Climate Change

The tragic events that occurred in Aurora, Colorado, during a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises this past July, was something I felt I wanted to leave aside here.  For someone who values and holds true that some of the my savory and precious moments have occurred in the peaceful tranquility of the confines of a movie theater, there was a nod and threat that almost as if a tragedy had struck inside my own backyard.  The events were dreadful, as was the fearful loom of panic and anxiety that would come (and likely hasn't quite quelled) for ones safety in the most ordinary and commonplace of scenarios.  Big Hollywood made their usual immediate adjustments-- the cancelling of movie premieres and the like, Warner Bros. (the distributor behind The Dark Knight Rises) withheld opening weekend grosses out of respect to victims, and a saving face for the opening week records that suddenly seemed unattainable.  The same distributor also pushed back and retooled the violent feature Gangster Squad, the awards wannabe featuring Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn and a ill-timed movie theater melee.  Again the issues of violence presented in movies, television and video games was sought as a defacto claim for the horrific events.  A few months later, and dreadfully in tune with the yuletide season, another massive shooting occurred in another unforgivable place.  And yet again, fingers are pointed at the same targets, without underlying the greater problems.

A full week went on before the NRA made an official statement in the aftermath of the tragedy that occurred in Newtown, Connecticut.  During the address, spokesman Wayne LaPierre posited a few ideas that will rattle around the media maelstrom, and again waged the war against violent content in movies, television and video games as a trigger for the insane trigger-happy likes.  And again, Hollywood made swift decisions like cancelling the movie premieres of the violent Tom Cruise film Jack Reacher and the ultra violent Django Unchained.  It's worth noting that similar causes of actions for major American players remains firmly similar, and without a proper measure or even the slightest bit of necessary dialogue in a culture permeating with unease and violent content.  That is what is missing-- pointing the fingers at one another does no such good, and until this nation can address violence without the need of "he said, she said," child-like back-talking, more of the same will be cause and effects relations.

There's another discussion to be raised to, if the effect of violent representations in artistic content is to be a factor in begetting violence in real life.  After all, there's two classes of representations of violence in film especially.  There's the gratuitous type that glorifies the like, and the rarer and more insightful of which explores violence in an artfully real world situation, without bestowing further glorification, instead raising the question of its purpose.  For instance another hard-hitting holiday offering, Zero Dark Thirty comes courtesy of Oscar-winning team of The Hurt Locker in director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Marc Boal.  The film explores the manhunt behind the eventual capturing and killing of Osama bin Laden.  Here's another film, that's striking a chord in Washington for different reasons-- that of the graphic scenes and questionable realities of torture and waterboarding used in the investigations.  Senators from the both sides, including Rep. John McCain and Dem. Dianne Fienstein argue no such methods were actually used.  It's a blow to a film that's seeking Oscar consideration on top of it's roaring critical reaction.  Again, rather than an exploration of the content itself, Hollywood is questioning how this blow will hurt in garnering further Oscar buzz.  On the basis, and at the very least for viewers who haven't seen Zero Dark Thirty yet, the real questions should be bestowed on the content themselves, and as The Hurt Locker showcased three years ago, the imagery and intensity of that the film was wrought, tense and moving because the filmmakers never once politicized or glorified the situation, instead leaving it the eyes of the beholders to decide what to think.

The world is scary, and media content (perhaps a largely ignored aspect could rest in twenty-four news coverage, which I would argue is more grisly than anything I typically see in a movie theater) is sometimes varying to far over the edge.  By now means should an argument ever be based on back up the second amendment by reducing the first amendment, and if the National Rifle Association seeks to uphold films and other content to such reductive confines that were introduced back in Production Code, that would be deplorable and inexcusable for all.  It's the discussion that needs to happen, and for that, by all means, we're at a stalemate.

Best Visual Effects

The semi-finalists for the Best Visual Effects Academy Award have been announced.  Five of these ten titles will be nominated when the announcements are made January 10th.

• The Amazing Spider-Man
• Cloud Atlas
• The Dark Knight Rises
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
• John Carter
• Life of Pi
• Marvel's The Avengers
• Prometheus
• Skyfall
• Snow White & the Huntsman

The lists of titles snubbed include: The Hunger Games, The Impossible, Total Recall, Looper.

