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Archive for October, 2012

Millions of years ago, the spacecraft of an advanced humanoid alien race arrives on Earth. One of the aliens consumes a dark liquid, causing its body to disintegrate and fall into a nearby waterfall, thus seeding Earth with the building blocks of life.

In the year 2089 in the rural Highlands of Scotland, archaeologist couple Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and her boyfriend Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) discover a star map in a cave which they record among the remnants of several otherwise unconnected ancient cultures. They interpret this as an invitation from humanity’s forerunners. Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce), the elderly founder and CEO of the Weyland Corporation, funds the creation of the scientific deep space research vessel called the USS Prometheus to follow the map to the distant moon of LV-223 several light years from Earth.
The ship’s crew travels in hybernation stasis at light speed while the android David (Michael Fassbender) stays awake at the pilot control to monitor their entire voyage. In 2093, the ship arrives in the orbit around LV-223 (note: it is not the same planet first seen in the 1979 movie ‘Alien’ as confirmed by Ridley Scott in an interview with Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode on Friday June 1st on BBC radio 5 live. ‘Alien’ is set on LV-426). After being awakened from hibernation, the crew are informed of their mission to find the ancient aliens, called “Engineers” whom may be the original humans. They also view a holographic message from Weyland himself, who tells them about his funding for the mission and that he has since died.

Mission director Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron) orders them to avoid any direct contact and to return if the aliens are found. The Prometheus lands near an alien structure (resembling a large temple-like pyramid) and a team including Shaw, Holloway, and David explores it, while Vickers and Captain Janek (Idris Elba) remain aboard the ship and monitor their progress.

They find several cylinder-like artifacts, a monolithic statue of a humanoid head, and the decapitated corpse of a giant alien, thought to be one of the Engineers. Other bodies are later found, and the species is presumed to be extinct. David secretly returns an cylinder to the ship, while the remaining vessels in the chamber begin leaking a dark fluid. A rapidly approaching storm forces the crew to return to Prometheus, leaving crew members Milburn (Rafe Spall) and Fifield (Sean Harris) stranded in the pyramid structure after becoming lost trying to find the way out. Shaw insists they take the Engineer’s head back to the ship with them and they barely make it back alive.

In the ship, Shaw and medic Ford (Kate Dickie) analyze the Engineer’s head, and discover that its DNA is identical to that of the human race. Meanwhile, David investigates the cylinder and discovers a small ampoule containing a small amount of black fluid. He intentionally infects Holloway with the substance, hiding it in a drop of liquid on his finger and briefly tapping it into a glass of champagne Holloway drinks from to celebrate their discovery. Later, Shaw and the infected Holloway have sex. Holloway later looks in a mirror and sees his eyes are changing.

Back inside the structure, Fifield and Milburn are attacked by snake-like creatures. Milburn is killed, and a corrosive fluid (yellow acidic blood) from one of the creatures melts Fifield’s helmet, exposing him to the dark liquid leaking from the cylinders.

The next morning after the storm subsides, the Prometheus crew returns to the structure and finds Milburn’s corpse. David discovers a room containing a living Engineer in stasis and a holographic star map highlighting Earth. Holloway’s infection rapidly ravages his body, and he is rushed back to the ship. As he visibly deteriorates, Vickers refuses to let him aboard, and immolates him with a flame thrower at his own request.

A medical scan reveals that Shaw, despite being sterile, is pregnant. David subdues her, to return her to Earth in stasis, but she escapes and uses an automated surgery pod in Vicker’s quarters to cut a cephalopod-like creature from her abdomen. Weyland is found to have been in stasis aboard the ship; he explains to Shaw that he intends to ask the Engineers to help him avoid his impending death.

A mutated Fifield attacks the hangar bay and kills several crew members before being killed himself. Janek theorizes that the planet they are on was used by the Engineers as a military base until they lost control of their biological weapons, namely the ampoules and the black fluid they contain. The remaining crew return to the structure and awaken the Engineer, who is occupying what is discovered to be a space ship (the same design as the crashed alien space ship seen in ‘Alien’ and ‘Aliens’). David speaks to the Engineer, who responds by decapitating him and killing Weyland and Ford. Shaw escapes the alien ship as it is activated by the Engineer. The still-active David reveals it is going to release the ampoules on Earth. Vickers orders Janek to return to Earth, but Shaw convinces him to stop the Engineer’s ship. Janek and his two surviving crewmen take off and crash the Prometheus into it while Vickers flees in an escape pod. The disabled Engineer ship crashes onto the planet, falling onto Vickers, crushing her. The ship continues to tumble and nearly crushes Shaw, but she escapes.

