Episode XI

MOVIE REVIEWS

It's been a while since my last blog entry. Whether it was writer's block. Or Life, just getting in the way, I am back.  I recently saw two movies that I feel need additional comments. And those are The Amazing Spider-Man and The Dark Knight Rises.

First, let me say I've only watched them once -- and if you haven't seen them yet STOP READING NOW. This post will contain spoilers!

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN

I'll start with the one that I was the most disappointed in. 

First of all, I thought it was too soon to reboot this franchise.  Sure the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man had done well in the first two films, but after it's lackluster third film I thought that was the last we'd see of our Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man. But alas, here we are five years later, and a new actor steps into the red and blue webbed suit. 

Here is the synopsis that IMDB gives for this newest incantation: Peter Parker finds a clue that might help him understand why his parents disappeared when he was young. His path puts him on a collision course with Dr. Curt Connors, his father's former partner.

From that, and the few sneak peaks that I'd scene online, I was hopeful for a true origin story. Yet there we were, an hour into the movie and Peter Parker already had revealed his identity to the girl of his dreams. He'd also, as Spider-Man, managed to gain the ire of said girl's father (played well by Dennis Leary). who was also the police chief. And had amazingly discovered the key to Dr. Conner's research into genetic manipulation. 

So much for any hopes of an origin story. The 2002 version, I feel did a much better job at establishing Peter as Spider-Man. Sure the Andrew Garfield Spider-Man had a musical montage of him learning his abilities, I feel Tobey's version told Spidey's beginnings much better. Andrew's just felt rushed. Rather, everything in this movie felt rushed.

Then the action began. I applaud this movie for having Spidey do all the stunts. No CGI Spidey, as they did with Tobey. But after that it was all campy movie work in the fight scenes. Especially in the end when Spidey fights the Lizard form of Dr. Conner. It just looked, well, terrible. Instead of having a multi-million dollar effect, we got a B movie look, as Spidey got tossed around by this giant Lizard. Surely make-up artists could have made a real human being look lizard like. And not resort to a campy interaction between man and machine.

Finally, in the end for no reason at all, the cop father dies. Why?! There was absolutely no need for it. At least, not in the first movie. I'm sure in the comic books her father dies, but was it necessary here? No. There was not a lot of connection made between the character's for this to happen. And to make it even worse, the father tells Peter to not get Gwen involved. Um, Ok! I'll get right on that! 

And so the movie ends with Dr. Conner in prison, and Gwen and Peter are ... separated? If you stuck around for the end of the movie then you go to see Dr. Conner talking to someone in his prison cell. My guess is Green Goblin. With the story supposedly focusing on the death's of Peter's parents, I can only assume that the next movie will involved further members of the Sinister Six.  

Overall I thought the movie lacked the marvel (haha, get it) that Tobey Maguire and Co. brought to the table. It was campy at best and needed a better story to explore the death of Peter's parents. This is NOT a movie that I will be adding to my collection any time soon.

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES 

I may be prejudice here, because I'm a Batman fan, but I really enjoyed this movie. Albeit, I wasn't wowed by it like I was with Batman Begins or Dark Knight, but this one was pretty good (definitely better than the aforementioned Spider-Man movie). 

This one completed the circle that had started in Batman Begins and added in some elements from several other Batman Sources. I won't go into too much detail with this one, as there was very little that I had a problem with.

Number One was Bane. In Knightfall, the book/comic where Batman had his back broken by Bane, Bruce steps aside and has Jean-Paul Valley take his place. Bruce realizes that Valley is not the same Batman he portrayed and goes on to recover from his injury and eventually take back the cowl. Valley then takes on the mantel of Azrael. Bane in that series was a hulking brute, with charisma (aka talking skills). In DKR Bane not only speaks, but has some sort of accent that, to me, takes away from his power presence. Secondly, the mask he wears is only partially explained (which I guess should be enough to keep the story moving, but still leaves us begging for details) -- it's also not the same as the one Bane wears in Knightfall. As Tim said on Ctrl+Alt+Del (a great comic btw) the mask covers the majority of Bane's face, leaving only the eyes to connect to, which isn't enough in this character driven story. Not that the mask took away from the image that was Bane, but it hampered the connection he had with the audience (while also making it tough to hear what he was saying). Perhaps, since he was a former member of the League of Shadows, he could have kept the cowl they gave him. Although I did like how they used the Knightfall storyline to tie everything together, that was a nice touch.

Number Two was that there was too many "players", too many storylines. First you had the fallout between Bruce and Alfred. Then there was the rushed romance between Bruce and Selina. Third was the Injury of Gordon. Fourth was Blake's involvement (and eventual take over as the credits were about to role). Fifth was Miranda's story (though well done, as we were all lead to believe her story was that of Bane's -- which it involved him, but was all about her). And finally there was the battle between Batman and Bane. That's a ton of stuff going on -- the length of the movie reflected that -- but c'mon. Oh, and let's not forget the storyline of Bane "freeing" Gotham (a la No Man's Land, yet another comic/book that deserved to be put on the big screen). Just too much going on. 

Despite these problems this was a good movie, fanboy status aside. It was a creative movie that brought in elements from two great comics (Knightfall  and No Man's Land) and had a decent twist at the end with Miranda. My hope is that, when they move to "reboot" the series that they give Joseph Gordon-Levitt a chance to dawn the cape and cowl. His portrayal of Blake was excellent. Should there be a spin-off of John "Robin" Blake, we may see the transformation of Robin to Nightwing. 

Overall I liked this movie. It's just tragic that a psycho had to ruin the premier in Colorado. If we could just take a moment of silence in remembrance of those who lost there lives . . . . . . . . . . thank you.

Did anyone else catch the the Killer Croc reference at the beginning of the movie, about giant alligators?