Nolan's Trilogy

Christopher Nolan is a world renowned director that has directed some of the best movies from the last decade and in present time. Although the words brilliance and geniosity are of the highest complimentary words, they do apply for him, because not only do I praise almost every one of his films released so far, the world thinks the same as well.

Memento(2000) was his first masterpiece, a critical acclaimed psychological thriller that dazzled the viewers with an original take on delivering a story. The Prestige(2006), what seemed to be filmed in such a short time, made an outstanding narrative structure that dealt with the three stages of performing a magic trick. And Inception(2010) was such an unusual amazing sci-fi about the complexity of the phenomena of dreams that I was just speechless once the credits rolled.

But the post of today will concentrate on Nolan's trilogy concerning Batman, the world famous comic book character. He has rejuvenated the reboot of the dark knight's film history so largely, that it will be almost impossible to top it off with another eventual reboot in the future.

The three movies are designed so wonderfully, as this comic book world situated in the fictional Gotham City has come to life through these dark and long crime thriller movies. Especially now, looking back at them, it's a great feeling, knowing that Batman has been restored completely.

Batman Begins

  

"When a forest grows too wild, a purging fire is inevitable and natural."

Uncover the beginning of a young billionaire, his parents taken from him at an early age, and the story about how he overcomes his fear. Batman Begins introduces to us the key characters for the rest of the trilogy. Bruce Wayne travels the world, and is then offered by Ra's al Ghul in Bhutan to join him in the League of Shadows, who are dedicated into bringing justice.

It is here that his martial arts, escapology, stealth and disguises are trained professionally, but Bruce does not fully agree with the goal of his fellow colleagues. Back at home after years of learning more about the criminal underworld, with the help of Alfred the loyal butler and Fox the technologist, he creates his crime-fighting persona, Batman.

Batman is the spotlight of this film because his backstory has been developed in such depths, and his ideals and his normal human character are clearly fleshed out as well, which makes it such a joy to see him starting a rebellion against the criminals and the corrupt.

As he creates a new partner relationship with Sgt. James Gordon as well as meeting Rachel Dawes again, Gotham City is steadily learning about the arrival of the Batman. A large conspiracy between the mob, an insane psychologist named Dr. Jonathan Crane and the League of Shadows is heading its way towards destroying the city, and it is up to Batman to stop this from succeeding.

The story is told in a much more serious tone than previous Batman films and Nolan has stated and shown numerous of times that he desired it to be taking place in a realistic world, allowing for rational events to happen, while still keeping the comic touch intact.

It is the beginning of a legend.

The Dark Knight

"You thought we could be decent men in an indecent time. But you were wrong. The world is cruel, and the only morality in a cruel world is chance. Unbiased. Unprejudiced. Fair."  

Words of wisdom engulf abound this highly graphical movie. This sequel has raised the bar of superhero movies beyond recognition, and The Dark Knight delivers entirely with it's chaotic story, the brilliant and engrossing characters, an epic soundtrack and an unbelievable great climax and ending.

The Dark Knight's namesake has almost dealt with all of the organized crime in Gotham City by launching an assault onto the mob, but despite the efforts made alongside Gordon and Harvey Dent's actions, none of the involved could predict this agent of chaos appearing.

An insane psychopath with a sadistic sense of humor known only as the Joker uproars both the mob and the cops by introducing a little anarchy here and there with delightful joy, making the people's despair grow as he attempts to prove that chaos is fair.

While Batman is busy at first with the assault, eventually everyone must surrender together to bring down this unpredictable madman that fools and kills everyone. From liquidating police officers to kidnapping important people towards Bruce, the white knight Harvey and his love, Rachel, the conflict between these two opposites is best seen during the interrogation scene.

As it is at one point presumed that the Joker has finally been defeated, he cleverly escapes, while Harvey grieves and rages for the loss of Rachel as Batman came for the rescue. He is such a tragic character that once he has transformed into Two Face literally and mentally, which is shown in an intellectual way, you just can't help but to feel sorry and hateful for him.

With his state of dualism as well as his chance of luck attitude, he judges corrupt officials and mobsters and decides the fates of them who are responsible for Rachel's death. As his delusional crusade continues, the dark knight confronts the Joker one last time during a highly dangerous social experiment involving two ferry boats full of two different groups.

Exchanging out their ideals, Batman hurries quickly towards stopping Dent, and during an immense amount of intelligent dialogue happening, he ends the rampage. But because of the circumstances and Dent's murders, the dark knight decides to blame the crimes onto himself instead, allowing the police force to perform a manhunt on him, while hope remains protected.

Nolan really blew my mind when I watched this unfold at the premiere. I was never that intensified as before in any other movie when speaking of the performances, sounds, action scenes and memorable quotes. A very strong cast of actors made The Dark Knight a timeless classic and truly unforgettable for me.

The Joy versus the Dark versus the Fallen.

The Dark Knight Rises

"Ah! I was wondering what would break first: your spirit, or your body!"

