The Expendables

The Expendables

A CIA operative hires a team of mercenaries to eliminate a Latin dictator and a renegade CIA agent.

Director

Sylvester Stallone

Writers

Dave Callaham (screenplay) (as David Callaham), Sylvester Stallone (screenplay) 

Stars

Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li 

Movie Overview

Mercenary leader Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) and his loyal men take on what they think is a routine assignment: a covert operation to invade the South American country of Vilena and overthrow its dictator. But, when they learn that the job will be a suicide mission, they must choose redemption or the destruction of their brotherhood.

Transformers: Age of Extinction

Transformers: Age of Extinction
Autobots must escape sight from a bounty hunter who has taken control of the human serendipity: Unexpectedly, Optimus Prime and his remaining gang turn to a mechanic (Mark Wahlberg), his daughter (Nicola Peltz), and her back street racing boyfriend (Jack Reynor) for help.

Director: Michael Bay
Writer: Ehren Kruger
Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Nicola Peltz, Jack Reynor

Movie Review
Michael Bay has done the impossible. With Transformers: Age of Extinction, the start of a – everyone duck! – second trilogy in his metalhead franchise, the Bay-man has made the worst and most worthless Transformers movie yet. I know, hard to believe, right? How could any summer blockbuster be as dull, dumb and soul-sucking as the first three Transformers movies? Step right up.
Bay, with the help of screenwriter Ehren Kruger, is telling the same damn story as he did before. But this time he's taking more time than ever to do it. Just shy of three hours, Transformers: Age of Extinction, whether you see it in 2D, 3D or IMAX 3D, is a punishing endurance test. Even fans of the series, and they are legion, must know that the Hasbro toys that inspired the films have more complexity and feeling.
The plot? It's been four years since the war between alien robots left Chicago devastated. In case you need a refresher: Autobots, led by Optimus Prime, are good. Decepticons, inspired by Megatron, are bad. But it doesn't matter. Since even the human-friendly Autobots are being hunted down and destroyed. The government's dastardly plan, these plans are always dastardly, is to create their own race of Transformers to achieve the elusive goal of world domination. What it really means is that Bay can start the whole process all over again with robots fighting their own clones. Kill me now.
Maybe I'm being unfair. There is some new stuff. Bay has trashed his old human cast. Shia LaBeouf is gone as Sam Witwicky, the teen pal to all things Autobot. In his place is Mark Wahlberg as Cade Yeager, a nutty Texas robotics inventor who buys an old truck that turns out to be Optimus Prime. Wait, what? Does this mean there's no Megan Fox or Rosie Huntington-Whiteley for Bay's camera to slobber over. Never fear. Welcome Nicola Peltz as Tessa, Cade's 17-year-old daughter, who wears heels and short-shorts even on the run so Bay can have his pervy cinematic way with her. Some things never change.
The acting? There isn't any. Though I give credit to Stanley Tucci. He plays Joshua Joyce, the head of Kinetic Sciences Institute (KSI) and the tycoon who has isolated a metal called "Transformium" that can mutate anything, short of transforming Bay into a talented filmmaker with the gifts of, say, James Cameron and Christopher Nolan. But I digress. It's Joshua, in league with CIA baddie Harold Attinger (Kelsey Grammer), who does a Frankenstein number on Galvatron, a Transformer created from the evil DNA inside Megatron's decapitated head. Anyway, Tucci is the only fully alive presence onscreen, mostly because he seems to laughing inside at every idiot line he's given to say.
The rest is all sound and fury signifying the usual Bay nothing. If you want to see metal crushing metal with no purpose, logic or letup, stay at home with your X box. At least you're in control and you can do a dozen other things at the same time. With Transformers: Age of Extinction you're stuck with Bay's video console. At one point, the movie introduces the dinobots, a new species of robot that struck fear in my heart that Bay may be contemplating a Jurassic Park reboot. Noooooooo! The dinobots are actually meant to remind us of that calamitous moment in time when the power (called "the seed") was unleashed to "turn organic life into metal." In movie terms, Bay has that power. And we are all the worse for it.

