Gotham looks set to crumble in The Dark Knight Rises

361 days is generally a long time to wait for majority of life’s big days. Your wedding, your birthday, your graduation even. At this stage people wouldn’t tend to ponder over their next big champagne moment. Unless you’re Rupert Murdoch and you’ve survived another year without stepping foot into a prison cell. But for fans of the Caped Crusader, known to some as the multi-millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne, others more familiar with his vigilante crime fighter Batman, The Dark Knight Rises is on many a calendar penned in for 20^th July 2012. The final part of Christopher Nolan’s epic Batman trilogy is by far my most hotly anticipated movie since his last piece of true craftsmanship in the mind bending and mind blowing Inception.  

This week we have all been treated to the first teaser trailer to TDKR and in true Chris Nolan fashion very little is revealed bar a short convo with a bed ridden Gary Oldman (reprising his role as Commissioner Gordon) and Bruce Wayne discussing the current evil rising and of the need for the Batman to return. Wrapping the 95 second promo up are a few sneaky shots of Tom Hardy’s masked brute, Bane facing-off with Christian Bale’s Bat. I couldn’t have expected anymore from the opening trailer to the already fascinating Viral Marketing campaign to next Summer’s big’un which has already seen an image of  the muscular villain, Bane, the film’s official site with the chant “The Fire Rises” playing and the first official poster which looks all the more Inception-y with the towering Gotham falling outlining the Bat symbol.

An official plot is yet to be revealed but one can only speculate that the Batman is pulled out of hiding (when we last saw the Caped Crusader in The Dark Knight, he was fleeing from Gotham PD after taking the blame for the death of DA Harvey Dent/Two-Face) to take on new foe Bane and Anne Hathaway’s Selina Kyle aka Catwoman. It will be fascinating to see how the players tackle their roles particularly the main heroes and villains as in the DC comics the Bat and the Cat, in the end form a partnership and at one stage Bane actually kills off Batman by snapping his back in two so it’ll be a toughie to predict what could occur. But you’d have to be someone with a total lack of brain power to even think of second guessing the great man that is Christopher Nolan. Just look over his lean back catalogue of small independent movies and big budget Summer blockbusters, and I assure you all he is the man for the job. Typically he is keeping a tight lid on set not allowing anything to be exposed or revealed prematurely. Even Tom Hardy was not budging when probed about TDKR and his character during a recent MTV interview where he declared, ""I can't [talk about it], so let's have another question. Have you got time for another question?"

No doubt he will go out with an almighty bang and I will not be surprised if the director keeps everything on lockdown and bring back a certain Liam Neeson to make a shock comeback as Ra’s al Ghul. There have been rumours that the Irishman has been spotted on set in St Johns, London in recent weeks and has a voiceover in the beginning of the trailer. Hmm Nolan does have a talent at deceiving the mind and this would be a definite curveball thrown at audiences and at Christian Bale’s Batman if he were to make a shock return from the dead following his supposed demise in Batman Begins.

Websites, forums and other blogs have been giving their own reaction following the first glimpse of The Dark Knight Rises. When the trailer was shown at screenings of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, fans were going hysterical; clapping, cheering, high fiving. I wouldn’t go to that extent but I’ll still be waiting … 361 days, 8664 hours, 519, 840 minutes and counting.

Do watch this space for further Bat/Bane/Cat/Gordon/Nolan/General TDKR developments to no doubt fill your mind with intrigue and interest.

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Written by Michael Cunneen

Martin Scorsese tries his hand in the fantasy world

Right, let’s cut to the chase, Martin Scorsese is not known for making family-friendly pictures over his illustrious career in moviemaking. I mean, which nine-year-old nipper would want to witness Joe Pesci get his head slammed in between a vice as portrayed in the 1995 gangster saga, Casino anyhoo. But come December of this year, the acclaimed filmmaker will, I am sure, have a new line of fans when his adaptation of The Invention of Hugo Cabret is released.

By the sound of the film’s plot, one might expect a Robert Zemeckis or a Chris Columbus to take on the reigns of such a family orientated film. Based on the novel by Brian Selznick, Hugo, as the film is not entitled focuses on a 13-year-old orphan (Asa Butterfield) who lives within the walls of a train station in 1930’s Paris. There, he is embroiled in a mystery involving his father’s (Jude Law) inventions. Alongside Isabelle (Chloe Moretz), who also has a taste for adventure, the pair both set off in search of the truth behind the inventions but also escape the clutches of the evil train inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen).

Today saw the release of the trailer which was kinda unexpected as there has been very little come out of the Hugo camp with the exception of a fluttler of stills. With the red hot anticipation of the first trailer of The Dark Knight Rises expected any day now, this was a welcome surprise from Scorsese and Co. From the insight into what the trailer provides this is something completely different for the Goodfellas director. A robot, a slapstick duo of a guard dog and the former Ali-G set within a fictional magical Paris in 3D is ever so slightly different to the epic battle of mobs and cops seen in the 2006 crime masterpiece, The Departed. Having said that Scorsese has never been a director to pin one genre to. Naturally the Oscar winner has rounded up a brilliant pedigree of actors featuring Shutter Island collaborators Sir Ben Kingsley and Emily Mortimer. Also featuring are Ray Winstone, Christopher Lee and Helen McCrory.

It will be intriguing to see audience’s reaction to the fantasy world of Hugo, particularly loyal fans of the book who already seem skeptical to the world adapted by Scorsese. But I, as a loyal fan of the director have total faith in his next picture. As I am a total newbie to Hugo Cabret I’m already encouraged to the whole mystery side to the film with the two young leads in the forefront of the adventure. It looks the perfect upcoming Christmas film and the 3D element does appear to be justified from what the trailer offers. Expect your December to begin brightly then succumb to total dreariness when David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is released a few weeks later.

Martin Scorsese argues that the emergence of 3D technology allowed him to rethink the art of cinema.  In this regard, the director insists that his decision to make Hugo is the right one. Dare you question the man’s thinking, I wouldn’t dream of it.

Hugo is released 2^nd December 2011

Written by Michael Cunneen