite what to expect from the ending, but whatever it was, I didn't get it.

You know how for some films, when they release the DVD or Blu-Ray, they include alternate endings?  Well I think in a bid to save everyone's time from having to watch several different endings to TDKR, they just cut them all together.  First Batman/Bruce Wayne dies, then he doesn't.  Then Gotham is saved, but wait, let's hand over the mantle of protector to someone else just in case (which in itself ruins the whole closure aspect).  Then you have the scene in the café...

Whilst TDKR is a great film, it's not the triumphant sign off I was hoping for.

Marvel unveils upcoming line up....

Now that Comic Con has now finished, and I'm able to pull myself away from my Twitter feed for longer than 30 minutes, it's time to see what SDCC has served up for us.

All of my attention was, without doubt, focused on what Marvel brought to the table.  To be expected, Robert Downey Jr. made waves during the Iron Man 3 panel.  From what I have read and seen, there was a beautifully orchestrated piece of theatre.  With Downey Jr. making a typically Stark-esque entrance, before making the introduction to the show reel.  Complete with Iron Man hand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra_jGGe9BHg

So as well as looking forward to the show reel footage making it's way into the public domain over the coming months, Marvel has unveiled a power house line up for the next 2 years.  With some titles we knew about, and some rumoured titles being confirmed:

Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor we knew were on the way, with shooting having started on the later 2 already.  Whilst Ant Man has very much been unveiled, with Edgar Wright showing his test reel, Marvel studios have only said it will happen, rather than when.  Guardians of the Galaxy is the much rumoured title that has been confirmed and given a release date.  Whilst Marvel is no stranger to the more mystical side of it's comic book universe on the big screen with the outing of Thor (I also can't wait to see how they tackle The Mandarin), I think The Guardians of the Galaxy presents an altogether different challenge.  I don't think the subject matter will lend itself to the more classical feel of Branagh's Thor.  So far, no details about who is involved have surfaced.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

I remain most excited about Iron Man 3, and only hope that they go all out with the Extremis story arc.  Although I'm not ready to see the back of Downey Jr. and Tony Stark, so let's hope they don't leave it too long before announcing a sequel to Avengers Assemble.

Red Lights not lighting the way...

Red Lights, a film that I found at least enjoyable, even though it never quite decided what it wanted to be.

**Spoilers Ahead**

To begin with you are introduced to Sigourney Weaver's 'Dr. Matheson', and Cillian Murphy's 'Dr. Buckley' (add in Robert De Niro, and Ashley Olsen, and you have a good enough reason to give this film the time of day).  The two are scientists investigating and debunking apparent paranormal occurrences.  At the point where we are told about the concept of 'Red Lights' by Dr. Matheson, I'm enjoying the film.  Red Lights are the tell tale signs that the paranormal is in fact normal, and we're just having the wool pulled over our eyes.  In the context of the film, the characters are sat outside a clairvoyant event looking for the people planted in the crowd, gathering information that can be used to convince them later that the person in front of them is able to read minds and talk to the dead.

At this stage De Niro's character is introduced, Simon Silver is a man who has lost his sight, but gained psychic powers.  And as both Sigourney's and Cillian's characters have history when it comes to being upset by people claiming to have some sort of psychic powers, they both undoubtedly want to see Silver exposed for the fraud he is (Matheson's history involves a son who is on a life support machine that she refuses to turn off as she doesn't believe in an afterlife.  Remember this for later, it's important).  Matheson is reluctant as she knows the dangers of going up against Silver, Buckley disregards this and just goes in all guns blazing....so far, still enjoying the film.

Matheson then dies, and as Buckley's attempts to uncover Silver as a fraud get more desperate, all kinds of weird goings on occur.  I'm suspending my skepticism as the sudden increase in 'unexplained goings on' is inline with Buckley's deteriorating mental state.

Then in an attempt to pull a Sixth Sense style cat out of the bag, the wheels fall off.  Whilst Sliver is exposed as a fraud (owing to the fact he can see), it turns our Buckley is the one with powers.  He being the cause of all the weirdness.  He knew this all along.  That for me is the nail in the coffin.  Knowing the situation with Matheson and her son, yet still keeping his mouth shut about the actual existence of some kind of paranormal just didn't sit well with me. 

In my opinion, Matheson should have also slipped into a coma, and the end scene of Buckley turning off the son's life support should have included Matheson as well.

The film started with great potential, but lost it's way with the ending.  Great performances from those involved make it worth the watch none the less.

Can Spiderman change my mind about reboots?

First things first.  Garfield is a great Peter Parker.  His cool edge gives him a more modern, up to date, geek factor.  The scene where Peter stands up to Flash is particularly important when it comes to highlighting this new side of Peter Parker.  Although the dynamic between the students is altogether different, as a later scene with Flash underlines shortly after the death of Uncle Ben.  Also Garfield embodies the wittier side of Peter that Maguire never really brought to the screen, the scene with the car thief the most notable example.  One thing that Garfield was behind the curve on was the 'Hero's Struggle'.  The inner turmoil was ever present throughout the first Spiderman films.  And even though you get a healthy slice of 'with great power comes great responsibility' from Martin Sheen's Uncle Ben, you don't really connect with Peter's turmoil through Garfield until the end scenes with Gwen after Peter has made his promise to her father.

There is an undeniable chemistry between Stone and Garfield.  Whilst they leave it open for the addition of MJ in future films (although that would make a mess of the Spiderman timeline, though we'll ignore that for now), I'm at this point more interested in seeing Gwen and Peter reunited.