The Transporter Refueled

The Transporter Refueled

In the south of France, former special-ops mercenary Frank Martin enters 

into a game of chess with a femme-fatale and her three sidekicks who are looking for revenge against a sinister Russian kingpin 

Director: Camille Delamarre

Writers: Adam Cooper, Bill Collage

Stars: Ed Skrein, Loan Chabanol, Ray Stevenson

Movie Review

Smooth-talking and sharp-dressed Frank Martin (Ed Skrein) is the man to call when you need no-questions-asked transportation. Frank serves an elite clientele – wealthy men and women looking for a quick and discrete getaway – and the Transporter requires that he and his customers adhere to a strict set of rules: The deal is the deal; No names; Never open the package; Never make a promise you can’t keep; Buckle up. For years, Frank has built a strong word-of-mouth-following, and a small fortune, servicing clients in the south of France – all while managing to avoid lingering complications.

However, when Frank’s father, Frank Senior (Ray Stevenson) retires from life as an global sales representative for Evian water, a group of well-organized criminals use the elder Martin to draw the Transporter into a dangerous high-stakes battle with powerful Russian crime lord, Arkady Karasov (Radivoje Bukvic). After fifteen years of abuse and exploitation, Karasov has made dangerous enemies – enemies that, with Frank’s help, are enacting swift and ruthless revenge.

Based on Louis Leterrier and Corey Yuen’s 2002 cult-hit starring Jason Statham as the titular Transporter, The Transporter Refueled takes the core concept of a highly-skilled getaway driver caught between a personal code of honor and the (often) underhanded requirements of his job – but places a new actor in the driver’s seat. In addition to swapping Skrein in for Statham, Refueled is also banking on hope that sophomore filmmaker Camille Delamarre (Brick Mansions) can bring fresh energy to the latest big screen installment – after the Transporter franchise premise was already explored (and stretched thin) in two follow-up films and a full TV series.

A frequent Luc Besson collaborator, Delamarre is no stranger to the Transporter series: previously the director served as an editor on Transporter 3 and years later, provided second-unit directorial work on the aforementioned Transporter: The Series. Unfortunately, whereas Delamarre succeeds with some stylish action set pieces and fun character moments in his Transporter reboot, half-baked villains, cheesy dialogue (with noticeably bad ADR), and overall clumsy execution land Refueled in an underwhelming middle ground: it’s a fun enough, albeit brainless, ride that could have been significantly better and falls far short of the original Transporter in every single way imaginable. In spite of paper-thin villains that are outlined by shameless cliches, the full Refueled narrative is imbued with a few smart twists (even if most viewers will put all the pieces together ahead of time) and a fun dynamic between the film’s three leads: Frank Junior, Frank Senior, and the mysterious Anna (Loan Chabanol). Skrein is no substitute for Statham but the younger actor owns his role, presenting his Frank as both a capable brawler and car driver, as well as a vulnerable and principled hero. Ironically, if Refueled had been its own thing, separate from an established franchise and fan-favorite actor, Skrein’s character would have made a bigger impact, with more room to differentiate his suit-wearing getaway driver from the cavalcade of similar action heroes within the genre. As he is, Skrein is an adequate substitute who, aside from a few moments that make Frank his own, rarely gets to step out of Statham’s shadow.

Fortunately, Skrein’s interactions with supporting characters Anna and Frank Senior offer new layers to the titular hero – making the one-man-wrecking-crew slightly more human. While viewers will quickly realize there’s more to Frank Senior than meets the eye, charming banter and understated drama between the father and son are two of the best features of Refueled – even if Delamarre makes heavy-handed use of Stevenson within the machinations of the plot.

Conversely, Anna’s relationship with Frank is framed around many rote developments in any standard hero/damsel tale. Yet, outside of her attraction to Frank, Anna is a sharp and capable heroine on her own – one that successfully keeps the Transporter on his toes. Anna has all the necessary ingredients to be a noteworthy femme fatale but, sadly, Delamarre’s clumsy execution of the Refueled story (and its themes) ultimately squanders much of that potential.

