The Dark Knight Rises

I believe that writing a movie review is tougher than writing news articles. The reason is quite simple; while the latter is based on facts and inferences, the former is based on perception which virtually is unique to everybody.

Movie is like an art, most flock to see it, some bother to decipher it, even lesser understands it and only a handful have knowledge of it. That’s why the Scorsese, Tarantino, Ritchie, Nolan are one of the rare found species of the movie world.

Coming to the point, The Dark Knights rises is the best befitting ending a movie has ever got. I am not saying “could” because I haven’t seen the future. The 164 mins of runtime seems less and you end up wanting for more. Some may find it a bit slow paced but as earlier mentioned, depends on what do you expect and want of a movie.

Technical Part: Every single frame is watermarked with the name “Christopher Nolan” over it. Nolan has proved his mettle in directing right from Memento till date, so for that part I would say just go and enjoy the delicacy he has to offer. But it’s the screenplay that leaves you gasping in awe. Undoubtedly the best Nolan has ever written.

Cinematography is again handled by the genius Wally Pfister. If “who?” pops in your mind go to IMDB and search his name and when you will see the list of movies like Memento, Italian Job, Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight, Inception, Moneyball in his name, you may question yourself; is it by any chance possible that this man has 360 degree viewing angle?; because in this very part, the detailing in every frame is so vivid you come to believe that Yes, Gotham is somewhere in this world and not a fantasy.

For editing I would just say go and figure out, say, 10 mistakes if you may (yes just like in the kids section of newspapers). Believe me it will turn out to be one of the hardest jobs you ever picked up!

The actors may pull of their parts, the director may build an aura of his own and a cinematograph may take you to a world you have never seen before, but story is the one and only one thing that differentiates a great movie from a good movie. That is why I rate this as one of all-time greats. Every loose end gets tied up till the very end and you get answers to all of the questions that popped in your mind from the very first part.

Performances, Comparisons and Character Sketches:

Bane: Even before watching the movie, I was sure that Tom Hardy would justify his presence; he gave me so much confidence in him from “Warrior”. I can see/hear lot of people comparing Bane with Joker. While I agree that Bane doesn’t gives you chills and frills as the Joker did, but I think the comparison is wrong since both these characters are set poles apart. While Joker was an agent of chaos and randomness, Bane is all about destruction and discipline. Actually he pulls off from where Joker left. For a city already once marred by a psychopath and no Batman for quite a few years, Bane comes as a Tsunami. He quickly takes on your nerve and his brutality is so cold that you begin to hate him so much so that in the climax, you can see and hear the theatre thundering in applause.

Catwoman/ Selina K: I have to admit that I have not been a much fan of Anne Hathaway (although I have watched all her movies that too because she is so beautiful :P). The reason is her inconsistency, whether be the choices she made in doing the movies or her acting. Focusing on the character she plays in TDKR, it is a very layered one and she pulls it off just right. No more, no less, just perfect. I won’t comment on how beautiful she looks in every single frame because that would take me in to the pervert category but I would say right from the action sequences to where she has to play by her eyes, she takes you in her grip so firmly, you won’t let your eyes off her.

Gordon/ Blake / Alfred/ Fox/ Miranda: The Dark Knight Rises only because of these characters, period. You have to see the movie to understand what I am saying.

Batman/Bruce Wayne: He isn’t afraid, he is angry!

Christian Bale has always scored a home run right from the “American Psycho”, his first movie that I ever watched. He took me again by surprise in “The Machinist” losing 40 kg’s for a role and then came the Batman trilogy. Talking about TDKR, you can see that a superhero is still human. All these years of fighting war has taken a toll on him, the pain and frustration of failed love and wrong indict that Bale carries on his face is marvelous, but the moment he wears his cape, he is again the Batman, fighting evil the best he can and yes, You believe him. It won’t be wrong if I say that his movie is only and only for and by the Batman and his Rise. And believe my when I say when he rises; he doesn’t rises in style, in fact he rises against all odds.

Just don’t go watch it, Savor it again and again!

Avengers AKA IronMan and the SideKicks!

Good things first. Only director Joss Whedon can click so many superheroes in a single frame, period! Mind it when I say, “Superheroes”, if it would be about the number of characters clicking in a single frame than I would rather say Martin Scorsese (and that’s hell good of a thing for Joss to be compared with the latter).

I am not quite a big fan of WWE and Marvel when it comes to movie making, but this one is far better than what these two had to offer ever, especially in terms of script and dialogues. The punches can never be more hilarious and aptly sarcastic as they have been woven in this film.

The cinematography and action sequences are in league with Transformer series and you enjoy every bit of it. However, the aliens and their ships don’t leave you gasping in awe as they did in the Transformer series and I felt that they were a bit too fragile in breaking up and tearing down!

Now Comes to the Critic Part:

This film is highly, HIGHLY over-rated. If there would be a superlative for “highly” I would’ve used that. The current IMDB rating is 9.0 from I believe 21 thousand kids alone.  Because 9.0, whatever be the genre, makes the movie stand at par with Shawshank, Godfather, Good Will Hunting which it is not and no mature movie viewer would  ever believe that.

The first half is too long. I could literally hear people chatting around just because the narrative was not catchy enough if not boring. Since the viewer knew almost nothing about  Black Widow and Hawkeye, some sequences were just built up to give some form to their character, but even after that they ended up nothing more than a side kick. Same goes for Thor and (worthless) Captain America. Even Iron Man takes every possible dig on him and on his lesser knowledge of the “New” world if not for a less IQ.

Only One character takes almost all of the loaf, and that is Iron Man. With best punching lines, maximum on-screen time and a fair role in climax leave every other character except the Hulk look like a sidekick, and I’m not saying Hulk as a sidekick because he has the minimum time on-screen but has the maximum impact and even the “hero” Iron Man compared him to an army in one of the scenes with Loki (the villain).

One more thing that I want to mention is the cheap tactics that is being used by Hollywood is to gain the viewership of Indian audience by mentioning India’s name or show a scene or two of this “Exotic” country. I mean the scene where Hulk is seen residing in India is not more than 30 sec long comprising a Hindi dialogue is nothing more than cheap publicity. Also at the end of the movie, we can see graffiti “Nayak” on some wall with Iron Man’s pic on it, lauding the superhero. I mean what needs to be questioned is that why in the whole world such a graffiti would be made in our country when the aliens attack only New York this time and not even the whole of America(like every other superhero movie).

Conclusion: Avengers is a good movie in its own genre. Go and enjoy with a popcorn and cola and you will laugh every now and then as the punches are nicely placed and well timed in the movie, just do not expect a masterpiece like Dark Knight or anything. The movie is a real entertained and I would give it a cool 7.5/10.