After seeing the first installment in this series of movies a couple of years ago, and having really enjoyed it, I was looking forward to this second part, expecting more of the intense action and plot, and I have to say that I was mostly not disappointed, which doesn't mean that I didn't have some problems with it... because I did, big time.

Three of the main characters from the first part reprise their roles (luckily, no Nicolas Cage this time around xD), which are older now (specially Hit-Girl, who looks dazzling!), bringing with that a more mature aspect to the series. The raw violence from the previous film is back, and even more intense… at parts, maybe even more gratuitous, as sometimes the heavy beatings and killings seem to take too much importance in the overall plot, maybe to make up for a lack of depth in the story itself. I don't really have a beef with it, but too much senseless violence sometimes gets to me, and this flick seemed to have A LOT of it.


We also get a bunch of new characters (with Night-Bitch as one of the better looking ones), both heroes and villains… and the bad guys here are really extremely bad, no question about it. Plot-wise, the movie didn't have much to offer, and this element of having red Mist turn into a villain felt like an overall bad idea.. not sure if that goes on on the comics this is based on as well, but I felt was very weak as a story telling device.

There are talks about a third movie in the series, but I wouldn't see much point in it, unless it is to kill all the characters off and put an end to it all… and actually that may be what happens if this is green-lit. Don't know I'd be much looking forward to it, but since this part ended with sort of a cliffhanger, I'd at least be interested in checking it out.

I'd give this a better rating, because it still is not a bad movie, but the excess of violence ruined it for me, and I'm sure I'm not alone in this. Hope they make it better next time.

I was waiting forever for this movie to be released, and I really didn't know why: I'm not a big fan of superhero movies, but for some reason i Knew i really wanted to see this. And it wasn't until the credits rolled that I figured out why: it was produced by Chris Nolan, one of my favorite directors ever since i watched "Memento", and while he is not directing this feature, you can still tell his hand is involved in this, and I think that somehow I knew that, that's why I was really looking forward to watch this.

You can tell Nolan´s darker input on visual effects right from the beginning, as everything looks gritty and the whole atmosphere is eerily somber. Acting is on the part of Russell Crowe (as Jor-El) and Michael Shannon (as General Zod) is top-notch, and definitely balances the somewhat less than stelar performances of Superman himself (Henry Cavill) and his love interest, Lois Lane (Amy Adams). I'm not saying their acting was bad, it just felt uninspired most of the time, but like I said before, the movie had such great actors (including Kevin Costner), that this one factor was not so relevant to the entirety of the film.



Story-wise, this reboot of the Superman franchise does a really nice job of creating a new universe for this (and what I heard, other superhero characters) to live in, even though I felt the pacing was a bit clunky at parts (like Superman just happening to stumble on the Kryptonian spaceship for apparently no reason at all, and General Zod requesting Lois Lane to be taken on board their ship, also with no further explanation), but not enough to damage what is otherwise a very good and entertaining movie.



Apparently, a sequel is in the works, entitled "Superman Vs. Batman", which by its name alone should explain what the film is going to be about, so be on the lookout for that sometime in 2014, I definitely will!

I have to admit that i've never been much of a Batman fan, but i decided to watch this film because Christopher Nolan is my favorite director ever since the movie "Memento", and seeing as his brother has helped him write the screenplay for the last installment in this Dark Knight trilogy (like he did with Memento as well), and hearing comments like "this movie will change your life", it made not watching this almost impossible… and while i am not disappointed with the film, i definitely did not see what all the hype was about.
Plot-wise, "The Dark Knight Rises" falls in line with the two other movies in this trilogy: very dark and sinister situations which lead to a darker conclusion, even though that, given this was the final film in the series, the ending was a bit more upbeat and hopeful than what its predecessors got. We see a reluctant and beaten down Bruce Wayne coping with the idea of donning the bat cowl again after deciding on voluntary retirement years ago, and also get an insinuation that this movie could be a prequel for a new Batman series, or maybe even a Nightwing spin-off, something that time will have to tell if it's just wild assumptions of concrete reality.