Interesting to note that The Dark Knight Rises and Skyfall would be somewhat anomalous in that both use more practical visual effects (stunts and mis en scene tricks) than CGI, prominent in the remaining films, which might make both films vulnerable in the end.  Life of Pi looks like the only one of the ten with a Best Picture chance, which might bode well not just for a nomination, but the eventual win-- the past three years the Visual Effects winner was a Best Picture nominee (Hugo, Inception and Avatar.)

Cloud Atlas, the box office dud from the Wachowski Bros. and Tom Twyker may still be an Oscar nominee.

Only four these films were not presented in 3-D (Cloud Atlas, The Dark Knight Rises, Skyfall and Snow White and the Huntsman.)

Two of these films, Cloud Atlas and John Carter were two of the costliest bombs of the 2012, so it will be interesting to see if either can gain any traction in the one category that typically favors blockbusters.

Each film will present a clip reel and panel for members of the Visual Effects branch of Academy shortly before the nominations are announced.

The Dark Knight Rises

It's difficult to know exactly where to begin on terms of The Dark Knight Rises, the third and final installment of Christopher Nolan's take on the Batman saga.  There's a seeping of legend-- not just to the cinematic craftsmanship, nor the bravura epic seriousness of a comic book superhero movie-- but an almost longing and painstaking emotional investment to Nolan's trilogy.  Taking the realms of a series that felt both long in the tooth and in a sad display of self-parody, Nolan created a sturdy, realistic and nearly horrifying world in his Gotham City, a partial political ode to post-9/11 angst mixed with expected summertime bombast.  Whatever it was, it was something special, complete with Hans Zimmer's rousing orchestrations and a leaner, more complicated character at the helm, played, again with reticence and a canny sense of danger and unease by Christian Bale.  Following Batman Begins, a sturdy origin tale of man and superman, and The Dark Knight, which has it's own piece of legend and iconography, not just in the cinematic sphere, but in the pop cultural lexicon, a lot is clearly at stake in the third and final take, and Nolan, the showman, the puppeteer, the quizzical adventurist pounces, throwing everything on the line in The Dark Knight Rises.  Engaging and ever rousing, if a bit overstuffed and a lick too on the nose, his conclusion is a worthy send off to a truly special trilogy of films.

There's something else at stake, more so than anything that appears on screen and that involves the series legacy once the final credits have rolled.  Nolan's Batman is angry and moody, and more removed emotionally than any previous conjuring, and his take is bleak, even downright depressing.  What's rousing is also slightly meditative, and a near antithesis to the norms of contemporary summertime thrill ride.  Complain if one wishes about political messaging or murky encoded themes to Nolan's vision, there's a heft and gravitas that's unshakable, and never a moment of the candy-colored superhero features of, say this summers gargantuan The Avengers.  Nolan sets his fantasy and dour fun in a real world veneer, provoking and nearly transgressing the whole superhero genre, while simultaneously driving it and feeding it much needed nutrients.  The Dark Knight Rises is loud and blistering, full of action and effects and striking vistas that would make many awe in its splendor.  There's enough bombast to keep one amused, but it's the dignity and grounded fundamentalism of Nolan as a filmmaker that's riveting.  His focus on in the camera effects, use of mis en scene, appreciation for the unwaveringly, yet beautifully flawed evocative power of film.  And his noted distaste from third dimension distractions.  Whatever flaws come out of The Dark Knight Rises-- and it is admittedly messy in it's splendor-- the powerful filmmaking gifts of Nolan, and his incredible peak, overcome almost all.