The same can be said for Refueled‘s villains – one of the most generic and uninspired set of rogues to ever hit movie screens. After a painful introduction set in 1995 (where each actor is de-aged with a cheap wig and facial hair), Delamarre fast-forwards to present day – when the small time criminals have become nondescript mob bosses (complete with their own night clubs, private planes, and luxury yachts). Bukvic’s Arkady Karasov gets the most screen time, joined by his prostitute-turned lover, henchwoman, and arm candy Maissa (Noémie Lenoir), but the character’s backstory and connection to Frank are both convoluted, leaving nothing but a smarmy Eastern European stereotype as the antagonist to the Transporter. Worst of all, throughout the film, Karasov never takes inventive initiative and is just a passenger to his own misfortune: one who’s always one step behind Frank and Anna at every turn, undermining any sense of menace he could have commanded. The best he can offer, as far as obstacles go, is a generic army of meathead thugs for Frank to punch through. The Transporter Refueled is playing in standard and IMAX theaters – and there’s no reason to pay for a premium ticket. Aside from increased audio fidelity – which makes the high-revving car chases slightly more immersive – Delamarre’s film does not make use of IMAX screen real estate. The filmmaker includes plenty of engaging, and hyper-stylized getaway sequences (complete with cool slow-motion shots), and one especially entertaining fist fight; that alone should be enough to please action junkies looking for high-octane (though over-the-top) automotive pandemonium.

Still, even the best sequences only riff on ideas that have been executed better (on a bigger scale) before – and lose further car-movie credibility after brief, and downright choppy, shots have been cobbled together through a heavy-handed editing process.

Despite a lot of shortcomings and undercooked elements, The Transporter Refueled is a mildly entertaining action film that, sadly, is made worst by EuropaCorp’s attempts to shoe-horn Skrein and a relatively competent action-thriller storyline into The Transporter franchise. Following three films and a TV series, the Transporter frame actually holds Skrein, Delamarre, and the Refueled reboot back from doing something unique – a film that, with a little less desperation and a little more invention, could have developed its own cult-following. After all, The Transporter series got its start by iterating on prior getaway driver movies – rather than relying on a familiar label to sell it.

Viewers who enjoyed the action in prior Transporter movies, and don’t mind seeing a different actor behind the wheel, should find enough slick action to sate their appetite for vehicular thrills. Nonetheless, when all is said and done, Refueled amounts to little more than a (more often than not) subpar, and arguably unnecessary, franchise cash grab.

Aliens Full HD Movie

Aliens

The planet from Alien (1979) has been colonized, but contact is lost. This time, the rescue team has impressive firepower, but will it be enough 

Director : James Cameron

Writers: James Cameron (story), David Giler (story)

Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn

Move Review

"Aliens" is a sequel to the very effective 1979 film, "Alien," but it tells a self-contained story that begins 57 years after the previous story ended. The first time around, you may recall, Sigourney Weaver and a shipload of her fellow space voyagers were exploring a newly discovered planet when they found an abandoned spaceship. Surviving in the ship was an alien life-form that seemed to consist primarily of teeth. The aliens were pure malevolence; their only function was to attack and eat anything that was warm and moved. And they incubated their young inside the bodies of their victims.

Weaver was the only survivor of that first expedition, and after saving her ship by expelling an alien through the air lock into deep space, she put herself into hibernation. She is found 57 years later by a salvage ship, and when she awakes she is still tormented by nightmares. (The script does not provide her, however, with even a single line of regret after she learns that 57 years have passed and everyone she knew is dead.) A new expedition is sent back to the mystery planet. Weaver is on board. She knows what the aliens are like and thinks the only sane solution is to nuke them from outer space. But in the meantime, she learns to her horror that a human colony has been established on the planet and billions of dollars have been invested in it. Now Earth has lost contact with the colony. Has it been attacked by aliens? Are there stars in the sky? The crew is made up of an interesting mixed bag of technicians and military personnel. My favorites were Lance Henrikson as a loyal android, Jenette Goldstein as a muscular marine private and Michael Biehn as the uncertain Cpl. Hicks. Also on board is the slimy Burke (Paul Reiser), who represents the owners of the planet's expensive colony and dreams of making millions by using the aliens as a secret weapon.

The movie gives us just enough setup to establish the characters and explain the situation. Then the action starts. The colony has, of course, been overrun by the aliens, all except for one plucky little girl (Carrie Henn) who has somehow survived by hiding in the air ducts.

The marines explore the base on foot, which seems a little silly in view of the great speed with which the aliens attack. Nobody seems very interested in listening to Weaver's warnings. After all, she's only the one person who has seen an alien, so what does she know? And then the movie escalates into a nonstop war between human and alien.