I found it a bit too much towards the end of the film, the injection of patriotism when the workers align the cranes for Spiderman.  The camera pans over the worker's shoulder and the shot settles on the image of an American Flag against the side of a building.  The sentimentality of the scene was almost too much to bear.  The father of a boy saved earlier, just happening to be a crane operator who can repay Spiderman's kind act in his hour of need.  On it's own, I could have dealt with it, with the forced inclusion of the flag shot, too much.

Overall Spiderman was a thoroughly enjoyable film.  What started as cynicism, gradually gave way to mild excitement as the film got closer to release.  Now having watched the film, I eagerly await to see where this franchise will go.

Let the rumours about Spiderman's next adversary begin...

The return of The Law

Thursday saw the release of the first full length trailer of the upcoming reboot of Judge Dredd, titled 'Dredd'.  If you haven't watched it yet, catch it below:

http://youtu.be/PifvRiHVSCY?hd=1

Firstly, and most importantly, there's no sign of Dredd removing his helmet.  Beyond that, I think that this is looking impressive, and has the chance of being a surprise hit this year.  Gone is the cheesy, vibrance, and neon of the '95 version.  Replaced by a gritty, near future realism.
The uniform/body armour looks functional, having taken it's toned down cues from what was achieved in Captain America.  With regards to the helmet, and the thinking that it is too big, I think it looks fine and the outfit overall is just right.

Lena Headey is looking particularly bad ass, and complete with facial scars as Ma-Ma.  Striking just the right balance of sex appeal and villainy.

It also appears as though the 'Lawgiver', complete with user selectable ammunition remains in some form.  We see bullets for the most part, but a rather spectacular shot of what looks like some kind of cluster missile which I'm sure will result in the demise of a great many bad guys.

The story won't set the world on fire, the plot is going to be pretty straight forward.  Trapped in a city block, 2 Judges against a multitude of bad guys, fight their way to freedom/victory.  Similar to the recent The Raid.  You could argue that it leaves little in the way of twists, but for me I just want it to be a strong first outing, and a set up for more Dredd films to come.

And would it be complete without the muttering of those immortal words...

'I am The Law'  (check it out @ 2:01)

The Man of Steel returns...

We're drawing ever closer to the return of The Man of Steel to return to our screens.  In the aptly named 'Man of Steel', being brought to us by Zack Snyder a year from now in June 2013.

Zack has been responsible for 300 and Sucker Punch, both of which have their own unique visual styling.  It remains to be seen how much this influences the stylings of The Man of Steel, but I for one think it will only be a good thing when breathing new life back into the Superman franchise.  We've already seen what may be considered a modern day re-imagining of Superman, thanks to Bryan Singer's Superman Returns in 2006.  So Zack will definitely need to bring something new to the table with his Man of Steel.  One sure fire way of doing this will be through his casting, which so far looks to be spot on for a more edgy and less clean cut vision of The Man of Steel.

For starters you have Henry Cavill as The Man of Steel himself:

For those not familiar with Henry, he has been most recently (and most notably in my opinion) on our screens as Theseus in Immortals.  If you haven't seen Immortals, I would recommend it.  I can understand how Cavill would have gotten onto Snyder's radar as a result.  Heavily inspired by 300, Immortals is visually more vibrant but with less teeth, and much less shouting.  In short, it's everything that Wrath of the Titans wishes it could have been, and in it Henry Cavill does a great job of being a humble chap who doesn't want any trouble with a dash of ultimate bad ass thrown in.  With the added bonus being that he can actually act!

Then we have Amy Adams (brilliant in The Fighter) as love interest and leading lady, Lois Lane.  A stella parentage in the form of Kevin Costner and Diane Lane, as John and Martha Kent.  Then to add some the rough and ready edge you have Russell Crowe weighing in as Jor-el Father of The Man of Steel himself.

To add to this, we have General Zod making a return as the villain.  An excellent character first portrayed by Terrence Stamp.  I hope in the Man of Steel he remains as pompous and arrogant under the guise of Michael Shannon.  Even better if he is still flanked by Non, although I have seen no mention of him as yet in any cast list.  And whilst this would be a welcome stroll down memory lane, modern day audiences don't seem to take to well to that type of monosyllabic, dim witted character type anymore.

Needless to say, the combination of Zack Snyder's unique visual style, and a quality cast list.  I'm really looking forward to seeing the results come June 2013.

The saviour of DC?

As we draw closer to the release of The Dark Knight Rises, speculation increases as to where Christopher Nolan will go after this.

There has been lots to say that whilst he will not be at the helm of any further Batman films, he will help produce future Batman reboots.  The current trend for reboots is something that I'm finding myself increasingly at odds with.  Take the recent 'reboot' of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.  

I'm a big fan of the 2011 film, the book, and of David Fincher.  The problem being it's critical reception due to it's proximity to the original, had a damaging effect on it's box office performance.  This in turn has put a dampener on the subsequent sequels, in particular the turning off of Fincher.  Who has pretty much categorically ruled out a return to the chair for the remainder of the films.  The current news being that both sequels are due to be filmed back to back (starting in the autumn), for release in 2013.  I'm not holding my breath.

Back to Nolan.

I'm reading lots about plans for Nolan to be the saviour of the remainder of DC Comics character stable.  Most notably with a reboot of The Green Lantern (hence my earlier comment about reboots).  I'm not hugely opposed to a Green Lantern reboot, as the Ryan Reynolds outing was particularly awful, and as a character The Green Lantern deserves better.

What concerns me more is the possibility of Nolan getting caught in a black hole of comic book adaptations (which wouldn't be the end of the world, as I love comic book movies), ultimately detracting from other projects.  Nolan has the midas touch, and I love the variety and quality of his films.

One door that this does potentially open though, and one that is currently a hot topic out there, is the Justice League being brought to the big screen.

This I would love to see...