In the end however, the best had still to come with Nolan's final Batman story. And saying that sounds unbelievable when looking back at Batman Begins and The Dark Knight already. But he really outdid himself once again after I understood the cycle of the trilogy.

As a vastly valuable conclusion towards Nolan’s trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises delivers in every way and ends satisfying. Batman has retired, and Bruce Wayne has lived reclusively for the last 8 years in his manor while organized crime has almost vanished away thanks to the efforts of commissioner Gordon and the Dent Law. 

However, a storm of a rising army is coming. The events that played in the previous films show their awful consequences in here, as the League of Shadows returns, and Gotham City has branded Batman an enemy since he took the false responsibility of the white knight’s murders.

Several new characters make their debut here. John Blake is a determined patrol officer about fighting crime and believing that the Bat will return. Miranda Tate proposes to the board at Wayne Enterprises about a new experimental project that promises to deliver sustainable clean energy for the whole city. And John Daggett, another board member, has plans to take over Wayne Enterprises, conspiring with others to achieve this.

Selina Kyle is a troubling jewel thief that knows how to protect herself and uses feminine ways to get to goals, while basically letting the plot progress by stealing Bruce’s fingerprints early on. And Bane is the new major villain, who is phenomenally performed by Tom Hardy, displaying intensive body language and eye stares that are hard to ignore, while delivering with an unusual voice that often sounds like an ironic gentle one, considering his insidious strength.

He is entirely menacing in a different way towards Batman because he is physically and mentally able to bring down the dark knight to the bottom, and on top of that, he has two grand plans for Gotham City as a refined strategist. One is to give the civilians and accused prisoners their city back from the oppressors, giving them false hope, because the second plan is to blow the city up with the neutron bomb that has been converted out of the clean energy device thanks to nuclear fusion.

There are reasons for his second plan of course. First is to make sure that no one escapes the island or should it all somehow fail. Second of all is to provide a social commentary onto the world during the uprising, letting a wrecked city’s citizens destroy it all by themselves in full despair, while the neutronbomb is a tool to further spread the anarchy and to keep the people in bay.

While the police force try their best to fulfill their jobs, Batman had been defeated by Bane after breaking his back. Before that happened, he forcefully returned shortly because of various events happening such as the attack on the stock exchange building and Kyle’s activities. 

He resides in the same prison that Bane used to be in, and there, he must recover from his injuries, while learning of overcoming the prison’s challenge, which is attempting to rise out of it’s only exit, sitting above the complex and showing us the shining light.

In the end, everything comes to a close, as Batman miraculously returns after overcoming the challenge and his old fear, rallying and aiding Gotham’s protagonist forces towards the League of Shadows and their Black Gate Prison inmates. 

Gordon tries his best to track down the neutronbomb, the police force charges at the criminals and their stolen Applied Sciences technology, Lucius Fox, John Blake and Alfred Pennyworth support everyone in their own ways, Selina is sceptical about escaping or turning back and Batman encounters Bane in a final large battlefield. 

After so many previous action scenes, this was the highlight because here, the chaos was shown beautifully. Miranda betrays Batman after questioning Bane, revealing herself as Talia. Burning with revenge as she claims that Batman killed her father, she will first fulfill her father's draconian mission.

As Talia escapes with the neutronbomb, Bane recovers emotionally and ignores what she said towards him, attempting to kill Batman. Selina then blasts Bane to death, rescuing Batman, and he proceeds towards stopping Talia.

Intensively chasing her and facing off against two experimental prototype tanks, her father’s work is finally stopped after Batman destroys the truck’s route, letting it fall downwards, killing Talia but she is convinced that the bomb can no longer be stopped. The dark knight’s new batpod, which had been used several times in the movie already, quickly delivers the bomb away from the city and into the ocean next towards it, ending the nightmare.

In the epilogue, we see that all is well for the surviving characters, as Bruce and Selina are spotted in Italy by Alfred, the Wayne estate is divided up and changed into a child orphanage, believing Bruce and thus Batman to be dead, Fox discovers that the flawed autopilot on his aircraft had been fixed and Blake quits the police force, but inherits the Batcave, while revealing his true name to someone as Robin.

The Dark Knight Rises is an absolute worthy finale towards Nolan’s trilogy because Batman is no more, Bruce Wayne’s legendary story is finished here while he leaves his legacy towards Robin, partially.

It has once again an amazing soundtrack featured in all three films by Hans Zimmerman, a great cinematography supported by IMAX, strong established characters with deep connections towards others, a complex plot with a large scope and intelligent dialogue, writing and a pace that is unbeatable because despite running almost for three hours, it felt like the movie was over before I knew it.

Although the narrative gaps can be confusing, they did not hurt at all after giving them some thought. And most of the criticism towards the movie, just like with the previous two, is because of countless subjective arguments and suspend of disbelief moments that could easily had been explained by using your own imagination correctly. Because surely there are some minor plot holes probably, but definitely nothing extremely or hurtful.

