Review - The Dark Knight Rises

Batman faces his greatest challenge yet in The Dark Knight Rises, in which Gotham city is threatened by potential nuclear Armageddon at the whim of a coldly calculatory and brawny terrorist, forcing the reclusive billionaire to dust off his batsuit after eight years out of the saddle. How to move on from the emotional and physical scars incurred from that fateful clash with The Joker and Two-Face, unaware of the even greater emotional and physical hurdles to come? As it proves the greatest challenge yet for Batman, so too does The Dark Knight Rises prove the greatest challenge yet for the trilogy's writer-director-producer Christopher Nolan. How to follow up the unprecedented commercial and critical success of his 2008 hit The Dark Knight with a third and final chapter that can satisfy geeks, general audiences, and critics alike? Well, he may have stumbled across that finish line somewhat, but cross it he has, giving his franchise the epic and stirring conclusion it deserves.

Compositing numerous character arcs and plot threads with which Batman aficionados will already be familiar, The Dark Knight Rises takes off with Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) been shaken from vigilante retirement upon the appearance of a new villain in town; the mask-wearing international master criminal Bane (Tom Hardy) who enacts an ambiguous plot which Wayne's concerned butler Alfred (Michael Caine) suggests might be connected to foes from Batman's past. It doesn't help matters that the Caped Crusader's list of allies is as flimsy as his injured right leg. The city wrongfully holds him responsible for the death of Harvey Dent eight years earlier, but he still has friends in GCPD Commissioner Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman), Wayne Enterprises CEO Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), a young cop named John Blake (Joseph Gordon Levitt), and wealthy socialite Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard) whose investment in Wayne's company have yielded a clean energy source which could be weaponized if allowed to fall into the wrong hands. Also along for the ride is anti-heroine Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway), a slick cat burglar whose allegiances are in question and flux as she tries to steal and slink her way out of an increasingly dangerous Gotham.

Sunday Top Ten - Snubs of the decade

As we enter the new Oscar season I find myself wondering what the big snub of the year is going to be. There's invariably at least one big snub every year, though not necessarily in a “big” category. This past year it was the perplexing exclusion of Inception from Best Film Editing. While I continue to ponder which deserving contender will fall victim to the Academy's questionable taste, here's a look back at ten egregious snubs from the decade that was (2000-2009).

Note: I tried to limit myself to awards hopefuls that actually stood a chance at being nominated. For instance, I felt that The Cove was the Best Picture of 2009, but never entertained the delusion that it could be nominated. The real sting of a missed nomination comes from expecting it to actually happen. That being said...

Sunday Top Ten - Credits design

One of the most frequently overlooked and underrated aspects of filmmaking would have to be the art of the title design. Be it the opening or closing credits, a creatively conceived title design can make a real impression on the viewer, defining the tone of a movie or even taking an active part in telling the story. There have been hundreds of great credit sequences to which I've responded well, but these ten are some of my personal favourites.

Sunday Top Ten - Challenging movie-related halloween costumes

Halloween is less than a month away, which means if you haven't already given some thought to your costume this year, you'd better get started! Sure, in a pinch you could always buy something last minute, but I would shake my finger at you for it. They've got no personality, those things. I'm something of a Halloween purist, and as such, I firmly believe that the only worthwhile costumes are homemade, usually requiring weeks of careful preparation and assembly to get just right.

I'm sure you can find all sorts of easy-to-make movie costumes around the Internet, but if you aren't afraid of a challenge, you might try tackling one of the more head-turning ensembles listed here (in no particular order).

Sunday Top Ten: Batman characters; the movies + The Animated Series tag team

With the recent release of a teaser poster and trailer for The Dark Knight Rises, I can't be the only one who's had Batman on the mind lately.

Everyone has a favourite Batman character (well, except for people who don't care about Batman, but they're just an urban legend), but with so many different incarnations of all the heroes and villains having been contributed over the decades, it's hard to give a consistent assessment of each one. Do you have a favourite continuity? The 1960s Adam West TV series, maybe? Any of the films by directors Tim Burton, Joel Schumacher, or Christopher Nolan? I can tell you right now my definitive Batman canon is the fantastic Warner Brothers cartoon from the 1990s, whose dark and mature treatment of the material made for an atypically grown-up childrens program. For kicks, I'm appraising ten character combos that team up the performances from the major motion pictures with their animated doppelgangers.