(It is supposed to be posted on his blog but since it is also my FIRST , kind of, movie review, so I think why not post on my own blog as well!? :D Enjoy!)
The Dark Knight Rises is actually the first Batman movie I watched. I must admit I am not a super fan of heroic movies, mainly because we always know what is going to happen - the hero will successfully save the world. As someone who has only watched Batman III and didn't even know how or why Bruce Wayne became Batman, I believe I am not qualified to write a commentary on this movie. Instead, I am going to talk about why this type of heroic movies are so popular despite the already-known happy ending in the hero-monster-battle. As I see it, the following 3 reasons may account for heroic movies' success.
First, superheroes always have people's heart. Some people think historic wartime movies are boring or too heavy. Some just fall asleep whenever watching literary films. Some complain that tragedies are too depressing while some despise comedies for other reasons. But, who doesn't love a hero? When the world is in danger, people always stand by the hero's side because we all want him to win. To me, when sitting in the cinema watching our hero fighting against bad guys for us, I did feel like we were all cheering for him. I believe some of you did shout out "Oh- yes!" in heart like me whenever we saw the geeks got fatally attacked. Maybe it is the so-called superhero's charisma?
Second, many heroic movies are produced because of and based on their successful comic stories, for example Batman. To many comic supporters, go to watch the movie version of their favorite heroic stories can recall their happy childhood memories and also fulfill their curiosity, such as what changes have been made in the movie? Which version (comic or movie) is better? How can a heroic movie not succeed when its story has been widely popular for so long?
Last but not least, most heroic movies are big budget movies with an enormous quantity of resources invested in its production, which means your unlikely to be too disappointed even though you may not be surprised by the outcome. Let's take me as an example. When I planned to go to the cinema with friends without any strong interest in the movie, The Dark Knight Rises was very likely to become our choice because we are pretty confident that what we were watching would certainly be worth the few bucks we spent on the ticket. Why would we expect more when we knew we were watching Christopher Nolan's masterpiece with Christian Bale and Anne Hathaway's acting? To many audiences, the movie is still delightful regardless of its plot and layout. No doubt fame, usually if not always, guarantees success.
I don't hate Batman or any other heroic movies. Maybe I don't love Batman just because I know nothing about the previous stories. Indeed, I can't to finish the Batman trilogy after watching The Dark Knight Rises. Yet I still insist I am not a heroic movies fan. On the other hand, maybe there is something magical about them...
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