At the Movies – July 2012 – Part 3: Most Anticipated Films

Must See of the Month:

The Dark Knight Rises (Christopher Nolan) – Adventure Crime Thriller – Jul 20

Summary: The final chapter to The Dark Knight Trilogy. The story begins eight years after Batman took the fall for Harvey Dent’s crimes. A new terrorist group led by Bane has run rampage over Gotham and its police force. Bruce Wayne must bring Batman back for one final struggle to save Gotham. Filmmakers: Writer-director Chris Nolan is probably the most prolific of his generation, being an auteur who has achieved excellent critical praise and enormous box office success with his films (and has yet, seven films in, to make a bad or even marginal film). He has his Batman Begins and The Dark Knight team back behind the camera with Jonathan Nolan and David Goyer also working on the screenplay and story (respectively), producer Emma Thomas, composer Hans Zimmer, cinematographer Wally Pfister, editor Lee Smith, and production designer Nathan Crowley (who is working with Kevin Kavanaugh, the supervising art director on The Dark Knight). Cast: Also returning are star Christian Bale, co-stars Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, and Morgan Freeman and Liam Neeson and Nestor Carbonell in support. New are co-stars Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Marion Cotillard, Aidan Gillen, Matthew Modine, and Juno Temple in support. It is a fantastic cast, and probably the best of any film so far this year. Expectations: As much as I was looking forward to The Avengers and Moonrise Kingdom (my two favorite films of 2012 so far), neither was even close to the anticipation I have for The Dark Knight Rises. I fully expect it to be the best film of the year (anything less would be sort of a letdown, which is a lot to put on a film and filmmaker, but that is honestly the pressure than most fans have put on Nolan). I have said that Spider-Man 2 is my favorite superhero/comic book film and that is true, but The Dark Knight and Batman Begins are right there with it. Nolan has brought so much to the film version of Batman (forever changing the landscape for darker heroes), and with Raimi really promoted comic book films not only as money-makers but as wonderful genre films that are not just among the best of a given year but of the decade as well. The action is going to be great, but really what sets Nolan’s Batman ahead of other adventure/action/crime films are his deep and well-drawn characters (starting with his impeccable casting). I am really excited to see what Gordon-Levitt, Cotillard, Temple, and especially Hardy bring to the franchise (following in big footsteps – both from returning and non-returning cast members). Hathaway is not an actress I really seek out in movies, but I completely trust Nolan and think her Selina Kyle will be good. The Dark Knight Rises is the must-see of July. Re-watch Batman Begins and The Dark Knight and get ready for something special on July 20^th (and if you can, see it in IMAX, as over an hour of the film is shot with IMAX cameras). Trailer: Here. Review: Here.