Coining the term plothole around then as some people have done now upon the release of The Dark Knight Rises is a serious confrontation towards attempting to exploit any weaknesses, but in reality, there are no extreme gaping holes, as the stories are told in such depths, while background activities answer some burning questions as well. 

Even the relationship between Talia and Bane enlarged both characters for me, because they were a prominent team in order for the mission to become victorious. It doesn’t matter if you liked the twist or not, the twist mattered because it explained both characters even more, and so many questions before the climax got now answered, like a good twist is supposed to do.

The ending is fantastic, because not only did it stay partially true to the comics, it also stood partially true to the trilogy itself. Bruce was tired and aging, the flame had to be passed on. As a symbol, this was definitely achieved. As a successor, most likely because of Blake’s discovery. It was a fitting closure, yet at the same time, it showed us that the legacy could continue.

I deepfully praise Christopher Nolan and the casts for bringing these serious crime themed movies towards the public, for they all had a worthy story to tell about morality, symbols, dark emotions and difficult choices.

Fatal Frame II

This authentic remake is an eerie game developed by Tecmo, and apparently, Nintendo has bought the rights of the franchise now. Fatal Frame II is most likely the scariest and most qualified experience you will get out of your Wii console.

Twin sisters stumble upon what seems to be a deserted town, and the night is dark everywhere surrounding it. Mio and Mayu feel strangely attracted towards it, and together, they must try to escape and along the way, uncover the hidden intentions of the town's former people.

Fatal Frame II's weapon of choice is the Camera Obscura, capable of observing different kind of ghosts, including hostile ones. Your job is to make pictures of preferably all of them, so that you are able to survive and also get more experience points, making you able to upgrade powerups.

Many scary parts await you inside and outside. There will be plenty of "Touch" moments, where your main character slowly starts reaching out for a shining item. During this moment, it is possible that a ghost hand might visit and scare you. At other times, nothing will happen. But during rare moments, some really unexpected things can happen.

But there are many other ways the gamer will be thrilled about, including the atmosphere, which is about 90% covered into darkness, and the soundtrack, letting our ears listen to some effective haunting tunes which are quite unnerving.

On top of that, there is a psychotic storyline playing about the occult, strange ceremonies and essentially, vessels or chosen ones. Although, because it is Japanese, it might not instantly be disturbing at the first thought.

From what I have been told, this remake includes new graphics, a new point of view(3rd person), new areas, new endings and extra scares, including a new Haunted House mode, which is worth mentioning, because it's such a random ride of different scares each time, and a great reason to try to scare others.

The weakest factor of Fatal Frame II is probably the way "combat" sometimes plays out. The Camera Obscura has the tendency to shake around the player's view at certain times, but later on, I figured out that this was some of the ghosts's doing, disturbing your point of view basically with some of their attacks.

Anyhow, even though the combat can be entertaining to do, sometimes these disturbances hindered the overall enjoyment of progressing further. Don't be bothered by this if you are thinking of trying Fatal Frame II, because it certainly is a horror title worth playing, even if it's your first one storywise.

Honestly, the game truly started getting creepy around chapter six, when you are about to explore a doll maker's collection throughout a building. My anticipation moments were getting more intense, because my assumptions about what could happen next were clouded in vain.

Tecmo has done a splendid job upon remaking and bringing this over to Europe, and now I am interested in the rest of the titles. Could we see a Fatal Frame V landing upon the embarking Wii U? It's certainly possible, what with the release of this, Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir on the 3DS and the Japanese Wii exclusive Fatal Frame IV already.

Rating: 8.3

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Having read Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future already, binding my interest into the eccentric writer known as Friedrich Nietzsche, I purchased a second book of his, which happens to be his most famous published work.

Thus Spoke Zarathustra is an illogical poetric story about a lonely wise man from the mountains, Zarathustra, who descends from them one day, breaking his solitude and claims to the men wandering around that God is dead. Humanity has bastardized him into oblivion, he ceases to be functional, be it by concept, spirituality or even as a machine.

What seems to be the largest topic after all during the story is the man's opinions about humanity, how we are so ironic, foolish and deluded at times, and morality is once again spoken of, like Nietzsche's previous book. He even proposes a prophecy concept of the "Übermensch" during this, as some kind of superior version of humans.

But other topics make their way as well, such as animals, solitude, and revenge, to name some. The main difference between these two books is that one of them is a philosophical novel and the other is an expanded work from the former, removing the story and becoming a critical insight towards several groups.

Themes such as the will to power, mankind's constant rise towards achieving that source, and eternal recurrence, the idea that all events that have happened will happen again, are importantly displayed here as well.

The book is a constant testament towards Zarathustra's ramblings, which seem quite random at times. But below the claims of the Persian prophet lies remarkable tales of wisdom, at least, from what I was able to pick out of them.

Having said all of that though, this was another difficult book for me to read, but nonetheless, I was entertained and submitted towards the writing, unlike a previous poetic based book I read as well. Even so, I prefer Beyond Good and Evil towards this instead.

Rating: **