It's here that my nerves started to fail. "Aliens" is absolutely, painfully and unremittingly intense for at least its last hour. Weaver goes into battle to save her colleagues, herself and the little girl, and the aliens drop from the ceiling, pop up out of the floor and crawl out of the ventilation shafts. (In one of the movie's less plausible moments, one alien even seems to know how to work the elevator buttons.) I have never seen a movie that maintains such a pitch of intensity for so long; it's like being on some kind of hair-raising carnival ride that never stops.

I don't know how else to describe this: The movie made me feel bad. It filled me with feelings of unease and disquiet and anxiety. I walked outside and I didn't want to talk to anyone. I was drained. I'm not sure "Aliens" is what we mean by entertainment. Yet I have to be accurate about this movie: It is a superb example of filmmaking craft.

The director, James Cameron, has been assigned to make an intense and horrifying thriller, and he has delivered. Weaver, who is onscreen almost all the time, comes through with a very strong, sympathetic performance: She's the thread that holds everything together.

The supporting players are sharply drawn. The special effects are professional. I'm giving the movie a high rating for its skill and professionalism and because it does the job it says it will do. I am also advising you not to eat before you go to see it.

TITANIC Full HD Movie

TITANIC

A seventeen-year-old aristocrat falls in love with a kind, but poor artist aboard the luxurious, ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic.

Director: James Cameron

Writer: James Cameron

Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane

Movie Storyline

Titanic is a love story which takes place on the famous boat Titanic. Rose, the main character is engaged to the wealthy Cal. Their engagement is disrupted when Rose meets the poor Jack. The difference in the two social classes cause for concern. If Rose decides to marry Cal, her and her mother will be financially stable. If she breaks her engagement, she wil be with the man that she loves.

Young, fiery Rose is making her way back to America on the Titanic with her mother and fiance, where she meets Jack Dosson. During the voyage, despite social status differences and the suggestions of everyone, they fall in love. Of course, her fiance isn't ver happy. When the Titanic starts sinking, Jack gets accused of stealing the famous diamond, and things are hectic. But they find each other before the ship goes down, and before he dies of freezing, Jack inspires Rose to never give up.

A truly great romance and disaster movie all rolled into one. Leonardo at his best plays a poor boy headed for America who catches the eye of a very rich beatiful Kate Winslet. It has two very strong plots one of romance and one of survial. There are many heartstopping and heartbreaking moments in this film that will leave you wondering if you would survive in the frigid waters after the sinking of the Titanic. It is a beautiful film with a sad story to tell , one of undying love that lives long after the credits roll.

This film provided the breakout role for Leonardo DiCaprio. It also focuses on the ill-fated maiden voyage of the luxury liner that hit a massive iceberg and caused many people to drown. The epic “Titanic” is James Cameron's 1997 Oscar-winning love story about what might have happened aboard the 1912 doomed ocean liner. 

On an underwater salvage mission, Brock Lovett (Bill Paxton) and his crew find only a nude female sketch instead of the $300,000 necklace they were seeking. When centenarian Rose Dawson-Calvert (Gloria Stuart) learns this, she steps forward revealing that she was the subject of the sketch. In April of 1912 the biggest, most beautiful, and "unsinkable" luxury liner in history took its maiden voyage from Britain to the U.S., struck an iceberg, and sank. Writer-director James Cameron wrapped a technically awe-inspiring recreation of this historic event around a fairly quotidian love story about a fictional heiress, betrothed to a wealthy cad, who falls in love with a poor artist who won his ticket to steerage in a poker game. DiCaprio and Winslet are all right as the leads, and the huge supporting cast includes Bill Paxton, Frances Fisher, Ioan Gruffudd, and David Warner. Gloria Stuart, who plays the heroine at age 101, had appeared in 42 films in the 1930s and was 86 when "Titanic" was made. Some of the dialogue is bad, some of the acting excruciating, but the spectacle is unparalleled and unforgettable. Some footage of the wreckage of the actual ship is included in the opening sequences. This 1997 film won 11 Oscars, mostly in technical categories save for Best Director, Best Song, and Best Picture. The ship was on its way to America and hit an iceberg. Loads of people died most of which were 3rd class.

