The Dark Knight

Every comic-book superhero has to have a great villain, and in Batman's case, he has a great Rogue's Gallery of villains to pick from: Ra's Al Ghul, The Penguin, Catwoman, Hugo Strange, The Riddler, Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, Two-Face, Scarecrow, Bane and Batman's most infamous rival, The Joker. The Joker was first portrayed by Cesar Romero in the 1960s live-action television series. In Tim Burton's Batman, The Joker was portrayed by Jack Nicholson who turned in a very maniacal performance which was very memorable. In the cartoon series in the 90s, The Joker was voiced by Mark Hamill. The Joker would eventually take to the big screen again in Christopher Nolan's sequel to Batman Begins, The Dark Knight.

The film opens during a robbery at a mob bank in which the mysterious culprit known only as The Joker(Heath Ledger) steals from the most notorious mobsters in Gotham City. Hours later, at a meeting between the Russian mafia leader and The Scarecrow(Cillian Murphy), Batman/Bruce Wayne(Christian Bale)shows up and apprehends not only Scarecrow, but a handful of copycats. Later we cut to a hearing in which Gotham City's new District Attorney, Harvey Dent(Aaron Eckhart)and Rachel Dawes(Maggie Gyllenhall, taking over for Katie Holmes)are attempting to put Salvatore Moroni(Eric Roberts)behind bars. Then, The Joker shows up again and people start dying left and right.

Much has been said of Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker. There's not much more I can say, other than he steals the show whenever he's on screen. Ledger just disappears into the role like no-one else. Make no mistake, Christopher Nolan's take on The Joker is a far more sinister character than Tim Burton's. Tim Burton's version was more of a manic kind of character. In The Dark Knight, The Joker is intelligent, brutal and merciless, all with a sadistic and twisted sense of humor. His complete lack of regard for human life makes him a far more vicious villain than Batman has come across before. The Dark Knight is darker and more violent than its predecessor and makes for more heightened drama, especially when Harvey Dent gets directly involved. Aaron Eckhart is absolutely incredible as Gotham's white knight. Michael Caine is in top form as Alfred as is Gary Oldman as Gordon and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox. Christian Bale is stellar as always and his physicality brings an intensity to the role. If there is one weak link in The Dark Knight, it would be Maggie Gyllenhall as Rachel Dawes. Now, Rachel Dawes was never a really strong character to begin with, as she served as a love interest to Bruce Wayne, but Gyllenhall just doesn't sell it at all. Katie Holmes, I felt was a better fit. The action scenes have been stepped up. In the previous film, it was difficult to tell what was happening because the camera was too close to the action. Here, we can actually see what's going on, and it's brutal. The Dark Knight still uses the unique Keysi Fighting method introduced in the first film, but it's much more refined here. Each subsequent action scene just keeps building until the final confrontation between Batman and The Joker. Hell, there's a scene in which The Joker blows up a hospital. Christopher Nolan actually leveled a building for that shot. It's spectacular. Aaron Eckhart's transformation from Dent to Two-Face is fairly complex. His character gets half-his face burned off as a result of an explosion, and the results are grotesque. The burned half of his face is CGI, but it's very detailed. Some people have had issues with Dent becoming Two-Face so late in the game, but I think it fits in with the theme with that even the greatest person can be torn down. But I have to hand it to Eckhart for selling the character so well.

The Dark Knight takes what was awesome about Batman Begins and turns it up several notches. The performances are stellar all across the board, with Heath Ledger stealing the show. He was so awesome, that he was posthumously awarded the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. It's tragic that his life was cut short before The Dark Knight was finished, but I think he would be proud of how well The Dark Knight was received. The Dark Knight is currently regarded as one of the best comic-book movies ever made and Heath Ledger and Christopher Nolan helped make it so. Despite some niggling issues with the film, it gets a very enthusiastic 10/10 from me. It tops Batman Begins in every way and then some.

Batman Begins

After the utter disaster that was Batman And Robin, the future of the Dark Knight was in doubt. Joel Schumaker was actually asked to do another Batman film when he declined. The problem with Batman And Robin was that it was completely the wrong tone for the character. Batman is a very dark character with an extremely scarred psyche and Batman And Robin, basically jettisoned that in favor of a more "family-friendly" affair. It wound up being nothing more than an over glorified toy commercial. Also: Nipples on the batsuit. What the hell, Warner Bros? Several years later, Warner Bros decided to try again, except they were going to reboot the franchise. For this, they brought Christopher Nolan on board along with writer David S. Goyer. For the lead character of Batman, they chose Christian Bale, and the result speak for themselves.