Shaw goes to the escape pod to retrieve supplies and finds her alien offspring has grown to gigantic size. The Engineer survives the crash, enters the escape pod and attacks Shaw, who releases the tentacled creature. It subdues the Engineer by thrusting a tentacle down its throat. Shaw recovers David’s remains from the alien ship, and together they activate another Engineer ship. Shaw and the remains of android David then take off to travel to the Engineers’ homeworld in an attempt to understand why they created humanity and why they attempted to destroy it.

In the final shot, in the Prometheus escape pod, an alien creature (very similar but not the same as seen in later movies) bursts out of the dying Engineer’s chest.

This is the prologue to the Alien franchise. Some critics say you will like the movie better if you have seen the Alien trilogy; others say you will like it better if you haven’t. Regardless it is a great Sci Fi movie. If you like this genre, don’t miss it.

Rating: 4.4 out of 5.

Alex Hopper is a talented but undisciplined slacker. His brother Stone, a naval Commander, forces Hopper to join the Navy. Hopper becomes a lieutenant on the USS John Paul Jones DDG-53, sister-ship to his brother’s command, the USS Sampson DDG-102. Hopper also falls in love with Admiral Shane’s daughter, Samantha, and wants to marry her, but is afraid of asking her father’s permission, as he doesn’t like Hopper. During the RIMPAC opening ceremony, Hopper gets into a brawl with Captain Nagata of the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force, in charge of JDS Myoko DDG-175. Hopper soon learns that he is to be kicked out of the Navy at the end of RIMPAC. Meanwhile, Samantha accompanies Army veteran and amputee Mick Canales on a hike on Oahu in order to help him adapt to his prosthetic legs.

A small fleet of alien ships arrives in response to the NASA signal. One ship collides with an orbital satellite and crashes in Hong Kong, while five others land in the waters near Hawaii. The aliens erect a massive forcefield around the islands, trapping a number of American, Japanese and other sovereignty’s warships, including Hopper’s ship. The aliens attack, destroying Nagata and Stone’s ships. Hopper’s superiors are killed, leaving him in command of the John Paul Jones. Captain Nagata and some of his crew members are rescued from the waters and assists the Americans in setting up a discreet way to track the aliens using wave-detection buoys. During a night-time battle, the aliens and the Americans exchange pot shots, but Hopper manages to sink two alien ships. They rescue an alien from the water. They discover the aliens are very sensitive to sun light and have to wear filters during the day. Using this knowledge, Hopper attacks another alien ship at dawn, using a sniper rifle with Nagata to breach their cockpit window and blind them with sunlight. Both ships are destroyed in the battle.

A group of alien footsoldiers and scientists lands on Oahu and attack the NASA communications array. Samantha and Mick narrowly avoid their detection, and run into a fleeing NASA scientist. Because the aliens’ communications ship crashed in Hong Kong, the aliens plan to use the NASA array to signal their home planet to invade Earth. Realizing that a larger invasion might be imminent, Samantha manages to get a radio and warns Hopper of the threat.
Having no better options, the surviving crew of the John Paul Jones return to harbor and board the USS Missouri BB-63, a 70-year old decommissioned battleship that has been converted into a museum. With the aid of the museum staff, all elderly war veterans, Hopper manages to put the Missouri out to sea again. With some clever maneuvers, the Missouri destroys the last alien ship and shells the communications array, destroying the aliens and ending the threat of invasion.

Back on shore, the crew and Mick all get medals, including a posthumous one to Stone, after the ceremony, Adm. Shane leads Hopper off to discuss his ‘Terms of Surrender’ over a meal.

Based on the board game. Mindless but watchable.

Rating: 3.2 out of 5.

Scientist Richard Parker (Campbell Scott) is playing a game of hide-and-seek with his young son Peter, but during the game he discovers that his study has been broken into. After quickly gathering together some hidden documents, Richard and his wife Mary (Embeth Davidtz) leave Peter with his Aunt May (Sally Field) and Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen), then mysteriously depart without telling Peter where they are going.

Years later, the teenage Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) has become an alienated social outcast who does not have many friends. He attends Midtown Science High School, where he spends much of his time pining over his crush Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), while frequently getting bullied by the obnoxious Flash Thompson (Chris Zylka).

