Anno_Domini
Avenger
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2010
- Messages
- 17,997
- Reaction score
- 5
- Points
- 31
Well its obvious its between The Dark Knight Rises and Iron Man 3.
Director: Chris Nolan gets this by far. I loved 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang' and 'Iron Man 3', but Shane Black doesn't have near the artistic eye as Nolan. Point:THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
Cinematography: Wally Pfister in a land side. 'Rises' looks beautiful. Its a wonder to watch from that standpoint alone. Especially with the IMAX. Yum. 'Iron Man 3' isn't bad, but its nothing different than the standard blockbuster film from a cinematography point of view.
Point:THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
Editing: From a sound mixing/editing standpoint, both films are great. Editing is something you shouldn't really notice. When someone asks 'who edited that?" thats normally a bad sign. We notice editing when its jarring and, well, bad. Neither film tried anything special with the editing, just a solid job.
POINT: Toss Up.
Special Effects: Another near toss up, but I'll give the nod to 'Iron Man 3' simply because more effects were needed and they looked great.
POINT: IRON MAN 3
Screenplay: Shane Black is great with witty dialogue and typically good with juggling tones. Jonathan Nolan is great with villainous monologues and escalating the story. Both films have pacing issues, mostly due to the stories themselves. However, Nolan knows this and opens with an action scene with Bane, then gives a small action scene with Blake and Selina before we eventually see Batman an hour in. Black on the other hand, gives us mostly nothing but backstory until we see Iron Man in action about an hour in when his house is attacked. Right after the attack, Black slows back down in Tenn. However, once Batman is back, Nolan picks up the pace a tad, leading soon to Bane and Batman's first encounter and even when he has his hero MIA for sometime, he continues the escalation with the Football scene, Blake racing to the hospital, riot montage and Bane's speech. Nolan gives us some quiet, subtle emotional scenes with Bruce in the beginning as a hermit, his quarrels with Alfred and in Bane's jail. Black gives Tony a few scenes of panic attacks due to PDSD, however he never really develops it. Tony is never MIA, but most of his gadgets are. Both characters come back in full hero form for a strong climax. Iron Man has an interesting villain twist, but the villain himself isn't very unique. Nolan continues to show his strength in writing villains and Tom Hardy adds a strong performance to give Batman a solid villain in Bane. Overall, The Dark Knight Rises aims higher and while it doesn't quite hit where it wanted to, it was still higher than Iron Man 3, which aside from one big twist, yet again played it safe.
Point:THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
CAST:
Hero- Both RDJ and Bale are phenomenal actors. Bale gets a meatier character due to a more dramatic and better written story and part. RDJ gets a more enjoyable performance due to a more light-hearted, joke oriented story. I know RDJ as Iron Man is iconic, but I can't pick one over the other.
POINT: TOSS UP
Villain- Guy Pearce isn't bad by any means, but Hardy's Bane is just flat out better. A better written character and better performance.
POINT: THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
Love Interest- Pepper is about a hundred times better than Tate/Talia who is just awful.
POINT: IRON MAN 3
Side Kick- Rhodey is pretty cool in IM3 and Cheadle does well with what he was given, but once again Anne Hathaway had a better written part to work with, which made it easier for her to give a better performance.
POINT: THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
The rest: 'Rises' has way more characters than 'IM3', but the combination of guys like Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Joseph Gordon Levitt and even Matthew Modine is easily superior than the rest of the cast of 'IM3', which has a really strong cast. Ben Kingsley in a strange roll gives probably the best performance of the two films, but 'Rises' cast is just more consistent overall.
POINT:THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
OVERALL: 'Rises' gets 6/10 of the categories, 'IM3' gets 2/10 and two toss ups. Overall, 'Rises' simply had a better cast and crew overall, better overall story and aimed much higher. While it didn't reach its personal potential, the level it did reach is still higher to 'IM3', which again, aside from one huge twist, simply played it too safe.
OVERALL: THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
Very cool, and agree with the criteria.
Although the love interest...Selina Kyle > Pepper Potts.
There is no way a Batfilm would have better effects than an Iron Man film, imo, and the last bit of IM3 with all the armors coming to Tony's rescue...possibly the best thing about the film because it's a treat to the eyes.
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