Batman Begins as Bruce Wayne(Christian Bale)wakes up in a Chinese prison when he's visited by a man named Ducard(Liam Neeson) who offers Wayne a path: The path of the League of Shadows, headed by a ruthless warrior named Ra's Al Ghul(Ken Watanabe). Trained in the ways of the ninja, Wayne realizes that the League of Shadow's ultimate goal is to destroy Gotham City, so he escapes the organization. After Wayne escapes, he realizes that only by becoming a symbol of fear can he save the people of Gotham from the criminal element. Thus he begins the real journey to become Gotham's greatest hero.

After Batman And Robin, the future of the franchise was very much in doubt, so Warner Bros. brought Christopher Nolan on board and gave Batman a much-needed shot in the arm. And what a shot it was. Gone, are the neon lights of the Schumaker films. Gone, are campiness of the previous films. In their place, a dark, realistic and gritty portrayal of Batman now exists. By showing the murder of Bruce's parents through flashbacks, we are given an insight into Bruce Wayne's damaged psyche. Angered by his helplessness and the corruption of the city that his parents tried to help, Bruce decided it was time to turn fear against those who prey on the fearful. By giving Batman a more modern and utilitarian look, Batman Begins sees Bruce Wayne evolve from playboy billionaire to the Caped Crusader. Instead of a flashy Batmobile that we got in Tim Burton's films, we get: The Tumbler, which is more or less, a tank. A tank that can fly on rooftops. And it's spectacular. The car chases are intense and move at a real good clip. The action scenes are amazing. Utilizing the new Keysi Fighting Method, Batman Begins brings a more realistic fighting style to the series. You don't see flashy loop-kicks or backflips or any of that junk, What we've got here is grounded in reality-based hand-to-hand combat. It's spectacular in a completely unexpected way.

As far as the acting goes, Batman Begins has real ensemble cast. Christian Bale leads as Bruce Wayne/Batman. Michael Caine is wonderful as the butler, Alfred Pennyworth. He brings a very human and father-like quality to the role. Liam Neeson is well.....Liam Neeson. What can I say about Neeson? This guy is one of my favorite actors for a reason, and his role in Batman Begins is one of those reasons. He starts off as a potential ally for Wayne. But as the movie progresses, you see Liam Neeson's character truly become the villain. Cillian Murphy was an interesting choice to play Dr. Crane/Scarecrow. He's very thin, but he gives the character a very sleazy and menacing presence to the film. Tom Wilkinson plays the mobster, Carmine Falcone, a real piece of work. Katie Holmes plays Bruce Wayne's love interest, Assistant District Attorney Rachel Dawes. Gary Oldman is a revelation as Sgt. James Gordon. The acting is definitely one of the best parts of the film. The music is handled by legendary composers Hans Zimmer and James Newton-Howard. It's a very powerful and heavy hitting soundtrack that really gets the adrenaline pumping.

While I'm definitely singing the praises of Batman Begins, the movie has one noticeable drawback. The fight scenes. While expertly choreographed and brutal, you can barely see what's going on, because the camera is either too close to the action, or is zoomed way in. Either way, it kinda takes you out of the experience if you can't see what's going on. Overall, though, Batman Begins is everything I hoped it would be and then some. The film has set the franchise back on track. And because it did so well critically and at the box office, two more films were commissioned, although, if I remember correctly, this new series was envisioned as a trilogy. Batman Begins was released to critical acclaim in 2005. In 2008, the first sequel to Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, was released. And recently the final film in the trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises was released on July 20. Batman has such a huge following and is one of the most popular comic-book characters in history, despite some missteps. Batman Begins gets a 9.5/10.

The Dark Knight Rises

Batman was created by Bob Kane and was first published by Detective Comics(DC Comics, effectively known afterwards)in 1939. It featured a protagonist that had no superpowers, but a wide assortment of gadgets. The protagonist wore a cape and cowl modeled after a bat. Bruce Wayne, the man who became Batman, was scarred for life when he witnessed the murder of his parents at an early age. Batman has been featured not only in comics, but in TV shows, including the campy 1960s series starring Adam West and Burt Ward. Then in 1989, Batman was reintroduced to audiences by Tim Burton, with the lead character of Bruce Wayne/Batman played by Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson as The Joker. The film was an immediate blockbuster, featuring dark and gothic undertones as befitting a Tim Burton film. Tim Burton would direct the sequel, Batman Returns which featured new villains, such as The Penguin(Danny DeVito) and Selina Kyle/Catwoman(Michelle Pfeifer). The sequel was also a success, but wasn't as widely accepted as the first film. A second sequel, Batman Forever, would see Val Kilmer in the title role and featured The Riddler and Two-Face as the main villains. Directed by Joel Schumaker, Batman Forever was more campy and featured more neon lights than the previous films. The third sequel, Batman and Robin would again see Batman recast. George Clooney stepped into the role. Unfortunately, Batman and Robin was nothing more than a glorified toy commercial. It was a spectacular failure at the box office and threatened any possible future films. In 2005, Batman would again return to the screen, but with fresh talent. Christopher Nolan of Momento and Insomnia would direct the film with Christian Bale in the lead. Featuring the talents of Liam Neeson, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy, and Morgan Freeman, Batman Begins threw all doubts out the window with a far more realistic and grittier take on the character and the City of Gotham. It wound up being a real money-maker and a sequel was commissioned. Christopher Nolan would again take the reigns and Bale would return. Darker and more violent than the first film, The Dark Knight upped the stakes, not just for the people of Gotham, but Batman himself when The Joker(Heath Ledger)comes knocking. Released in 2008, The Dark Knight was heralded as one of the best comic-book movies of all-time and rightly so, with great performances, particularly by the late Heath Ledger. Originally imagined as a trilogy, Nolan's films would culminate with a very spectacular final film, which takes things to a whole new level.

