The Dark Knight Rises... But Does It Stay Afloat?

And so Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy comes to an end. With the fate of our dark knight left hanging at the end of the previous film, does his tale end on a high note? Does the trilogy long plot wrap up nicely? Is Alfred still making Bruce's bed? Let's find out.

I'll make this clear right now. From a filmmaking standpoint, this film is great. The cinematography, the editing, pacing, music, and production design are all top notch and reflect the calibre of a Christopher Nolan picture.
The problem is that when you begin to look past all that, the problems start piling up. From the very first scene, we get to hear the voice of Bane from behind the mask. And I have to say that it was incredibly annoying. Yes, this type of mask can be taken more seriously than the classic luchador mask that Bane has always worn, and while Tom Hardy delivers a good performance, the annoyance of it just doesn't go away.
I'll admit that Anne Hathaway makes a decent Selina Kyle. She doesn't compare to the portrayal delivered by Michelle Pfeifer back in the day, but she is certainly a million times better than that awful Halle Berry one a few years ago.
Christian Bale delivers another good Batman/Bruce Wayne like the previous films, and I do not fault him for any of the problems that arise from his character. Those problems stem from the writing. Like previous movies, most of what Bruce/Batman has to do is simply react to what the villains of any given story are doing. He can't do much but serve as the counterweight to their actions, and while it makes sense 'poetically', in a film narrative it just begins to get old. For example, Wolverine is a character who, because of his missing memories, actively goes out into the world to decipher and regain said memories. He doesnt just sit around the X-Mansion waiting for a villain to show up. Batman does too much of exactly that in these films, and I hope that the soon-to-come franchise reboot addresses that.
Yes I just said reboot. But it's still in theaters! You may be thinking to yourself. Yes, well, with the MASSIVE success of the Avengers raking in well over a billion dollars so far in it's release, competitor Warner Bros has decided to do similar with it's own Justice League. Batman is a longtime original member of the League, and Nolan's films do not in anyway allow for the possibility of cross-continuity the way the Avengers/Iron Man/Thor/Captain America/Hulk movies did. So yes, while this 3rd film was in it's final stages of development, they knew fully well that this whole trilogy was about to be rebooted anyway.
I wonder if Nolan was aware of this going into it, and therefore didn't really want to make his third one, because it certainly has that feeling throughout it. The film is far too long, there are major portions that could have been left out and maybe cut almost half the running length, and the twists that occur are either seen a mile away, or others just plain dumb.
The worst thing going for it is the blatant disregard for the source material. I'm not going to fanboy moan and groan to death that things aren't EXACTLY like they are in the comics, that studios need to cater to the non-comic folks out there, but this movie really pushes the limit with that.
Having said all that, there is a fun cameo of a certain character that I'm glad managed to appear in all three films though. That was enjoyable.
If i rated stars, i'd give Dark Knight Rises maybe a 3 out of 5. It's not bad per say, but it definitely does not manage to live up to being the closing chapter of such a saga. As is the case in a lot of trilogies, the third film ended up being a bit of a let down. the first is still the best by quite a lot.
But see it for yourselves. It's still enjoyable and great to watch the large battle scenes. And now I must go, someone has activated the bat signal!

Spider-Man, Spider-Man, Does Whatever A Spider Can...except make a movie review, that's my job. My review of The Amazing Spider-Man!

  Going into a viewing of The Amazing Spider-Man, I found myself in a perplexed state of thought. Would it be any good? Was it necessary to reboot the entire franchise? Would it be better than the franchise that came before? Would Andrew Garfield make a decent Parker?
  I got wind of this reboot when I actually got to audition for it, for the part of Peter Parker. I was not aware this was the film I was auditioning for at the time though as the studio was keeping everything hush hush. But it involved a young man talking about being bitten to some girl he was in love with after having dinner with her parents. After the audition, a fellow actor suggested it was 'the new spider-man movie' that was in the works, and lo and behold that's what it turned out to be, The Amazing Spider-Man! (The scenes I read appear in the film almost word for word, which is always an interesting way to see it later on).

So, was it good? Actually yes it is, better than the previous films even. Though the Tobey Maguire trilogy always had it's own charm, I've always had a major problem with how much of a whiner Tobey's Parker was made out to be. Where was the smart ass crime fighter? Where were the great quips and one-liners Spider-Man has always been famous for delivering mid-battle, spotting the ridiculous aspects of his super-enemies? At last, here is a Spider-Man that brings that to the table, and it makes him so much more likable. Andrew Garfield makes a far more effective Peter Parker than Maguire ever did.
Much has been left out of the new franchise thus far as well. Gone are the Daily Bugle and J.J. Jameson, the focus on him being broke, the 'organic mutation' eb shooters, and the incredibly forced horrible chemistry between Maguire and Kirsten Dunst's Mary Jane. In her place is the smart and spunky Gwen Stacy, Peter's original love, played very well by Emma Stone. Their chemistry in this film really is great and believable (considering they are a real couple in the real world now, I guess the chemisty was genuine).
Also added to this story is the mystery surrounding Peter's long-missing parents and their connection to Dr Curt Conners, who accidently transforms himself into the classic Spider-Man enemy The Lizard, effectivly becoming the film's villain. While not a lot is revealed yet in this first film, they have certainly set the groundwork. If they follow the lore of the comics at all, it will actually be quite the interesting storyline to follow.
  I would not say this film is as good as The Avengers. If Avengers were a 10, I'd rate this one a 6 or 7. But, while being a little too eager to conform to the current day tween/teen market, it is still quite an enjoyable film, and takes you on a good ride.