The Matrix

The Matrix
A computer hacker learns from mysterious rebels about the true nature of his reality and his role in the war against its controllers. (136 mins.)

Director
The Wachowski Brothers, The Wachowski Brothers

Stars
Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving

Movie Review
Get this: what if all we know as reality was, in fact, virtual reality? Reality itself is a ravaged dystopia run by technocrat Artificial Intelligence where humankind vegetates in billions of gloop-filled tanks - mere battery packs for the machineworld - being fed this late '90s VR (known as The Matrix - you with us here?) through an ugly great cable stuck in the back of our heads. And what if there was a group of quasi-spiritual rebels infiltrating The Matrix with the sole purpose of crashing the ruddy great mainframe and rescuing humans from their unknown purgatory? And, hey, what if Keanu Reeves was their Messiah?
What sounds like some web freak's wet dream is, in fact, a dazzlingly nifty slice of sci-fi cool. The Wachowski Brothers (Andy and Larry - last seen dabbling in kinky lesbian noir with the excellent Bound) pulling off something like a million masterstrokes all at once. Taking the imprimatur of the video game, they meld the grungy noir of Blade Runner, the hyperkinetic energies of chopsocky, John Woo hardware and grandiose spiritual overtones into William Gibson's cyberpunk ethos to produce a new aesthetic for the millennium powered to the thudding beat of techno. And it is just incredible fun. The key is the technique of "flo-mo", a process born from Japanese animation, whereby an object in motion is seemingly frozen while the camera miraculously spins around it as if time and gravity are on hold. It grants the action (including some killer kung fu which Reeves and crew spent months perfecting) liberty to take on surreal visual highs. Superhuman feats permissible, of course, in the context of VR as the rebels download Herculean "talents" to fuel their subterfuge. Meanwhile, the audience can only gawp longingly, with its jaws thunking to the cinema floor in unison, as the heroes wrapped in skintight leather, sleek shades and designer cheekbones, spin up walls, leap from high rises and slip through streams of bullets in silken slo-mo. Tron this ain't.

Immediately reigniting the moribund cyberpunk genre (the kids can't get enough Stateside), this has thrust Reeves from his imploding career back to Speed highs (and laying to rest the hideous ghost of Johnny Mnemonic) and stolen much more of Star Wars' thunder than was thought humanly possible. For all its loony plot, The Matrix is fabulous.
Sure, the expert Fishburne is depended upon to expound the lion's share of the script as seer-like rebel leader Morpheus. Reeves, stunning in his newcast slenderness, as Thomas "Neo" Anderson, the hacker turned hope for all mankind (care of some ill-defined mystical calling) is asked little more than perpetual befuddlement. Like Speed, though, this movie plays on his iconic looks rather than his oak-like emoting. There's a major find, too, in the irresistible Carrie-Anne Moss, a majestically wrought combination of steely no-shit intelligence and rock-chick vivaciousness as fellow tripper Trinity. And Weaving, cast against type, neutralises his Aussie tones to a freaky deadpan, the head of the MiB-styled defence system set against the Goth invaders.
And sure, three minutes of post-movie deliberation and all this state-of-the-art cyberdevilry is reduced to the purest gobbledygook. That, though, is not the point. The Matrix is about pure experience; it's been many a moon since the Empire crew have spilled out of a cinema literally buzzing with the sensation of a movie, babbling frenetically with the sheer excitement of discovery.
From head to tail, the deliciously inventive Wachowskis (watch them skyrocket) have delivered the syntax for a new kind of movie: technically mind-blowing, style merged perfectly with content and just so damn cool, the usher will have to drag you kicking and screaming back into reality. You can bet your bottom dollar George never saw this phantom menace coming.

The Dark Knight Rises Full HD Movie

The Dark Knight Rises
Eight years after the Joker's reign of anarchy, the Dark Knight, with the help of the enigmatic Selina, is forced from his imposed exile to save Gotham City, now on the edge of total annihilation, from the brutal guerrilla terrorist Bane. (164 mins.)