At home, Peter finds a brief case containing some of his father’s old documents, and learns that his father worked with fellow scientist Dr. Curtis Connors (Rhys Ifans) at a pharmaceutical company named Oscorp. Faking his way into the Oscorp building by pretending to be an intern, Peter sneaks into a laboratory where extremely strong “biocable” is being created from genetically-modified spiders. One of the spiders escapes from its container and bites Peter. On the subway ride home, Peter scuffles with a gang of thugs and discovers that he suddenly has increased agility and strength. Upon returning home, he finds the spider hiding in his jacket, and stores it away.

The next day, Peter goes to Dr. Connors’ house and gives him Richard Parker’s documents. Dr. Connors explains that he and Richard were researching cross-species genetics in order to find a way to re-grow lost limbs, with Dr. Connors being motivated by the loss of his own right arm. Dr. Connors is frustrated because his superior, Dr. Rajit Ratha (Irrfan Khan), is pressuring him into devising a cure for Oscorp’s CEO Norman Osborn, who is terminally ill.
Back at school, Peter gets in trouble after accidentally breaking a basketball hoop during a game with Flash. Uncle Ben is forced to switch a work shift to meet with the principal about the situation. afterwards, Uncle Ben asks Peter to pick up Aunt May, but Peter instead practices his new-found powers and meets with Dr. Connors at Oscorp, who shows him the limb-regeneration formula work on a laboratory mouse.

When Peter returns home, Uncle Ben scolds him for having forgotten to pick up Aunt May, reminding him that Richard believed that people should always make their responsibility their priority. A distraught Peter storms off. He goes to a general store to buy milk, but falls two cents cents short and is refused service by the store clerk. Suddenly, a man robs the store and Peter doesn’t do anything to stop him. Uncle Ben, who was searching for Peter, sees the thief running away and wrestles with him over a gun. The thief shoots Uncle Ben right in front of Peter and runs off.

Shortly after the attack, Peter acquires a police sketch of the killer, and uses his abilities to hunt criminals matching the killer’s description. After attacking a man who fit the description, he is chased by a gang and falls inside an abandoned gym, and a luchador wrestling poster inspires him to create a mask.
Later on, he adds a spandex suit for mobility and suddenly becomes a folk hero who the public refers to as ‘Spider-Man’. The police, led by Gwen’s father Cpt. George Stacy (Dennis Leary), soon start a man-hunt for the masked vigilante.

Meanwhile, Dr. Ratha fires Dr. Connors for refusing to immediately start human trials of the limb-regeneration formula. He takes a sample of the drug and plans to test it at a Veterans Administration hospital under the guise of flu shots. Growing desperate, Dr. Connors injects himself with the formula, and passes out. Upon awakening, he finds his lost arm has fully regenerated. However, he then mutates into a large, reptilian monster and chases after Dr. Ratha at Williamsburg Bridge, throwing cars over the side as he rampages. Spider-Man saves each fallen car with the biocable web, which he deploys from wrist-mounted shooters of his own invention. Spider-Man confronts The Lizard in the sewers, barely escaping alive.

Having learned Spider-Man’s real identity, the Lizard attacks Peter at school and plans to unleash the drug all over Manhattan to mutate all humans into lizards using a cloud-generating device at Oscorp Tower, unaware that Gwen is there making an antidote for the condition at Peter’s request. The police mobilizes to stop both him and Spider-Man, but are delayed when the Lizard infects officers with small dosages of the chemical.

In the manhunt, Captain Stacy learns Spider-Man’s real identity and allows him to go stop Connors while proceeding to the tower himself after Peter mentions that Gwen is there making the antidote. After Captain Stacy retrieves the antidote from Gwen and arrives to save Spider-Man who was being overpowered, both of them fight together to delay the Lizard while Spider-Man modifies the machine to disperse the antidote instead, restoring the humanity of Connors and the infected officers, and allowing him to save Peter from a fatal fall from the tower.

Unfortunately, The Lizard has mortally wounded Captain Stacy beforehand, and Stacy makes Peter promise to keep Gwen safe by staying away from her before he dies from his wounds. Peter initially does so, which offends Gwen until she realizes his reasons. While in class, Peter is told by a teacher to “not make promises he can’t keep” to which Peter replies “but those are the best kind” while looking at Gwen. She smiles, and it is implied that the two resume their relationship. With his first challenge surmounted, Peter officially takes to the streets as a proper hero.

In a post-credits scene, Dr. Connors is sitting in a prison cell speaking with a mysterious man (presumably Norman Osborn), The man inquires about Dr. Connors divulging information about Peter’s father, but Dr. Connors tells the man to leave Peter alone, and the scene abruptly ends with a flash of lightning.

