Last night I went to see Dark Knight Rises and I'm here to give you an non spoiler quick review if you haven't seen it. I don't pay attention to the underlying elements that real critics nitpick about. I could care less if the score of the film flows properly with the pace of the film. What I watch movies for is a good story line, good acting, a believable plot, hopefully a twist or two and I like to be entertained. Pretty simple, no?
Let's take a step back first because the newest films deals more with the Batman Begins more than it does The Dark Knight. I highly recommend you re-watch that one before seeing Dark Knight Rises. That's about as much as I'll say in regards to that plot line.
The final installment of the Batman trilogy from the mind of Christopher Nolan is a much darker and serious film than was The Dark Knight. Gone are the snappy one liners from The Joker and the much needed comedic elements to offset a dreary setting that is Gotham. It may look like New York, but the city is more like Seattle during the rainy season and Alaska during the winter time when the sun is barely seen. The newest villain, Bane, is in the mold of The Terminator. He does not laugh, he doesn't have feelings, but just rather is focused on the end goal of total annihilation.
The closest the film gets to a happy moment is the rare back and forth banter between Batman and Catwoman, who is played just right by Anne Hathaway. When Michelle Pfeiffer portrayed the same character in 1992, the character felt more like a comic book character than a movie character. I'll ignore the Halle Berry movie all together. This go around the Catwoman is still devious, still vicious and still has an elegance to the fight sequences.
I had read that the first half of the movie could be seen as confusing because of the introduction of all the players in the film. This is true, but Nolan quickly weaves together the loose ends and the story races to a very satisfying climax. The biggest issue I had with the film is that it was really difficult to understand Bane. Forget all the complaints about how low and incoherent Christian Bale sounds as Batman, Bane needed subtitles. I am sure any fan of the first two movies will enjoy the third one, but don't go into expecting a tour de force of superior acting performances and action sequences that were seen in The Dark Knight. I still believe that one was the best of the three because it captured all the emotions that are expected in an epic film. This one was more of a middle film like Empire Strikes Back in the Star Wars trilogy where the protagonist struggles to rediscover himself and then flourishes in the finale. Okay that's enough...I'll stop right there. Go see it and enjoy.
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While I was out last night the Oakland Athletics trounced the Toronto Blue Jays 16-0. You've heard enough of me on this team, but when you win 16-0 it opens eyes. The Blue Jays are no Yankees, but its very difficult to beat even the worst of teams by 16. Is this team starting to remind me of the 'Moneyball' team from 2002 who had that 20 game win streak?? No. Do you realize Oakland was already 17 games over .500 when they won 20 in a row? That's like the Washington Nationals tearing off 15 more from today. The 2002 teams was 20-26 at one point before finishing with 103 wins to only 59 losses...that a nice little 83-33 clip folks.
Of course we all know that the 2002 team fizzled in October as have all the other recent good Athletics teams and I expect this one to hit the wall eventually as well. Without mortgaging the future, Oakland isn't going to fill all of their holes this season. They need to stay the course and continue to pray for a new stadium which will bring a new television contract and new money and hopefully the ability to hang onto some young talent.
Okay that's it about the A's this go around...I'm sure by even mentioning that magical number 20 that they'll lay an egg this afternoon and lose 8-1.
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