8 years have passed since the events of The Dark Knight. Batman, accused of the murder of Gotham's shining knight, Harvey Dent, has disappeared along with Bruce Wayne himself. The years have not been kind. Bruce Wayne is a broken man, in more ways than one. Forced to use a cane to help walk around, the years of being the caped crusader have taken their toll on Wayne, physically and emotionally. He remains a recluse until a beautiful cat burglar, Selina Kyle(Anne Hathaway) infiltrates his mansion and steals his mother's pearl necklace. Faced with running out of money, Bruce Wayne finds himself pulled back into the world of crime when a mysterious and demented terrorist, Bane(Tom Hardy), arrives in Gotham to wreak havoc.

Batman has always had his fair share of memorable villains. In Batman Begins, he faced off against Ra's Al Ghul(Liam Neeson, who makes a cameo appearance in Dark Knight Rises)and Scarecrow(Cillian Murphy). In The Dark Knight, we had The Joker, who was much more of a terrorist than a clown like Nicholson's character was. Heath Ledger's performance was unbelievable awesome. He was psychotic and demonic and strangely funny at the same time. Now, in The Dark Knight, the real villain shows up in the form of Bane, played to perfection by Tom Hardy who really bulked up for this film. Bane isn't a psychopath the way that The Joker was, but instead of the lumbering dumbass that we saw in Batman And Robin, Hardy's character is not only physically overpowering, but extremely intelligent and patient. It isn't before long before he takes complete control of Gotham, in one of the most spectacular and explosive sequences in the trilogy. I mentioned that Bane was physically overpowering. This is extremely evident when he and Batman clash for the first time. It's an incredible one-sided fight, considering how long Batman's been out of action. The other "villain" is Catwoman, played by the beautiful Anne Hathaway. Unlike Michelle Pfeifer's femme fatale character, Anne Hathaway's character is more of a survivor than a true villain and a real foil for Batman. The stakes in The Dark Knight Rises are upped to nth degree, as Batman is in serious jeopardy, as is the entire city. One of the new characters, Detective Blake is played by Joseph Gordon-Leavitt, who does an amazing job. But one of the most effective performances comes from Michael Caine, who plays Alfred. I'll just say: Wow, this is the best I've seen from Caine in many years. Christian Bale really ups his game as a beaten-down Bruce Wayne who's faced with more uncertainty than he's ever faced before in his life, financially, physically and psychologically.

The Dark Knight Rises is the darkest and most violent of the trilogy. This is never more evident than in Batman's first confrontation with Bane, as I've said before. Not only that, there are casualties on all sides, but the ones who get stuck in the middle are the people of Gotham who are held hostage by one of the most vicious villains that Batman has encountered. Christopher Nolan has always had an eye for detail and realism in his Batman films, but he never forgets where the character came from. He also adds some nods to Batman Begins with a cameo from Liam Neeson as Ra's Al Ghul. There are twists and turns in the story that are far from predictable. The resolution to the film is very well done and ties up the trilogy with a neat little bow. The Dark Knight Rises is quite possibly the best comic-book movie this year. I loved The Avengers, but The Dark Knight Rises is a completely different beast and is more centralized. It's hard for me to say that Dark Knight Rises is better than the previous film, because honestly, in terms of quality, they're about the same. But I do think that Tom Hardy's Bane is far more of a menace than The Joker, mainly because Bane is cold and calculating and doesn't just....do things like The Joker. As far as comic-book movies go, The Dark Knight Rises is one of the better ones. It also does a good job at tying up loose ends.

Overall, The Dark Knight Rises gets a 10/10 from me. It's awesome in every way. The word is, is that Warner Bros wants to reboot the franchise again, since Dark Knight Rises is the last Batman film for both Christopher Nolan AND Christian Bale. I don't see it happening for quite a while, because Nolan's films have some serious staying power.

On a much more serious note: In Aurora, Colorado during a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises, a gunman entered a movie theater and opened fire on an audience, killing 12 people, including a 6-year old girl and injuring many others. It's one of the worst mass killings that the United States has seen in recent history, so I would like to extend my prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of this heinous crime, and I would urge others to do the same.