FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 2016

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (2012) SUPERMAN (1978) With 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises, ou’ll believe a man Christopher Nolan was ‘Ycan fly,” promised the faced with the task of com- posters for 1978’s ing up with a compelling Superman, and they were closing chapter to a block- right in more ways than buster trilogy - the first two one. The special effects entries of which ranked were impressive for the era, among the best-reviewed but more importantly, the superhero movies of all movie benefited from a tal- time. Under all that pres- ented director in Richard sure, it’s commendable that Donner, a solid screenplay Nolan emerged with some- derived from a story by thing as solid as Rises: even Godfather author Mario if it didn’t quite reach the Puzo, and a great cast same lofty heights achieved anchored by Christopher by its predecessor, it offered Reeve, whose looming Christian Bale’s Batman one physique and chiseled last round of hard-hitting good looks combined with action before wrapping up his Juilliard-trained acting this era of the franchise, chops to help create the with a bit of socioeconomic most perfect Superman subtext woven into the plot buffoonish Otis, played by stakes - and with Margot ever to grace the screen (so Ned Beatty) was far from Kidder playing Lois Lane, it for good measure. For far). While Gene Hackman’s some, just being forced to the most imposing foe our even managed to mix a lit- rather ineffective Lex hero would face, the movie tle feminism in with its say goodbye to Nolan’s Luthor (coupled with the vision of the series was an didn’t lack for dramatic romance untenable disappointment - to say nothing of any of the nits worth picking with a storyline that saw Batman being driven to the brink of destruction in an epic con- frontation with the fear- some revolutionary known as Bane (Tom Hardy).

SUPERMAN II (1981)

fter putting together Awhat seemed like a foolproof plan for a speedy Superman follow- up - hiring director Richard Donner to shoot much of the sequel concurrently with the first film - Warner Bros. watched with grow- ing dismay as production slowed to a crawl, finally coming to a halt when Donner’s feuds with pro- ducers Ilya and Alexander Salkind led to his firing from the project. Things grew more complicated when new director Richard Lester came on board, and - needing to film at least 51 percent of the movie in order to obtain a director’s credit - reshot many scenes from a movie that had already been substan- tially filmed. Those are just a few of the many chal- lenges Superman II need- ed to overcome before it THE DARK KNIGHT (2008) finally arrived in theaters in 1981; amazingly, all that aving already brought an end to the somehow managed to make room for jaw- behind-the-scenes chaos Hcandy-colored, Schumacher-wrought dropping visuals, a compelling storyline, didn’t have much of an nightmare that gripped the Batman fran- and stellar performances, Knight climbed adverse impact on the chise in the late 1990s, Christopher Nolan out from under months of intense specula- original theatrical cut, and Christian Bale had fans primed for a tion - not to mention the shadow cast by which broke the $100 mil- successful second act - but even after the Heath Ledger’s shocking death - with a lion barrier at the box smashing success of Batman Begins, few worldwide gross in excess of $1 billion, a office while enjoying could have guessed just how popular The towering stack of positive reviews, and a almost as many positive Dark Knight would be in the summer of posthumous Best Supporting Actor Oscar reviews as its predecessor. 2008. A sprawling superhero epic that for Ledger. (www.rottentomatoes.com)