Auld Acquaintances

The eve of the New Year is inevitably a time to cherish old friends, and for the last two weeks movie audiences have been taking that cue by turning out in droves for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. For fans of the original trilogy, it plays like a long awaited reunion with cherished characters from the past, whilst introducing a new roster of charismatic heroes for the younger generation.

The whole thing unspools more or less as an affectionate retread of the 1977 mega-hit that spawned the series, with enough slight variations to satiate the geeks. And if there are plenty of earnest nits to fondly pick (and there are), at least they never feel outright dumb or insulting, which can't be said of another franchise rehash which earned serious bank this year.

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: 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.