The Dark Knight Rises

A little over seven months ago, I sat in a packed BFI IMAX screen, surrounded by people who would have sooner disembowelled you with an ice cream scoop than if you'd said anything negative about the preview footage which was about to be screened. That footage was the first six minutes of The Dark Knight Rises and the excited anticipation in the cinema was palpable. Personally, I was certainly impressed by the opening sequence's visuals and its introduction of Batman's new nemesis, Bane: an altogether more serious vision of Gotham's reckoning than the Joker. But as I walked out of that preview and reclaimed my phone from the scary security guard, I couldn't help wondering whether the excitement and the film's hype (which had just been stepped up by releasing those first six minutes) was going to lead to a rather disappointing destination. I'm glad to say that – if anything – the full film was even better.

I'm acutely-aware that in writing this review, I must steer clear of anything that remotely resembles a plot spoiler and I will do my very best not to spoil anyone's experience of what is a tremendously-enjoyable film. Set eight years after the events of The Dark Knight, Bruce Wayne has hung up his cape after taking the rap for Harvey Dent's death. But as Bane, a new terrorist leader, surfaces and begins to threaten the city of Gotham, Batman must wrestle with his personal conflicts in an effort to save the city that made him an outcast.

I'll begin by saying that everything in this film is big – biblical, in fact. I reckon it's the loudest film I've ever watched and every bang, crash and note from Hans Zimmer's epic score shook my seat – and myself – to the core. Such an overwhelming assault on my ears brought out the imagery on-screen even more: the aerial shots of Gotham and the screeching of high-speed chase sequences left me awe-struck. The film's director of photography, Wally Pfister, has done a superb job on the cinematography, which was almost a character in itself. The composition of each shot was comparable to any work of art hanging in the Louvre and really helped to set the dark, brooding and exhilarating tone of the film.

Christian Bale is, once again, on fine form as Batman and Tom Hardy's Bane was rather menacing. Much has been made of his unusual voice (speaking, as his character does, through a mask) and all I have to add to the subject is that I've heard many a call-centre operative who has been more difficult to understand. Anne Hathaway's Catwoman was a nice injection of the feminine into a world which has, up-to-now, been male-dominated. Creating many laughs and commanding the screen in a way only she could, Hathaway's performance was energetic and focused. With quite a few Inception alumni in the cast, Nolan's direction has drawn fantastic performances.

At 164 minutes, The Dark Knight Rises is Nolan's longest film and as it progressed, the tension seemed to ratchet up a notch every time Bane appeared on-screen. Whilst I did feel that the narrative slipped slightly during the middle section, the fantastic beginning and end sections acted as strong bookends and held the whole film together. Most importantly, the film never felt as though it was dragging, although it wouldn't have suffered by losing fifteen minutes or so. In terms of the plot (and again, no spoilers), the screenplay concentrated enough on the emotional dimensions of the characters to make the action sequences and their outcome more exhilarating and, crucially, matter to the audience. I'm not going to go into the politics of the film because, quite frankly, more articulate and intelligent articles exist online about the subject and are much better than anything I could write.

I did, however, have some reservations. The film did, in places, feel as though it had grasped too many ambitious ideas and had let several slip through its fingers, without ever fully dealing with them. Certain issues were never completely engaged with and appeared sidelined in favour of another punch up that had little relevance to their resolution. On another (and perhaps more critical) level, I felt there just wasn't enough of Batman himself. Sure, his name isn't in the title and yes, Nolan's trilogy was always about more than just a man wearing a bat suit, but at the end of it all, that's what the main attraction is: a millionaire fighting bad guys with all his cool bat weapons.

Nolan has clearly triumphed with the last film in his Batman trilogy. Jaw-droppingly spectacular, intelligent and incredibly loud, The Dark Knight Rises deserves every praise and is definitely a superhero film for adults. Dark, beautiful and enthralling in equal measure, things would have been just a little bit better had the Batman made more of an appearance in his suit. Nevertheless, those six minutes last December promised much and Nolan and his team have definitely delivered. 

Clapperboard Rating: * * * *  (I've just spent twenty minutes deciding on this star rating. Would love to give it another half-a-star...) 

Magic Mike

I'm sure that I'm not alone in thinking that the British public have a tendency to get overexcited about things. The Olympic Torch relay, for example, seems to have whipped thousands of people into a state of excitement which is totally disproportionate to the event itself. Watching a total stranger, flanked by grumpy officials, run with a bit of gold metal that they're going to flog on eBay as soon as they get home is not my idea of something to get excited about. But then again, what do I know? This deranged state of excitement seemed to have wormed its way in to a screening of Magic Mike, a film about male stripping. My fellow audiences members (mostly women, I have to say) were literally shouting and whooping at the screen in a manner which would have been more suitable at a Take That concert. They were, in short, an over-excitable bunch. I, on the other hand, was rather dreading the whole thing.

Let me begin by saying that my decision to see Magic Mike was rather forced. It was the only film showing at my local cinema that I had not seen and, knowing that you, my loyal readers, would be up in arms (or hugely thankful) if I didn't do a review this week, I thought I'd have to go along on my own and embarrass myself by watching a film about guys taking their clothes off. Magic Mike stars Channing Tatum as Mike, a stripper at the Xquisite club which is run by Dallas (Matthew McConaughey). Mike is trying to save enough money to get his handmade furniture business off the ground and befriends nineteen-year-old Adam (played by Alex Pettyfer) who, down on his luck and generally not going anywhere in life, sees stripping as an exciting way to get women, status and cash. But, as with all exploitation films of this type, things aren't as glamorous as they first seem.