The whole bit about taking down rich and powerful people from their homes and stripping them of their fortunes and, basically, sentencing them to death, fell too connected to the whole "Occupy" movement, in spite of director Nolan saying that it was never his intention, stating that none of his movies are intended to be political. While i am inclined to believe him in that statement, it's very hard not to see some type of social criticism in this aspect of the movie, as thinking "rich people don't deserve their fortunes" is a pretty common idea worldwide, and even having Bryce Wayne become completely broke in this movie has too much of a tint of political commentary, but of course, that's just my humble opinion. I felt a little annoyed by the incidental background music at times, but i think this is one of Nolan´s trademarks by now, as i felt the same way when i watched "Inception".. it's like there were times where we didn't really need the suspense music in the background at all.. but there it was anyway.



Not a major setback, but somewhat of a pet peeve of mine, nothing much to it. All in all, this was a decent end of the Dark Knight trilogy, but which may have been too hyped for its own good. Now, let's see what Christopher Nolan is going to come up with next, i will definitely be looking forward to it.

Spiderman used to be my favorite superhero when i was growing up, so i have watched every movie made about him, even the live action series from the ´80s, and while the previous trilogy of films in the series (directed by Sam Raimi and starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst) was not bad by any means, "The Amazing Spider-Man" was definitely the best film of all times about this superhero, and there are many reasons for it.
For starters, this is the movie that closest resembles the original storyline of the character, particularly by making Gwen Stacy be Peter Parker´s first romance interest as opposed to Mary Jane Watson (which was the case in the Raimi movies). Also, the origin of his super powers are a tad bit less ludicrous than in previous films, and best of all, Parker is again a geeky science genius who builds his own web shooters instead of having them spun out from his body like Maguire's version did.



Apart from all that, Andrew Garfield is a way more convincing Peter Parker than Tobey Maguire ever was, and the overall tone of the film was more realistic and somber at the same time… almost like Christopher Nolan's version of Batman, which make the superhero appear more human and less of a totally fictional character. And needless to say, visual effects were the best ever for this series, making Spiderman look a lot more real when jumping from buildings and swinging to webs, which wasn't the case in the original trilogy, when the computer animations were a lot more obvious.

The movie is not entirely flawless, of course. The Lizard, being the only villain of the film, felt quite weak for being Spiderman's main menace (if you don't consider the NYPD as an actual threat), his goal of turning the entire city into lizards was just odd, and having him saving the superhero at the end of the movie was even more out of place. Also, the part where this construction worker, whose son's life just happened to be saved by the "web-slinger", decides to help our hero by setting all of New York's cranes to align so Spiderman could swing from them, felt way too forced into the plot and completely unnatural.



Other than that, and considering that those points are merely personal observations of something that didn't really hurt the plot, this was an outstanding superhero film and a really nice reboot of the Spiderman series, so i'll be looking forward to the sequel in 2014, a long time to wait, but i am already sure is going to be completely worth it.

Never been a fan of Captain America within the Marvel Universe (I lean more towards Iron man), but since this movie was connected with the whole Avengers series, I decided to watch it, and I must say that while not being a great movie, it was still very entertaining, and that has a lot of merit by itself.

This film is an absolute "origin story" about this superhero, so it's heavily focused on World War II's era United States and Germany, and shows how weakling Steve Rogers gets all pumped up with drugs and becomes a "super soldier", who eventually becomes Captain America and helps United States win the war, while sacrificing himself… but of course we know the story doesn't end there.

WHAT TO LOVE
Even though the movie series runs its own cannon separate from the comics, they still remained very loyal to the original stories, including Captain America's original costume (which always looked very ridiculous, even in comics form) and even having Howard Stark (Iron Man's father) involved in his origin.. and of course, Hugo Weaving as Red Skull? Definitely one of the highlights of the film.


WHAT TO HATE
Not much to gripe about here actually… unless you're bothered by excessive American patriotism, which this movie is quite full of.. but after all, this IS called "Captain America", the biggest patriot in comic books story, so if this is a problem for you, then maybe you shouldn't even be watching this movie at all.

WHAT TO IGNORE
The visual effects used to make Steve Rogers skinny and short before he turned into Captain America were very well made overall, but at some parts, it looked very weird and poorly accomplished, which made him look very weird at times. But again, if you ignore that, things will just move along nicely.


THE VERDICT
Very entertaining movie, and which worked just fine as a prequel for the upcoming The Avengers film. Captain America will also have its own Part II and III in 2014 and 2016 respectively, so be on the lookout for that.