The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

The final instalment of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy is both the greatest visually, but the weakest character and plot-wise, but not by much. Batman is driven to seclusion because he has been vilified in the media and he just wants to hide away anyhow. Enter both Catwoman (a slinky marginalized toughy who just needs someone to love her) and Robin (a young beat cop with a heart for orphans) to draw the Dark Knight from his cave. But the real conjurer is the new supervillain Bane who holds Gotham hostage with bombs developed by Batman's tech corp.

The drama is interesting if you can follow what Bane says through is mask and you can buy the storyline if you cast concerns about timelines aside (especially for Batman's bones to knit in the pit). Not sure why I'm so negative on this all of a sudden, maybe I've grown tired of this genre... I do find the bigger questions asked by Bane compelling and the underground movements to thwart him are inspiring and of course the death and resurrection themes are always sublime.

Iron Man 2 (2010)

Fluff with glamour & effects. Not much else to say except that it didn't live up to its predecessor.

Official Site | IMDB

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)

Awesome flick about relationships from an insecure guy's perspective. Michael Cera plays himself, but the lines he delivers, the special effects, and throbbing soundtrack make this introspective film come alive.

Official Site | IMDB

Kick-Ass (2010)

No super powers in this comic book to film, but the villains are real and the fighting can give a guy a concussion.

A high school kid decides to beat the humdrum feeling of being a nobody and puts on a superhero suit and decides to go out and fight crime. It isn't long before he's in over his head and his ass gets kicked. Fortunately, he's not the only one with the idea and he gets some back up.

The power in this film is how it captures adolescence, how it boldly places violence on a slab without any gloss, how it gives voice to a generation that doesn't want to tiptoe around the issues.

Official Site | IMDB

Iron Man (2008)

Back to comic books - this time with a loose cannon, self-involved, and cavalier hero, and of course he's a billionaire too.

Tony Stark co-owns a wildly successful weapons manufacturing corporation, in fact he's the inventive force behind it. When he is captured and wounded in Afghanistan, he dresses his wound with a powerful energy thingy that helps him escape his captors. Once he's back home and has gained clarity, he decides to turn his trinket into powering an armoured suit and he fights misuse of his company's weapons and then his own company.

As far as action hero flicks go, this one is full of sophisticated and adult humour making it far more successful among young adults as opposed to the teen gang. Robert Downey Jr. makes the film with usual cunning and jerky movements.

Official Site | IMDB

Astérix aux jeux olympiques (2008)

Well-loved French comic book heroes Astérix and Obélix return to the big screen in an epic tale of the little guy winning against the tyrant.

Traveling from Gaul, the only remaining non-Roman province in Europe, Asterix and his spherical sidekick attend the olympics in Athens to support their friend who has fallen in love with a Greek princess. Here they must thwart the illegal efforts of the Emperor's son who also has an eye for the princess.

The entire thing is simply farce with very little tongue in cheek commentary on politics, which is too bad, because the comics did have their fair share of satire. The effects are acceptable, but the entire story is weak and random.

Official Site | IMDB

Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)

Hellboy is back and this time he's married to his sweetheart and his nemesis is just as hellbent. Guillermo del Toro directs the sequel too.

An elven prince is out to unleash a mechanical army that was put to sleep eons ago as a truce between humans and elves. Hellboy stands in his way.

Again the humour in the film makes it more entertaining than preachy. The underlying theme of good triumphing over evil still shines through though.

Official Site | IMDB

Hellboy (2004)

Yet another of the comic book franchise, this time from Dark Horse Comics (Conan, Buffy). Hobbit director Guillermo del Toro takes this one on.

This rather funny tale with great visual effects is about a little demon who is raised by a CIA agent and fights on the side of good. Rasputin, a near immortal conjurer, seeks to use Hellboy in his scheme to destroy the world. The two duke it out.

Hellboy stands out among the superhero movies that I've seen in that it is more willing to embrace humour than coolness. It's protagonist is not perfect (now a common superhero theme), but he's also not at all human except that he's been forced to fit into society and is now an extra-societal protector of society.

Official Site | IMDB

Watchmen (2009)

This year's big budget graphic novel epic has arrived following the massive successes of 300 and Sin City. As expected, the crowds came out, the visual effects department delivered, there was plenty of graphic violence, a gratuitous sex scene, and the characters were deeply flawed.

