The Dark Knight Rises

“High expectation” two words to define The Dark Knight Rises. Three hasn’t been a lucky number for lots of movie franchises.

The Dark Knight Rises

Take for example Alien 3 (4 was even worse), Spider-Man 3, The Matrix Revolutions. But there are exceptions to the rule The Lord of the Rings: Return of the king, Ice Age 3, Back to the Future Part III. I expect The Dark Knight Rises to follow the latter and not the former.

Not much is known about the movie. But there are rumours that the play boy Millionaire (later Billionaire) Bruce Wayne is going to find a new love interest and this movie will introduce Bane and Catwoman. Once again Chris Nolan has assembled a strong cast. There is no need to mention anything about the acting prowess of Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman all seasoned actors. If you have seen this trailer you would realize that there will be massive mayhem in Gotham City.

Will it match the heights of The Dark Knight?
I hope so and I have my fingers crossed. There was a point in The Dark Knight were I started to feel that the mayhem unleashed by the Joker will never end and that is a kind of feeling you will rarely feel in a movie these days. Every time I watch The Dark Knight I remember it. So in a way The Dark Knight Rises has a huge challenge in front of it.

New characters added to the cast are

Marion Cotillard of Inception fame as Miranda Tate
Joseph Gordon-Levitt of Inception fame as John Blake
Cillian Murphy of Inception (28 days later) fame as Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow
Tom Hardy of Inception (Warrior) fame as Bane
Liam Neeson as Ra’s al Ghul.
Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle

I have put Inception next to the names for the actors to re-emphasize the fact that Chris Nolan re-works with stars. Most of these actors have done well in the past.

The Dark Knight series have had strong negative characters Ra’s al Ghul, Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow and Carmine Falcone in Batman Begins, Joker and Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight and Selina Kyle, Ra’s al Ghul (hoping it’s not a guest appearance) and Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. There are two characters I am most interested in. One is Ra’s al Ghul and the other is Bane.

Ra’s al Ghul
Liam Neeson has an amazing screen presence. He is able put life into characters and movies that are not that well written and make them watchable. Unknown and Taken would have bombed (flopped) at the box without Liam Neeson, he simply elevates the movies and the characters he plays. It would be fun to see him as Ra’s al Ghul again. I didn’t have any negative emotions (that I normally have for negative characters) for his portrait of Ra’s al Ghul, he simply came across as a natural person. A man taking revenge for loss of his family.

Bane
The role of Bane is played by Tom Hardy, those of you who have seen Warrior (I have seen) would agree that Tom Hardy looked natural playing the role of Tommy Conlon. Tom Hardy played a role of former U.S. Marine who is angry with his family in the movie Warrior. It would be interesting to see what he does with Bane. I am looking for lots of intensity from him. It could be his big break. Not sure whether he needs it after Inception and Warrior.

No Batman movie discussion will be complete without Heath Ledger’s Joker. Sadly we wouldn’t see Heath Ledger’s Joker in the final installation of the series. I hope the movie has some kind of homage to Joker and Heath Ledger because without Heath, Joker wouldn’t be as menacing as in The Dark Knight and without Joker The Dark Knight wouldn’t have been The Dark Knight.

For one thing this movie is going to be a sure shot hit. Unfortunately I won’t be able to watch the movie in its first week of release. Hopefully I will be able to watch it in the second week!

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Movies I want to watch in 2012

The list is in the order of my interest. It was my intention to write a list of about 15 movies but one of my friend talked some sense into my head and convinced me to reduce it to something more feasible. Here is the list.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
A prequel to the illustrious The lord of the rings trilogy. I had been waiting for this movie and it had been a long wait. The first trailer has had me captivated. Howard Stone’s music sounds great like always (based on the trailer). Peter Jackson happens to be one my all time favorite director (Actor: kidding on this one. He was decent in Bad Taste) from the time I had seen Bad Taste.

The challenge in front of Peter Jackson is to convert a children’s book into a movie which is acceptable to everyone. By the looks of the trailer he is not off the mark.

 

 

The Dark Knight Rises
The final Batman to be directed by Chris Nolan and the last one to star Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne. I had to be stupid to leave this one out of my list. The current Batman movie series is one of the best reboot to any movie franchise after uninspiring Batman portrayed by Val Kilmer and George Clooney, Christian Bale successfully stepped over the level set by Michael Keaton with the first Batman movie. This would have been the number 1 movie in my list if it weren’t for Hobbits.

I don’t know who would win if Val Kilmer Batman and George Clooney Batman were to fight (I voted for Val Kilmer) but if box office report are a parameter Christian Bale beats them both all.

 

 

Prometheus
You speak to any sci-fi movie fan and you would find that the Alien series will be in his must watch list. This movie advertised as a prequel to Alien will be watched by many. With a strong cast the movie is already generating good interest.

It was conceived as a prequel to Ridley Scott’s 1979 science fiction horror film Alien, rewrites of a script developed for a separate story that precedes the events of Alien, but which is not directly connected to the films in the Alien franchise. According to Scott, though the film shares “strands of Alien’s DNA, so to speak”.

 

 

Ice Age: Continental Drift
One of the finest animation movie series of all time. Ice age has Total worldwide gross revenue of $1.93 billion compared to the other best Toy Story’s gross revenue of $1.91 billion .

The best part about Ice Age series has been its seamless mix of humour, action and emotions. Hope Continental Drift keeps up the standard of its predecessor.

 

 

Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted

Madagascar has started to remind me of Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space. Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman make another attempt to return back to their home, their beloved Big Apple. Like with its predecessor the plan goes bad and they land in Europe this time. The story is all about their escape from Europe. Can’t wait for a Asia based sequel!

 

 

Men in Black 3
Will Smith is back and so are the Men in Black. 10 years after Men in Black 2. It would be nice to see Aliens in 3D this time.

 

 

The Avengers
Lots of Super Heroes lots of action. Not sure what to expect. I hated the movie Thor but Iron Man and Captain America were cool movies. So I will cross my fingers and go out to watch this one.

 

 

Taken 2*
I don’t really know what to expect from this movie. The screen presence of Liam Neeson is such that it can make ordinary movie look good. If Taken 2 is anything like Taken it would be a fun watch. Most of the cast from Taken return for this sequel. The only draw back I see is that Maggie Grace sets out to save her dad (Liam Neeson), kind of role reversal. I would watch this movie based on the reviews.

 

 

Total Recall*
The original Total Recall was one of my favorite sci-fi movie. Now it’s being remade. For starters the graphics would be eye-catching. I just hope that the story line is not mutilated like some of the other recent remakes like Conan. I am going to watch it based on the reviews. If reviews are good am in.

No trailers available for the 2012 version yet.