Been holding this one off for a while now, but here it is. The mighty battle between The Amazing Spiderman and The Dark Knight Rises. We'll start with Spiderman.
Of course this film got a mixed reception since it's announcement, whether it was too early for a reboot or whether Andrew Garfield was the right choice or the replacement of Mary Jane to Gwen Stacy as the main love interest would be given public approval. I can say that all these changes were acceptable after seeing the film. I still think 5 years since the last film to reboot was a shock decision, but if you take the previous films out of the equation, this film was very enjoyable, very clever and well produced. Now the big question that plagued me was the replacement of Tobey Maguire, he was the quintessential Peter Parker/Spiderman, he looked the part, acted the part and you loved him regardless, but would Andrew Garfield do all that and more? He looked less geeky, a bit more "Rock n' Roll" and you wouldn't mess with him even without his Spidey suit. My diagnosis: Maguire's Peter was consistently liked, he did no more, no less, Garfield's Peter either made you loathe him or instantly respect him, so there is an inpass.
Now the film itself. Of course, there were some similar plot points, Peter's spider bite, Uncle Ben's murder and Oscorp playing a big part, however what I really liked, which I didn't expect to like, was Peter and Gwen's relationship, none of the will-they-won't-they crap, they got to the point, they did what old Peter and Mary-Jane did in 3 films all in one film and that begs the question of a sequel, what will happen next for the couple? The baddie in this film, The Lizard, played brilliantly by Rhys Ifans, had a whiff of Doctor Octopus about him. A doctor wanting to improve his physical form, things go wrong and Spidey has to stop him, but while Doc Ock dies in Spiderman 2, The Lizard gets arrested, maybe a return for the one-armed bandit/lizard, but we shall see. There was some heart-tugging moments in this film, Uncle Ben's death is always a tear-jerker, especially as it's Martin Sheen in this case, but I was shocked when Gwen's father died at the hands, or claws, of The Lizard, I wanted him to live to see his daughter, but sadly this wasn't to be and Peter had to break-up with Gwen to stop her suffering the same fate, poetic in a way.
So in conclusion, this film was neither better or worse than it's predecessors, but I bet they'll be a couple more adventures for Spiderman to come and I'm excited. One thing I do miss are 3 words, or two words and a letter, J Jonah Jameson!
Now for The Dark Knight Rises, this wasn't a reboot, this was a sequel and one hell of an epic one at that! New characters, new baddies and Gotham in even more danger than usual, who ya gonna call? Batman!
First of all, everyone crows on about how brilliant The Dark Knight was, Heath Ledger was the best part and everything else was alright, if anything, The Dark Knight wasn't a superhero film, it was a gangster film, The Dark Knight Rises was actually a superhero film! The first thing that I realised about this film had the whole cast from Inception in it, apart from it's star bookings Dicaprio and Page, so myself and my friends said this film was the cast of Inception playing Batman.
When I heard the film's baddie was Bane, I, like many people said "Who? Why not The Riddler or The Penguin or someone we all know?" But seeing this film made me realise how bad-ass Bane really is, while The Joker is the thinking man's baddie, Bane is more the violent type, but there is an air of intelligence about him, though it could've been the British accent! We were also treated to Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle, who we all knew was Catwoman, but was never actually said, maybe an attempt to move away from Halle Berry's failed protrayal of her was mentioned in the "How do we get people to watch this film without mentioning Halle Berry as Catwoman" meeting, or it may have been a bit too cheesy in an all-round serious film. However Hathaway did play her very well. Something I did notice was there was very little of Batman in this film, you'd think in a Batman film, you'd get the caped crusader in almost all of the scenes, but this wasn't the case, Bruce Wayne wasn't in it much either, or Alfred, or Gordon or Lucius, pretty much anyone who has starred in both the previous films had very little screen time in the third one. This was a a shame, as Michael Caine was excellent in this film, Alfred became more three-dimensional and Caine really rose to the challenge. Also Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard were brilliant too and Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman goes without saying.
The film's story was a much simpler one, but I felt it was a more effective one, instead of constant twists and turns that The Dark Knight gave us, TDKR focused on the reprecussions of the previous film and used them to fuel this film in a simpler fashion, though I was confused as to how Bane knew so much about Harvey Dent from one written speech by Commissioner Gordon, or why he was actually called Bane in the first place! One twist I liked was Miranda Tate being the child who escaped from the prison pit and Bane was the one who helped her and got his face mangled in the process, yet another character Cotillard has played who turned out to be evil (Inception reference.) This film is pure Christopher Nolan and he has done wonders with the Batman franchise, giving it a new look and format, as well as a couple of cheeky hints of the past (Gordon-Levitt's character is Robin!) It was pure blockbuster fun, with a great cast and smart script.
Now, who wins this battle of superhero movies? While both had their merits, I'd say The Dark Knight Rises just wins, simply for epicness! Do you agree or disagree?
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