The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

What's It About? Christopher Nolan brings his rightly lauded Batman trilogy to a close. It is eight years since the events that concluded The Dark Knight. Bruce Wayne is a recluse at the rebuilt Wayne manor, Batman a fugitive from the law. His years of crime-fighting have wrecked his body and he hobbles around the mansion on a walking stick. Meanwhile, a mercenary by the name of Bane has arrived in Gotham City, working with an industrialist who seeks control of Wayne Enterprises, but with a murky agenda of his own. Selina Kyle, a cat burglar of surprising ability and agility is also lurking, seeking a way to wipe the slate clean and start a new life.

*****

What's it Like? In a word, astonishing. Some critics, friends of mine among them, were less impressed, but all comic-book films, all summer blockbusters, should be this intelligent, exciting, thought-provoking and affecting. It might seem a little long at 160-odd minutes, but as has often been said, a good film cannot be too long and a bad film cannot be too short. The running time doesn't drag at all but instead gives room for characters to breathe - developing believably without story strands feeling rushed. Towards the end, a couple of developments feel a little too conveniently quick, but this is to be forgiven in the overall scheme of things.
This time around, Bruce Wayne is given more time and we see that he continues to be weighed down and inconsolable over the loss of Rachel Dawes, though still beset by a literally crippling sense of duty and responsibility. As Anne Hathaway's excellently portrayed Selina Kyle says to Batman at one point, "you don't owe these people anything more, you've given them everything", "no I haven't", he replies, "not yet". It is heart-breaking, moving and compelling in a way that Nolan's film sometimes fail to be - he always crafts excellent stories, but has not always managed to get to our hearts, he has not always made us care. Here he does.
It taks a good chunk of the film before Batman returns and this enables other characters their time - although Bane wears a mask that obscures most of his face and some of his voice, Tom Hardy makes for a physically threatening and intellectually challenging foe for Batman, Gary Oldman is excellent again as Commissioner Gordon, bringing shades of dark and light to the dignified chief of police. As the new cop on the beat, John Blake, Joseph Gordon-Levitt essays goodness, compassion, decency and integrity and gets plenty of time to shine as the action closes in on Gotham in ther film's latter stages.
To say too much else plot-wise would be spoiler-ish, but there is a lot going on and it will take repeat viewings or at least a lot of thinking time to piece it all together and make sense of it, but it is thrilling, fascinating, compelling stuff. The story may not have the propulsive, linear clarity of The Dark Knight, but it touches on sacrifice, forgiveness, hope, despair, self-destruction, political and economic commentary and fate/destiny. A lot to get through in anyone's book and for Nolan to have done so amidst such thrilling action and without getting bogged down in "worthiness" is to his utter and enduring credit. See it.

*****

Should I see it? Yes. By avoiding any blood-letting during the violence, Nolan has kept himself to a 12A certificate, but there is a lot of brutality and callousness on display here and under-12's should stay away. No doubt lots of children below that age will want to see it, so exercise your parental decision-making carefully. It is of course unmanageably expensive to see it twice, once on your own and once with your kids, but somehow you will need to find a way to test the waters for younger children. There is no nudity, sexual content or coarse language, but the themes and content are grown-up across the board. Much of the boardroom shenanigans won't make much sense to the younger audience members, so you may prefer to wait for the DVD/Bluray release to enable you to pause, skip sections and explain what is going on.
For those who want to see it and can, there is so much that bears discussing and contemplating over a drink afterwards. How much of ourselves are we prepared to give for those in need? When despair threatens to overwhelm us, can we find the hope to persevere, to overcome, to triumph? What do we do with our fears? Can we wipe the slate clean and start again? Can we live with ourselves when we run away, or set someone up so that we can get away? Can we stand by when those we love and care for are bent on self-destruction? Can we overcome the seemingly insurmountable? There's a month's worth of dinner table discussion right there.

The Amazing Spider-man (2012)

What's it about? Peter Parker, orphaned as a young boy, now living with his Uncle Ben and Aunt May is trying to get by at school. One day, during a visit to a gene-splicing facility run by Dr Curt Connors, he is bitten by a spider and everything changes - super powers abound, as do tragedy, trials and adventure.

*****

What's it like? It has only been ten years since the last time the Spider-man franchise was launched and a mere five years since the curtain came down on Sam Raimi's very successful trilogy with the flawed but entertaining Spider-man 3 (you know, with Sandman, Venom and all that stuff). Some would say that it is too soon to re-launch with another origin story, especially with it touching on the same bases as last time around - same school bully (Flash), same spider, same powers, same character arcs - but to its credit this manages to be its own creature. Reverting to the comic-book web-shooters instead of Raimi's organic version, giving us Gwen Stacey as Parker's love and trying to give a more over-arching story regarding the fate of Parker's parents all help put clear water between this and the Raimi/Maguire trilogy.
Director Mark Webb (whose last film was the excellent (500) Days of Summer) handles action and character beats with aplomb, even if the villain (Connors turns into Lizard as a result of trying to re-grow his lost arm) suffers from a cut in the special effects budget this time around (Spider-man 3 cost $300m, this a mere $80m). The film takes its time in moving through Parker's story arc and Andrew Garfield, despite being 28, makes for a far more convincing nerdy high school kid than Tobey Maguire ever did. The chemistry between Parker and Emma Stone's Gwen Stacey is affecting and perhaps the most successful aspect of the film, although Garfield deserves kudos for delivering Spider-man's witty quips even through the limitations of a spandex suit.
An improvement on the first and third Spider-man films but falling short of Spider-man 2 (though there is no shame in that) this is excellent entertainment and has a little to say as well. Well worth your time.

*****

Should I see it? That depends on whether this is your sort of thing, I suppose. There is no strong language as far as I can recall and although Lizard and Spidey have a few pretty meaty scraps, the violence is kept the right side of the film's 12A certificate. Lizard would be unlikely to scare or upset anyone other than the very young, though the theme of losing parents may be hard to process for the young as well. Thematically, the ideas of coping with school, standing up to bullies, using your strength and opportunities responsibly and protecting the vulnerable are all worth examining and talking through with family and friends and so the film presents a opportunity to dive into that realm. There are deeper, more meaningful films out there, but this is far from a superficial exercise. Watch it and engage with it.