A much better version than the Toby Maguire episodes. A little darker and very well done.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Summary: In the final part of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy, Batman must face a foe unlike any he has ever faced. In The Dark Knight, Batman saved Gotham, but could not save himself. Taking the blame for Harvey Dent’s crimes, he was hunted by the Police, and thus had to leave the task of protecting Gotham in Gordon’s hands. After what seemed like ages, Gordon finally brought peace to Gotham, and it was enough to convince the Dark Knight that Gotham was safe and that Bruce Wayne need never put on the Batsuit again. However, eight years after the events of The Dark Knight, a new foe emerges, and threatens to destroy Gotham. When this masked foe Bane proves too much for Gordon to handle, Batman must break his 8-year exile and return to defeat Bane from fulfilling his devious plan and claim his rightful place as the true Savior of Gotham.

Synopsis: (alert: major spoilers in the end) The movie opens with some CIA agents escorting a nuclear scientist, Dr. Pavel, and three hooded prisoners, on board a small military aircraft. On learning that the prisoners worked for a mercenary named Bane, the agent in charge of the operation is excited and begins interrogating the prisoners. However, one of the prisoners turns out to be Bane (Tom Hardy) himself, and getting arrested was part of his plan. Suddenly, the aircraft is overpowered by members of a criminal-paramilitary unit in a C-130 Hercules, from which several of Bane’s men climb into the smaller aircraft using ropes, killing the agents. Bane and his men then grab hold of Dr Pavel and improvise a blood transfer from Pavel to a corpse. They then cause the smaller plane to crash, taking him along with them in the larger aircraft.

The scene then cuts to Gotham, where Harvey Dent’s death anniversary is being celebrated as Dent Day. At a charity event hosted by the forever-absent Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale), Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) prepares to deliver a speech revealing the truth about Dent and the murders for which the Batman had taken the fall 8 years ago, but deciding that the time was not right, stuffs the speech into his jacket. Miranda Tate (Marion Cottilard), a wealthy investor, tries to meet the reclusive Bruce to get him to invest in her clean energy project, but is unable to meet him.

One of the maids working at the Wayne manor for the event is Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway), a burglar, who breaks into Bruce’s room and his safe, stealing his mother’s pearls. Bruce, crippled in one leg, accosts her, but she attacks him and escapes. Bruce later realizes that she also took a copy of his fingerprints from the surface of the safe. A tracking device was also hidden in the pearls.

Selina then sells Bruce’s fingerprints to Dagget, (Ben Mendelsohn), an industrialist with a shady background, who tries to kill her but Selina smartly creates a diversion using a missing Congressman who’s actually been with her, causing the police to converge on the spot.

A dead teenager’s body washes out from the sewers, and his body is identified by police officer John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), as that of a kid staying at an orphanage where he coaches the kids in baseball. Blake is shown to have a very close relationship with the orphanage and the warden who runs it, and we realize later that he himself grew up in that orphanage, and it was being funded by the Wayne Foundation. One of the kids at the orphanage informs him that they have heard rumours of the sewers providing good employment recently, which makes Blake suspicious.

Bruce causes a stir as he arrives in his Aventador at a gala costume ball. He chats with Miranda Tate then cuts in as Selina is dancing with an older gentleman. As they waltz Selina claims to want to see the rich lose and the city burn. Bruce takes back his pearls but Selina then steals the Lamborghini.
The sewers are in fact the hideout of Bane, who is in the employ of Dagget, and has built himself an army of faithful mercenaries. During a raid on the sewers, a couple of mercenaries overpower Commissioner Gordon and bring him to Bane, but Gordon manages to escape, shot by Bane’s men and grievously injured, but not before Bane seized from Gordon’s jacket the speech in which Gordon intended to reveal the truth about Harvey Dent and his murders. Bruce, wearing a ski mask and speaking as Batman, talks to Gordon at the hospital, who tells him that Batman must return and stop Bane’s organization. Wayne decides to don his cape again and return to crime-fighting, despite being in a hopeless physical condition.While going through the records, Bruce learns that the mercenary Bane was once the member of the League of Shadows but was later excommunicated from the group. Rumour had it Bane had once escaped from a prison, the pits of hell.