Director
Christopher Nolan

Stars
Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Gary Oldman

Movie Review
At the time of writing this  The Dark Knight Rises review, it is impossible to view the finale to the story of Bruce Wayne and his crime-fighting alter-ego, Batman, as just a movie. The film arrives on a wave of massive hype, yet it is still trying to outrun the long shadow of its predecessor, The Dark Knight – a film that not only set a new bar for what a comic book movie could be, but also blew away critics, snagged two Oscars, and excited fans to the tune of a $1 billion worldwide box office. TDKalso changed the course of the industry by launching the “full IMAX” trend in filmmaking, and even coerced the Oscars to expand its Best Picture category to include more nominees (after Nolan’s film was snubbed).
In that sense, it’s almost impossible for The Dark Knight Rises to meet the level of expectation facing it – but has Chris Nolan managed to end his Batman legend on a note that will at once please fans and critics, tie off the story in proper fashion, and still deliver the biggest and best blockbuster movie experience of the year?
The answer to those looming questions is…sort of. The Dark Knight Rises does bring Nolan’s trilogy full-circle to a well-earned conclusion, and features a number of big blockbuster moments and will likely please many fans (and critics) – but it also stumbles in its execution of said conclusion, never really captures the sheer spectacle of films like The Dark Knight or Inception, and will ultimately leave some fans (and critics) cold with its very unique take on the Batman mythos.

Combining elements of Batman comic book storylines like “Knightfall,” “Knight Quest,” “No Man’s Land,” and “The Dark Knight Returns,” we pick up eight years after the events of The Dark Knight and are re-introduced to a Gotham City where organized crime has been effectively curtailed – thanks to the strict mandates of the “Harvey Dent Act.” Of course, that progress has been made based on a lie about how Harvey Dent died – a lie that has nearly crushed the spirits of Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) and Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale), the latter of whom has all but vanished into reclusion, as his “true” face, The Batman, is no longer needed (or wanted) on the streets.
However, the sudden appearance of a costumed thief (Anne Hathaway) heralds the rise of a great evil from deep within the bowels of Gotham: Bane (Tom Hardy), a ruthless and cunning terrorist who has come to the city to enact a plan that will take everything both Bruce Wayne and Batman have been fighting for, and twist it into a weapon used to destroy Gotham and the souls of its people. Bruce tries to don the cape and cowl again, but his time away has made both his spirit and body soft, while Bane is as hardened a villain as they come.
With foes at every turn, and his city under siege, Bruce Wayne must rediscover the strength within that made him Batman in the first place – and this time, he’ll need help from friends like Gordon, Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), the unscrupulous Selina Kyle (Hathaway) and rookie cop John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), if he hopes to win the war against an army of criminals and mercenaries that Bane sets loose on the streets of Gotham.

Director Chris Nolan has crafted his most visually sophisticated Batman movie yet, and from a directorial standpoint, The Dark Knight Rises is a pretty stunning achievement. From the set pieces, to the brilliant visual iconography, to the action sequences that seem to never stop and almost always thrill (at least somewhat), the film is just visually impressive. With a significant chunk of the footage having been shot using IMAX cameras, TDKR isn’t just visually impressive; it’s visually impressive on a massive scale. No question about it: pay for the IMAX upgrade, because without it, you’re only getting half of the experience this film offers.
Batman Begins was a standard superhero origin tale (as uniquely constructed by Chris Nolan); The Dark Knight was more of an intricate crime drama than a superhero flick. In terms of story, The Dark Knight Rises is very much a war drama – a fact that may be off-putting to some viewers looking for “the comic book movie experience.” Those who still (stubbornly) cling to the notion that the Nolan Bat-films should be more pulpy fun and less gritty drama will find that this finale delivers even more of what they disliked about TDK – the dark and gritty tone, the lengthy and convoluted story – this time without the balance of a villain (and performance) as stunningly charismatic and fun as Heath Ledger’s Joker.