What would the United States be like if there were superhero crime fighters? Well, Watchmen is one person's interpretation. Only one of the characters is gifted with actual superpowers and that is Dr. Manhattan who was departicalized in a nuclear accident - now he can do pretty much everything he wants. His main job though is to stave off nuclear war with the Soviets. The bad guy, a secret until the end, wants to get the missiles in the air. And the real hero is Rorschach, a manic-revenge guy who is the only one still wearing a cape.

While the film is a great production as a whole, it doesn't quite nail the whole issue of human nature as it means to and aside from Rorschach, the characters are slightly boring. The soundtrack rocks, Malin Akerman looks great and so do a few choice scenes, but it ultimately fails to provoke.

Official Site | IMDB

Persepolis (2007)

Based on a graphic novel about and by the author, Persepolis gives us a unique look at the Iranian revolution and what it meant to grow up there.

Marjane is only a young girl when much of the political upheaval begins, but she experiences more as Iraq attacks the Iran and the Islamist fundamentalists take over. She is decidedly strong in her resistance and rebels against everything.

The story is very compelling as is the gorgeous animation. The sequences with God are particularly intriguing. 

Official Site | IMDB

The Dark Knight (2008)

At 2 1/2 hours long, this film was too short. It was also amazing, so I shouldn't complain. I've seen all of Christopher Nolan's films now and he hasn't disappointed me yet.

Following the destruction of Wayne Manor in Batman Begins, Bruce Wayne/Batman moves into a new, more urban location, and fortunately for him (or because of him), Gotham City is much safer and cleaner than it was. Until the Joker shows up. 

What is very impressive is that the Joker doesn't simply rely on one-liners to make the character (though there are some choice ones). He personifies a mad blend of nihilism, destruction, anarchy, and circus performer. Heath Ledger soared.

Identity is discussed at length. Is a man what he stands for? Is a man what he presents to the public? For a masked crusader and villain, the questions are quite relevant, as they are for us.

The effects, design, pacing, and writing are fabulous. I just wish there were more.

Truths: If it's justice you seek, you must be just. There are those who, when given the opportunity, reveal the best of humanity while others will reveal the worst.

Official Site | IMDB

Spider-Man 3 (2007)

For a film that got mixed reviews, I didn't think it was too bad. Nothing too new and perhaps a little overstated, but not too bad.

This time Peter Parker battles a little thing called revenge (along with three villains, well, two). His relationship with Mary Jane becomes loaded with challenges too, though it's nothing a good sit down conversation can't fix.

The film's emphases on drama doesn't do well for the picture, especially when everything seems to have be over explained with words and facial expressions. The film's strengths come from the visual effects and the fun had. The latest installment of Spider-man runs far longer than it should and the producers ought to have considered splitting it into 2 movies of 1:45 each.

Truth: Revenge yields neither justice nor satisfaction, but rather it reveals a darkness of the heart. Forgiveness reveals righteousness and yields healing.

Official Site | IMDB

The Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys (2002)

This movie is tagged as a coming of age movie; essentially it pits two boys against order and structure characterized by a Roman Catholic school. What it did quite well was brought the viewer, at least for me as a man, back to what it felt like to be a boy on the verge of manhood.

The first thing it did is it didn't clean up the boys too much by giving them clever one-liners, though some of the mooshy stuff was gag aweful, but most teenage poetry is that way, so maybe it belonged. The boys did what boys do: ride bikes, make up fantasy worlds, talk about girls, and rebel in their individual way.

The acting by the kids was great. Jenna Malone has yet to disappoint me and Kieran Culkin is awesome. Jodi Foster was a disappointment though. I'm not sure if it was bland acting or writing. I need to learn to tell the difference.

An interesting distinction of Alter Boys is that it incorporates a comic book animation to help tell the story. I found this very effective in lending some lateral strength to the boy's characters and motives.

I am quite tired of the Catholic cliché of being the granite wall to break through to freedom. Perhaps it is used because there are indeed so many people who went to Catholic school (I did). But I find it very uninteresting. Could they maybe have used something like... hmmm, there isn't anything else besides sports that counts as a standard societal passage into manhood. Therein lies the real problem.

IMDB