Set eight years after The Dark Knight, with Batman a fugitive in the name of justice, and Bruce Wayne a reclusive, limping note of gossip.  Gotham City, however, is a safe haven.  Its denizens unaware of the actual fate of idealist Harvey Dent's undoing, are thriving in a world free of the underground crime rings that rotted Gotham and the newly instated Dent Act has, while under false pretenses, achieved wonders.  Of course Nolan, nor his eager audience, are interested in peace time, and a storm is brewing, as the ads promise, in the form of a new villain to the canon setting his sites on raising hell in Gotham City.  Bane, played with massive authority and imposing Hulk-like physique by Tom Hardy is the new reckoning on Gotham, and  Batman, that is if you can understand him--Bane's line readings correctly remedy any complaints that may have been voiced at Batman's ADR in the earlier films-- it's arguably the films worst stroke.  In reshaping the Dark Knight mythology (one that may have felt completely different had Heath Ledger still been around to thrill) the film at times feels a tad awkward and tenuous to the way the prior films unraveled, The Dark Knight Rises ultimately feels appropriate in how it reconnects to Batman Begins, with a mission to right what may didn't succeed the first time.

Bane's mission is to destroy the city from inside.  Creating a horrifying turn of events in order to get to the city to crumble from within.  Fear-mongering Gotham to attack the rich, the establishment, and thus become reborn.  Hardy, with his immense physical might is terrifying, and his performance looms with intensity-- his brawls are natural and unwaveringly brutish, and his tone and demeanor are all business.  It's a partial shame, that in the midst of setting up The Dark Knight Rises real world, seemingly Occupy Gotham-inspired relevance, that his character development gets squandered, even in a mighty running length of two-hours and forty-five minutes.  The action doesn't disappoint for adrenaline junkies however, as an entertaining (if ponderous) James Bond-style prologue sets the mood, and a centerpiece bout, with an earth-shattering, and edge-of-one's-seats style sound design, punctuates that Batman is in real trouble.  Bane still remains a mystery however, at least to the non-comic book devotee.

There's other challenges for Batman\Bruce Wayne as well, as a nubile cat burglar enters his realm, as well as him home in the form of Selina Kyle (played with a playful, tough-minded grace by Anne Hathaway.)  The ever serious (at times, perhaps a tad too much so) Nolan engages a more playful, and humorous take on his version of Catwoman, and Hathaway's game performance is striking, not just in that's so markedly different from prior takes, but because of the grounded humanity that shrouds such a cartoon-y character.  Kyle adds a notch in the sense of the political sculpting of The Dark Knight Rises, warning Bruce of the dangers and living so large while so many others suffer below.  There's a few other newcomers to the journey-- a jaded, but ever hopeful young cop, played with a refreshing ease by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and a comely philanthropist with eyes for Mr. Wayne, played by Marion Cotillard.  Surrounded by the sturdy support team of Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine, The Dark Knight Rises seeks to cover much ground, yet still manages to highlight the the solid ensemble-- the relationship between Wayne and his dutiful servant Alfred has never been so poignant before, and the conscience of Oldman's Commissioner Gordon never quite so raddled.

Nolan's world is near legend at this point, but his legacy on such an indelible piece of American fiction will rightfully remain intact due to his scope, power, and grandeur.  The Dark Knight Rises, even without an indelible imprint like that of Joker hanging towards the end of The Dark Knight should be seen as a worthy final chapter to an incredible and over-achieving reboot.  To the next auteur who tackles the Dark Knight, good luck. B+

The Dark Knight Rises Teaser

Shivers...as the "epic conclusion" to Christopher Nolan's mythic revamp of the Batman saga rears.  Or as it may be referred to as the mini-Inception reunion (really Joseph Gordon Levitt, Tom Hardy and Marion Cotillard all join the illustrious ranks.)  I do however have a worry here, perhaps out of nowhere, or a mere way of calming over-excited nerves, as The Dark Knight is surely a hard act to follow, if not an impossible one.  Also concerns over the more star-studded ensemble at hand...the three top drawer talents mentioned earlier also includes Anne Hathaway, Juno Temple, and but of course, the formidable crew of the past.  I have an over-crowded Spider-man 3 knee jerk reaction.  NOOOO!

Trailer looks cool, though!

The Dark Knight Rises

Why fuss around about the rest of this summer's movie season when there's this to hopefully reaffirm everything grand and spectacular summer blockbusters should be.  One catch: 372 days before opening day of The Dark Knight Rises, Christopher Nolan's continuation of his great Batman franchise, easily the best cinematic reboot ever.  The teaser poster, likely already the wallpaper of any nerd's (cinematic or otherwise) desktop, is a nifty design in the production full of them.  The teaser trailer is rumored to be apart of the package of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II.