"Ted" and "The Dark Knight Rises"

Ted

Starring Mark Whalberg, Mila Kunis and Seth McFarlane

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 70%

My Grade: A

A big warm welcome to the big screen for Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane. Ted is without question the funniest movie of 2012, just barely beating out 21 Jump Street (at least for me personally). McFarland does not give up what he does best...and that is being downright ridiculous. This is a buddy, bromance comedy, but as if it were pumped full of cocaine and awesomeness. The premise, is obviously insane, but McFarlane works best in that realm, it's his comfort zone and he does it so perfectly. Just because it has a cute little teddy bear folks, does not make this is family friendly movie. It's rated R for a reason. McFarlane let's loose here, and his writing has probably never been better. He is a funny son of a bitch, and there are numerous topical jokes thrown all around this movie. It is a laugh a minute riot. Mark Whalberg is PERFECT for this movie. He gets to be weird and goofy, and have a lot of fun with this role. McFarlane voices Ted and he does sound a LOT like Peter Griffin, but holy crap was he hilarious! Listen people, this movie won't win any Oscars, but that doesn't it stop it from being a darn fun movie! I really really loved it! Funny mother effing movie!

The Dark Knight Rises

Starring Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, Joseph Gordon Levitt, etc...

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87%

My Grade: B+

**SPOILER ALERT**

I have been looking forward to this movie for a few years now, and I think I over hyped it for myself. On another note, and I won't really talk much about this, but I saw this movie the Friday night directly after the shootings in Aurora, CO that left 12 dead while viewing of a screening of this movie. Say what you want, but I don't think there was a person in any theater in the days that followed who wasn't a little bit nervous or scared. I don't think there was a person in a theater in the days that followed that wasn't profiling everyone they saw come in. Personally? I was terrified to be in a theater, especially the night after in a sold out theater. My heart goes out to all the victims and their families. What a horrible tragedy. One of my reasons for bringing this up though, is the events that happened, and the fear it provoked, seriously clouded my view of The Dark Knight Rises. Every five minutes I would be looking around the theater, every time a gun shot went off in the movie, I cringed. It completely took me out of the movie experience. I've only seen it the one time, so I can only review it based on that.

This was nothing compared to the Dark Knight. Not even close in my opinion. I think a lot of people were so pumped up to see this movie and were always going to love it no matter what. I thought I would also be that person, but turns out that was not the case. My biggest issue with this one was that there was WAY to much going on. Way to many characters, including a slew of new ones. Several different stories going on at the same time, and honestly it became a convoluted mess that it was almost distracting. The Dark Knight was complex within it's simplicity. A flawless story that was so tightly put together and there were no loose ends. This movie just jumps all over the place and I got lost at times. Another big miss for me? Barely any Batman. He shows up briefly towards the beginning and in the big climax in the end, but for a good two thirds of this movie, there is no Batman. It's Bruce Wayne locked away in an underground prison trying to find the strength and  courage to escape and save his precious city. That's all fine and dandy, I would have very much loved this aspect to the story had it not taken up SO MUCH TIME! Honestly...it was boring.

I don't understand the people who say Bane is the best villain of the series. In what possible way does he outshine The Joker? To me, Bane was a character in this film that slipped out of the realistic tone of the first two movies. He became to comic booky, to cartoony. I understand it's based off a comic book, but Christopher Nolan has recreated the world of Gotham in such a breathtaking, realistic, and frightening way. The Joker was not invincible. He was flawed and it could be taken down by a bullet. But he was the definition of chaos and sinister. To me, he was terrifyingly realistic character. Bane however came off as a typical comic book villain. He had the strength of 20 men, and I didn't find him to be on the same intelligent level as the Joke or even Scarecrow from Batman Begins. He was my least favorite villain of the three movies. He was silly and yeah...it was hard to understand him half of the time. And then he just dies in the end without any problem, because it was essential for the story.

I loved Anne Hathaway as Catwoman and Joseph Gordon Levitt shined. Michael Caine was a scene stealer as well. The whole cast, acting wise, were fantastic as usual. The visual effects and set design were amazing, the musical score was heart stopping. The action scenes were really well done and intense. I just could not get into the story this time. It was just to big, to much going on and there was not a clear cut story arch going here. Point A to Point B took so many unnecessary wrong turns and detours. I love Christopher Nolan, he is my favorite film maker, but I think for me, he kind of missed the mark this time, which really pains me to say. As a whole, this was not a bad movie. In fact, it was an above average movie experience, but I did not get any of that epic feel from it. It did not come off like the perfect conclusion to an otherwise brilliant film trilogy.  With SO much going on in the movie, it still seemed to lack a lot of heart and emotion. I felt like I was watching just another comic book movie.