Review-The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight Rises is the third film of the Batman saga directed by Christopher Nolan. The results of what happened in The Dark Knight has Batman as a fugitive of the law. Bruce Wayne(Christian Bale) has turned into a recluse during that time. Even the help of Alfred(Michael Caine), he is having a hard time of getting on with life. When a mercenary named Bane(Tom Hardy) starts to wreak havoc in Gotham, Bruce must reemerge as Batman to put a stop to his plans. Along the way, his path cross with Selina Kyle/Catwoman(Anne Hathaway), a thief who has motives of her own. The only people on the police force that is on Batman's side is  Jim Gordon(Gary Oldman) and Blake(Joseph Gordon-Levitt).  One of the things that made The Dark Knight great is it had an underline theme of the times (how far do you go to catch a criminal). The Dark Knight Rises has a similar theme(the haves and the have nots and the bullying from those in control) but doesn't work quite as well. There are a few things that I didn't like(Bane is hard to understand at times, a scene later in the movie reminded me of a Calvin Klein commercial) but it doesn't hurt the feel of the film.  Overall, I love this movie! It is an intense action movie that most everyone can and should see(Dark Knight got too intense for some people).

Rating:9.0 out of 10

Review-Savages

Savages is the newest film from director Oliver Stone(Platoon, Wall Street). It centers around best friends Chon(Taylor Kitsch), a war vet and peace loving Ben(Aaron Johnson), who run a lucrative pot business. The glue that holds both together is a woman by the name of O(Blake Lively). When the Mexican drug cartel run by Elana(Salma Hayek) kidnaps O, the best friends must go to extreme measures to get her back. Complicating this process is DEA agent Dennis(John Travolta),whose motions are unknown, and the ruthless killer Lado(Benicio Del Toro), who is Elena's right hand man. Overall, I think the movie is ok. While I wasn't upset that I watched it, this movie is far from perfect. The narration,done by O in the film, will wear you down and make you want to pull your hair out. The only characters is the movie that have any depth to them is Elena and Ben. There is technically one action scene in the whole movie. By the time you get to the end, it leaves an unsatisfying taste in your mouth. This movie is like a special stew that you can wait to make. You put all the ingredients in and ,with the final results, you felt it would have been really good if you left this out and put this in. Wait for it to come on DVD and Blu ray before you watch this.

Rating: 6.8 out of 10

Review-The Amazing Spider-Man

The Spider-Man series of movies started in 2002 and just had its last entry in 2007. So, who's ready for a reboot? Apparently, Columbia Pictures was by having a new director, a new cast and retelling the origin story. The results of that is the new film The Amazing Spider-Man, a "better than I expected" movie. The movie centers around Peter Parker(played by Andrew Garfield) who is an awkward science geek that's big into photograph. He also has big crush on a girl in his high school named Gwen Stacy(played by Emma Stone). While visiting the OsCorp research facility, he gets bitten by a radioactive spider and gains super abilities. While reviewing this movie, it's hard not to compare it with Spider-Man(2002).
Here's the things I thought the movie got right:

The relationship between Parker and Stacy(and the fact that she was his film love in the comic book)

 Spider-Man/Peter Parker-Spider-Man has more of the funny smart ass feel that he has in the comic.The movement of Spider-Man was more acrobatic and that played well in the movie. Peter was mostly on point(except for the tempter tantrums)

The actions scenes in general.

The things not so right:
Certain aspect of the story.(Peter Parker's parents aspect of the story was introduced as big plot point but never goes anywhere with it.)

Other relationships in the movie(namely between Parker and Uncle Ben(Martin Sheen) and Parker and Dr. Conners (Rhys Ifans).

First person shooter cam (no pun intended)

The slow pace of the movie until he gets bitten.

The graphics of The Lizard and anything to do with missing limbs.

So, while the movie was good, it wasn't perfect and not as good as the 2002 movie. The comparison of the two would be like this movie was like The Hulk(scientific and story wise) and the 2002 film was like Incredible Hulk(dealt with things evenly and the action was more spread out and came quicker).

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.