#13- The Dark Knight (2008) review

Despite now being overrated, it is completely impossible for me to ignore the masterpiece that is, The Dark Knight. Released in 2008, this was "the" film that ensured that Nolan became one of the greatest directors of all time. Even with films such as Memento, Batman Begins and The Prestige, it wasn't until 2008 that the world began to realize that Nolan would become one of the greatest directors of the modern cinema.

Following the defeat of Ra's Al Ghul and Scarecrow from 'Batman Begins', Gotham City has just begun to enforce new rules and drive back the criminal society living in Gotham. Then lands the mysterious and psychotic Joker, played in the most amazing way by Heath Ledger (may he R.I.P) who begins once more to cause chaos across all of Gotham City. Gordon and Bruce Wayne must team up with the new DA, Harvey Dent, and take down the Joker, who has begun his own plans to make Gotham a better place for criminals by taking down the Batman himself.

The best thing about The Dark Knight, though numerous, is the acting. More specifically, the performance given by Heath Ledger who cast a figure of fear and chaos. His performance is one of the extreme intensity. Despite being extremely frightening, Ledger was truly able to bring humor into the character. The rest of the cast, consisting of legends Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman, Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart do a fantastic job. Despite my praise of the acting, which is brilliant, there was one major issue in the acting department I had with this film. That would be Maggie Gyllenhall, whose performance, much like Katie Holmes, was pretty poor. Neither of the two were able to illustrate Rachel Dawes, given the tone created by these films. It is quite a relief when the Joker captures Rachel, for us as a movie audience. The worst thing about this is that we do not fully feel the pain that Bruce goes through, after his love is killed off. 

Gyllenhall is a minor complaint when compared with every other factor of brilliance in this film. The direction and writing in this film is downright brilliant and the restriction of CGI effects is fantastic. Most of the effects look truly amazing and the production designs were amazing. The dialogue is amazingly sharp, and each line delivered by Heath Ledger is truly amazing. Whilst Batman Begins truly created a new standard of superhero films, The Dark Knight is the deciding point of superhero films. The way that Nolan was able to change superhero films forever, by adding an amazingly dark and serious tone was fantastic. Of course, since then every film has attempted to do this but never to the brilliance of the Dark Knight. 
 


The action sequences in the film are truly enjoyable.Not only is this film mindblowing in the fact that it has fantastic acting and amazing story telling, but The Dark Knight improves upon Batman Begins in terms of cinematography, making some of the action easier to follow and enjoy. Where this film makes the action seem better than it is, is from Hans Zimmer's musical score which is breathtaking! The music lights up each scene in the film and adds extreme intensity. The opening scene with the bank robbery is one of the finest examples throughout the film. 



The Joker is undeniably, one of the greatest villains of all time and The Dark Knight, though overrated, is undeniably a great film. Christopher Nolan, in 2008, brought every aspect of great film making into one movie, which would since then be regarded the  best film of the decade. To that, I respectfully disagree. 

Grade- 10/10 most definitely!!! 

#14- Inception (2010) review

Following the immense success of the 2008 masterpiece, The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan decided to follow it up with a mindbender film that takes place in people's dreams. Often regarded as amazing, mindblowing and 'one of the most complex films ever made', Inception is definitely one of Nolan's many masterpieces. 

A group of dream thieves lead by Leonardo DiCaprio's Cobb, who left his children behind after he was convicted of murdering his wife, has since been trying to buy his way back. When Ken Watambe's character, Saito gives a task to Cobb that would allow him to return to his children. Saito's task is that of entering the mind of Robert Fischer, the soon to be heir of the largest business coorperation, and plant the idea into his mind to dissolve his father's empire. 

Whilst the basic plot is this, the film is extremely thick in layers, has an extremely detailed protaganist and spends a fair amount of time explaining the situation and science behind dreams. Visually, Inception is amazing but the strength to Inception truly lies within the storytelling. To tell the story of a film like Inception is near impossible but Christopher Nolan's ability to keep calm and tell the story to the extent it is told has paid off! To think that Inception first began to "grow as a seed" in Nolan's mind back in 2002, whilst making Insomnia is rather amazing to think! It took a further 8 years for the seed to fully grow and develop into a story and thankfully, his patience has paid off. 



The characters are great, especially Cobb and Eames, who is my personal favorite played brilliantly by Tom Hardy. All the performances in this film are fantastic, especially Leonardo DiCaprio and Ken Watambe. Cilian Murphy does an outstanding job playing Robert as does Ellen Page, playing architect Ariadne. The entire cast does a fantastic job and one of the highlights in terms of acting, is Marion Cotillard's Mal. The chemistry between her and Leonardo DiCaprio was outstanding and it was surprisingly enough, a fantastic romance story! 


Even though Cobb and Mal are given plenty of depth, surprisingly enough none of the other characters have virtually any backstory given to them but are instead just put on screen. Thankfully, this becomes a minor issue but is completely thrown aside by an unbelievable score by Hans Zimmer and some visually stunning sequences, including plenty of fantastic dream sequences and action scenes. Despite a very complex and serious film, Inception also offers a great deal of chuckles, especially lines delivered by Hardy. The way that his character often puts off Levitt's Arthur is absolutely hilarious! One of the my favorite lines in the film was when Eames replies to Arthur, "Your assurance is always much appreciated, Arthur!" 



What may simply be a Sci Fi Action film is definitely not what it sounds like. The way the story between Mal and Cobb unfolds is just superb and the amount of detail given to everything in the film is mindblowing, making it quite possibly Nolan's best. The way that Nolan was able to take himself away from the Gotham world he created and make an all new world, 2 years later, just depicts Nolan's incredible gift. The depth and emotion that this film tackles is astounding and even with all of that, Inception never bores and always keeps the audience engaged, just like most of Nolan's films do.  

Grade- 10/10