The Batman

As was reported here recently, my wife and I were in Cincinnati over the weekend and saw "The Dark Knight Rises" on an IMAX screen.  Before I comment on the movie itself, let me offer a brief endorsement of the IMAX concept.  This was a motion picture format that used to be confined to museums and other similar attractions (the first one I saw was at the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida some years ago) but in the past few years there have been more and more commercial cinemas with IMAX auditoriums.  The screen is several stories tall and proportionally wide, and the sound is better than any I've heard in a movie theater.

Anyway, without revealing any major plot items, let me say that "The Dark Knight Rises" is a worthy conclusion to Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy.  "Batman Begins" and its two sequels show its audience what it would be like for a man to decide to become Batman in the REAL world, not a world filled with cartoonish villains who aren't really that menacing.  These are really evil people who plan to wreak major havoc on Gotham City, and Batman is the last line of defense.  Nolan has a great sense of structure and the need to punctuate action scenes with dialogue and vice versa, and these three movies  have a feel to them that's really hard to describe but undeniably appealing.

This movie had it all---well acted, well written, no idiotic dialogue, an intelligent plot that was elaborate but not too confusing, wonderful stuntwork and special effects (hard to tell the difference in modern films), and, well, it's Batman, so that's quite something all by itself.  I could go on and on, but, again, don't want to reveal anything to readers who have not seen this spectacular picture.


in the interests of full disclosure, we saw "The Avengers" when it came out (passed on the 3-D, as I wasn't eager for a headache), and it was very entertaining, but in a lightweight sort of way.  This movie was leaps and bounds better, because it dealt with serious issues and serious characters.  See it, if you're a fan of this genre, and then tell me whether YOU think it's simply the best comic book/superhero movie yet made.


Oh, and Nolan is a producer and creative force behind the latest attempt to resurrect the Superman franchise, if you're interested.  "Man of Steel" will premiere sometime next year (most likely in the summer).


See you soon....same Bat-time, same Bat-channel.

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