nolan | the m0vie blog

New Dark Knight Rises Trailer

Posted on June 20, 2012 by Darren

Man, it is taking enormous self-restraint not to look at every single one of the TV spots being released for The Dark Knight Rises. With less than a month to go, I think I’m doing quite well, limiting myself to these larger trailers. Anyway, here’s the latest two-minute look at the film. It’s more action-packed than the last couple, and it has a lot more humour. (I’ve always felt that people overplay the seriousness of Nolan’s Batman films – yes, they are quite heavy, but they don’t take themselves too seriously.) And, I feel like an idiot, but I just got that “what are you?” and “I’m Gotham’s reckoning” are a conscious call back to “what are you?” and “I am Batman” from Batman Begins. D’oh.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: bane, batman, batman begins, Christopher Nolan, Dark Knight Rises, Dark Knight Rises trailer, gotham city, Nokia, nolan, Television advertisement, trailer | 1 Comment »

Not Everything, Not Yet: Nolan’s Dark Knight Rises and the Prospect of Finality

Posted on May 3, 2012 by Darren

Read our in-depth review of the film here.

It’s a funny thing watching The Dark Knight Rises trailer that was released earlier in the week. It seems that a lot of people had the same response that I did. Colleagues in work, friends and family members, all looked at the trailer for the third in Nolan’s trilogy that began with Batman Begins and seemed to have the same observation. “I think he might kill Batman,” a lot of people remarked on viewing the teaser for the film. Given how safe most major studio productions are, especially those that are part of a cash-cow franchise, it’s amazing that the possibility even exists at all, hovering faintly over the film.

Broken bat…

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: avengers, bane, batman, Christopher Nolan, daniel craig, Dark Knight Rises, film, Luke Skywalker, nolan, Obi-Wan Kenobi, sam raimi, Warner Bros | 8 Comments »

The Prestige & Schrödinger’s Magician: Would the Real Robert Angier Please Stand Up?

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Darren

No one cares about the man who disappears, the man who goes into the box. They care about the man who comes out the other side.

– Robert Angier

I am a big fan of Christopher Nolan. Anybody who regularly reads the blog will attest to that. I believe, genuinely, that he’s one of the best directors working today. However, my favourite Nolan film is a rather eclectic choice. I appreciate all his films, but I think that The Prestige stands as the pinnacle of the writer’s work to date. After all, in a career built around movies exploring the power of narrative, it’s hard to resist the film that compares cinema to magic. I think it’s a deftly-constructed and cerebral film, one of the few movies that still intrigues and confounds me when I stick it on. Of course, the narrative is relatively straight-forward once Nolan reveals the technique and the tricks in the final act, but I always find it rewarding to chew over the implications in the film, the story of two dueling magicians who take their rivalry as far as possible, and even beyond that.

Are you watching closely?

Note: By its nature, this post will include spoilers for the film. I have written a review of it, in case you are looking for a recommendation. It’s the most divisive of Christopher Nolan’s films, and I’d recommend seeing it at least once – love it or hate it, it’s a film that you won’t quite forget.

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: arts, batman begins, Christopher Nolan, Christopher Priest, film, magic, memento, Michael Caine, Movie, nolan, prestige | 10 Comments »

Why Nolan Saying ‘No’ To The Justice League Is A Good Idea…

Posted on March 13, 2010 by Darren

An interesting snippet of news came out during the week regarding Christopher Nolan, the director of the two recent Batman films and now godfather to a to-be-relaunched Superman franchise (we’re hoping he can figure out how to make it a good film). The director, usually unbelievably coy about his work (he’ll flat out refuse to answer any particularly prying questions, which is great in an era of spoilers and speculation and so on), gave a succinct answer on whether his Batman and Superman will exist within the same universe. His answer was a flat-out ‘no’. And I think that’s great.

This looks like a job for Christopher Nolan!

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: batman, Batman 3, comic books, films, justice league, Movies, nolan, superhero, superman, superman 3.0, The Dark Knight, the dark knight sequel | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Batman Begins

Posted on June 15, 2009 by Darren

Batman Begins has been somewhat overshadowed by the success of The Dark Knight, but Christopher Nolan’s original reimagining of the Batman mythos is a compelling and clever examination of one of pop culture’s most enduring icons. I think there’s a case to be made that Batman Begins represents the best superhero origin story ever told in film – and quite possibly the definitive introduction to Batman and his world. The key isn’t collecting bits of trivia to explain the finer details, although the script from the Nolan brothers and David Goyer certainly does that. Instead, Nolan dares to examine the psychology of Batman. Richard Donner’s Superman famously boasted that you’d believe a man could fly. Nolan makes you believe that a man would dress up as a giant bat to fight crime.