This plot is as well-worn as they get and you've definitely seen it all before. The love interest between Mike and Adam's sister, Brooke (Cody Horn) is predictable and safe and certainly doesn't shock in any way. This is, however, no bad thing. A screenplay by Reid Carolin creates characters that are deep, meaningful and multi-faceted. The audience care about their predicaments and their back-story and the film's director, Steven Soderbergh, has done a great job of drawing fantastic performances from Tatum in particular. I was originally unconvinced by Tatum in the early stages of his career and felt that his on-screen presence amounted to little more than eye-candy. Magic Mike, however, has changed my mind and demonstrates the huge emotional range that Tatum is capable of. Soderbergh's lingering close-ups on Mike as he ponders his future backstage at the club really helped the audience to engage and care about his character. McConaughey put in a great and funny performance as the club's owner and Pettyfer was perfectly credible as the uninitiated youngster. Only Cody Horn left me feeling slightly unconvinced but on the whole, her portrayal of concerned sister was fine.

If you're a guy and you see this film, I guarantee you will leave the cinema feeling rather inadequate. The stripping scenes were...erm...nicely done and there was certainly no shortage of rippling male torsos. I shudder to think about the number of gym hours that had to be put in by the cast. The cinematography was effective and distinctive and helped create a world which was attractive on the surface but which had a sinister undercurrent. Had the film been solely stripping sequences with a flimsy surrounding narrative, its female target audience would have been the only people singing its praises. But Magic Mike works because it had substance behind the innumerable of shots of male buttocks. The lives of the strippers off-stage was the film's main focus and, as such, there was something for the guys in the audience as well as the girls. I did feel that the film's darker issues were a little under-developed but they were, nevertheless, still engaging.

As a portrayal of masculinity (or, at least, one facet of it), Magic Mike is an enjoyable escapade and I was, on the whole, pleasantly surprised. The film succeeds because of its engagement with darker issues and focus on the characters themselves, rather than simply being a chick-flick about good looking guys taking their clothes off in all manner of ways. Sure, some people will go and see this film simply to see a naked Channing Tatum. But for guys, there's definitely something more to take away from this film than simply a feeling of physical deficiency. Take my advice, though. See it with someone else, otherwise you will look like a total weirdo like I did. The things I do for this blog...

Clapperboard Rating: * * *

The Amazing Spiderman

I really don't get some people. I had the misfortune to catch a Friday afternoon screening of The Amazing Spiderman with a fellow audience that, for the most part, seemed to have been on day release from the Crimes Against Cinema centre. I can deal with people walking in to the auditorium whilst the adverts are running and can just about bear the rustle of popcorn during loud action sequences. But what I can not understand is the total disregard that some people have for their fellow cinema-goers. About thirty minutes in to The Amazing Spiderman (and an hour after the advertised start time), a group of roughly twenty late, inconsiderate and light-polluting imbeciles wandered in and took about five minutes finding their seats. I wouldn't expect such thoughtless behaviour from the lowest forms of pond-life but, there we go. Did this take the edge off my enjoyment of the film? Slightly. Did I give a few people the evils on the way out? Definitely.

Ten years ago, Sam Raimi gave the world his take on the comic book hero otherwise known as 'Spidey'. It may seem a bit too soon to have re-booted the Spiderman franchise but 500 Days Of Summer director, Marc Webb, has done just that. The Amazing Spiderman follows a similar formula to the 2002 film and begins with the origin of Peter Parker's extraordinary talents after he is bitten by a genetically-altered spider. The British actor Andrew Garfield takes the title role and certainly makes the character his own as the web-slinging crusader falls for classmate Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) and has to defend the public against The Lizard, who is intent on wreaking havoc by using a biological weapon on the people of New York. We've seen it all before, but Webb has certainly done something new with the material.

If we consider the performances first, Garfield makes for a convincing hero and an even more credible teenager. The on-screen chemistry between him and Stone (who was, as ever, enchanting) certainly strengthened the characterisation and padded out the less-than-solid plot. This plot was strung-out over two and a quarter hours and the first half hour did feel rather sluggish. Its saving grace was the appearance of the phenomenal Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben. I'd quite happily watch that man watching another man watching paint dry. Once the film picked its pace up a bit, I have to say that the action sequences were very well-conceived and excitingly put-together. The point of view shots of Spidey swinging through down-town Manhattan felt fresh and inventive and the fact that many of the stunts were filmed in real life added to the excitement and realism.

This realism (albeit an unrealistic realism) is an example of the marked differences between Webb's and Raimi's versions of Spiderman. The imperfections on Spidey's suit, Parker's initial arrogance and the mistakes made by Parker whilst perfecting his web-slinging made the superhero all the more believable and, in some cases, made for quite a few laughs. It was refreshing to see a superhero grounded by the human behind the mask: Peter is, after all, a school student. The 3D was okay but – as ever – muddied the image and took away from the vibrancy which could have shone through much more strongly in the cinematography and production design. Rhys Ifans goes through the motions as The Lizard but I felt that his bad guy character was a missed opportunity and fairly inert, leading to a general feeling of lethargy throughout the film.

The Amazing Spiderman is fine: it's nothing special but is a satisfying superhero flick. Garfield and Stone carry the film and their romance clearly sets-up the possibility for a sequel. Nolan-esque this isn't, but I think it's all the better for it. If only Spidey could teach my fellow audience members a thing or two... 

Clapperboard Rating: * * *