As for the villain we do get: Tom Hardy’s Bane isn’t as lively as The Joker – and some fanboys will say not as complex or engaging as his comic book counterpart – but he does serve his purpose here, which is to function not as a unique character so much as an exaggerated vision of our worst fears about terrorism, embodied in a man. Hardy manages to bring the villain a bit of depth using just his eyes and body language as tools of expression – an impressive performance that may get largely overlooked due to the (sure to be pervasive) sentiment that Bane isn’t as “cool” a villain as someone like The Joker.
Anne Hathaway offers the biggest surprise performance, shedding her own doe-eyed persona to fully inhabit the character of Selina Kyle, a master thief who plays by her own set of often ambiguous morals. Selina (better known, but never referred to in the film as “Catwoman”) steals virtually every scene she’s in, thanks to a mix of sultry allure, sharp wit, and impressive physicality. Hathaway definitely leaves her own stamp on the character, delivering in both the action and dramatic moments required of her.
To his credit, Nolan’s “Catwoman” is easily his best-written and casted female character to date – an area where the acclaimed director has been continuously criticized. By comparison, Marion Cotillard’s Miranda Tate is pretty much a standard Nolan one-note  female character (despite some effort to develop her), and doesn’t prove to be as interesting as she could’ve been.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt steps up to offer a compelling performance as John Blake, an obscure Batman comic book character refashioned here as a young cop who struggles with the idea of working within the system of law and order, leading him to ally with Batman and Commissioner Gordon. Levitt has the tendency to seem boyish in a lot of his roles – Inception, (500) Days of Summer – but in this film he  broadens his range as a mature tough-as-nails cop with a big heart and sharp mind. In the middle act of the film – where screenwriters Chris Nolan, Johnathan Nolan and David S. Goyer threaten to let things meander too far – Gordon-Levitt (with a helping hand from Hathaway) manages to carry the film, despite the fact that he’s wearing a simple police uniform, rather than some elaborate superhero costume.
The returning cast members are split down the middle in terms of what they’re given to do in this final chapter. Christian Bale gets to exercise much more acting muscle outside of the mask this time – and in many ways, Dark Knight Rises is a Bruce Wayne story, rather than a Batman story. Bale brings his character to a close with a nuanced and carefully-layered performance, and if there are any who still doubt that he is the best Bruce Wayne/Batman we’ve seen, it’ll be hard for them to prove that point once they’ve had a look at Dark Knight Rises.

Michael Caine trades his usual comic relief schtick for a surprisingly earnest and emotional turn as Bruce Wayne’s butler/confidant/surrogate father, Alfred Pennyworth. Here we find an Alfred worn down by his own failure to spare Bruce the life of darkness and pain he’s fashioned for himself – and in that sense, Nolan and Caine delve deeper into the character than any other depiction – on the comic book page or screen – ever has. It’s a rewarding venture.
Gary Oldman (Commissioner Gordon) and Morgan Freeman (Lucius Fox) are given far less to do in this film, as their functions in the narrative – moral support and guidance for Bruce Wayne/Batman – are largely delegated to some of the new players (Levitt). Other character actors make appearances in some minor roles, but by and large, the ensemble works very well. Hans Zimmer’s music for this film only captures a fraction (albeit, a large one) of the greatness found in his Dark Knightscore, while conversely, the photography and cinematography of longtime Nolan collaborator Wally Pfister are better than ever.
The Nolan Brothers and David S. Goyer’s script for Dark Knight Rises will probably be the biggest point of contention amongst fans. As stated, this is a war drama (with obvious shades of A Tale of Two Cities influence) but the story is able to incorporate real-world socio-political subtext into its narrative, without leaning on it too heavily. This is both a good and bad thing, since that timely subtext provides substance to go along with this pulpy world of superhero fantasy – but ultimately, the filmmakers decide to elevate the pulp over other food for thought, negating much of what that rich subtext tries to introduce.
Of the three lengthy acts in the film, Act 1 is something of a rushed affair (handled with the usual Nolan break-neck-speed editing techniques), while Act 2 is a montage of events that push the new characters center stage, while the established primary characters are relegated to the background (a transition that, again, will leave some fans cold). Act 3 of The Dark Knight Rises brings things to an end in spectacular fashion, with big blockbuster set pieces and a poignant, rousing, conclusion that will leave fans celebrating the character so many of them have loved or been inspired by.
While Nolan’s Batman finale isn’t perfect, and may not be the greatest installment of the trilogy, it does manage to solidify this three-part tale of the Batman legend as one of the best ever told – in any medium – while also delivering (one of) the best blockbuster movie experiences of the summer.
The Dark Knight Rises is now playing in theaters everywhere. It is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some sensuality and language.