Bane and his men launch an ambitious daylight attack on the Gotham stock exchange, taking everybody inside hostage and setting a software program into action. The hostage situation ends with the mercenaries getting away, but Batman enters the scene suddenly, causing the Gotham Police force to concentrate all their resources into arresting him. This gives Bane and his henchman time for the laptop to run its program. Deputy Commissioner Foley (Matthew Modine) is eager to arrest the alleged murderer of Harvey Dent, and after a prolonged chase, Batman is cornered into a dark alley. Batman escapes from the alley in The Bat, a futuristic flying version of the Batmobile built by Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman). Batman recovers the hard drive from the laptop.
Selina breaks into Daggett’s safe looking for the Slate software program. She is surrounded by Bane and his thugs but Batman arrives and rescues her. On a safe rooftop she leaves without thanking him. Back in the bat cave Bruce asks Alfred to get the program decoded, he notices his thumbprint scan is on the memory. His decision to return as Batman leads to a spat with Alfred (Michael Caine) who is afraid of the Batman has a death wish. Alfred surprises Bruce when informing him that during his travels for 7 years (in “Batman Begins”), Alfred had hoped that Bruce would never return. He tells Bruce that he wished that in Florence, Italy, while in a cafe, he would see Bruce happily with a woman, married, having a normal life. They would silently acknowledge each other. Alfred leaves Bruce and the mansion for good after revealing the contents of Rachel’s farewell letter to Bruce, given to Alfred previous to her murder in The Dark Knight.

Bruce learns the laptop program was used to make stock trades that bankrupt Wayne Enterprises. To protect one secret, Bruce and Fox take Miranda to the fusion reactor. This reactor could be turned into a weapon, but Fox and Miranda intend to use it for generating clean energy for the entire city. The reactor is hidden in a chamber underneath the river so that it could be flooded for containment in emergencies. Bruce wants Miranda to become CEO of Wayne Enterprises to safeguard the reactor. Furious that he can no longer acquire the Corporation, Dagget corners Bane blaming him for his failure. Bane kills Dagget proclaiming himself in charge of the city after revealing that it was the only for the construction machinery that he required to build the sophisticated underground sewers and to accomplish his future plans that he complied with Dagget’s orders. Bruce finds Selina at her apartment and says his powerful friend needs her help. He says he knows about the Slate program and he has it.

That night Catwoman leads Batman into the subway tunnels, but Batman is cornered by Bane, betrayed by Selina. A lengthy battle of hand-to-hand combat between the two, eventually Bane overpowers the Batman, and breaks his backbone by smashing him down bodily on his knee. Moments later, Bane’s men blow out the ceiling of the sewers, giving them access Wayne Enterprises’ Applied Sciences division. They find the fusion reactor, Dr. Pavel is brought in and he makes some adjustments to it.

After witnessing the fight, Selina attempts to leave Gotham, but is spotted and tracked down by Blake at the airport. The conversation then turns to Bane, Selina says she’s not sure if Batman is alive. She is then arrested, and placed in Blackgate prison.

Bruce Wayne is left in a foreign prison, still in pain from the fight. The prison sits at the bottom of a deep circular shaft, with the only way in or out by climbing the stone walls. Bane taunts Bruce that he intends to kill his soul first having to witness the destruction of Gotham City and his body only later. This prison was where Bane was rumoured to be born, and it is notorious as a “Hell on Earth”, from which nobody has managed to escape. However, one of the prisoners tells Bruce that a child had managed to escape.

The child was born of a Mercenary, who fell in love with a Warlord’s daughter. The Mercenary was to be sentenced to life in the prison, but the daughter made a deal with her father to free him and instead ended up a prisoner there herself. One day a riot broke out in the prison where she was raped and murdered, and her child escaped. Bruce concludes that the child must have been Bane.

While in his cell, Bruce sees several prisoners attempt to escape by using a safety rope, and climbing up the shaft towards the light, but fail to clear the final jump on to a ledge required to escape.

Meanwhile, in Gotham City, Blake has files that show Daggett’s construction company engaging in activity around the city’s sewer systems. Gordon orders the Police Force (said to be on a ‘training exercise’ so as not to arouse suspicion), into the sewers to find Bane and his henchmen. Captain Foley is skeptical.
Blake tracks down one of the sights, and finds explosive chemicals. He realizes that using Dagget’s construction crews, Bane has rigged numerous construction areas around the city with explosives!

John tries to warn Foley but Bane detonates the explosives the beginning of a football match, causing the entire ground to cave in and collapse, and the tunnels to the sewer are sealed off! Gotham’s football stadium is powerless as Bane declares to the crowd that he’s now in charge of the city. He displays the fusion reactor core and murders Dr Pavel, the only man who can disarm it, in front of the shocked audience. Bane also declares that he has left one citizen in charge of the detonator who would trigger the bomb in case of any sort of civil rebellion.

Simultaneously, all but one of the city’s bridges leading up to the city are destroyed by Bane’s explosives, trapping the entire population of the city inside. Bane threatens the government forces that should anybody try to enter or leave the city, he will detonate the nuclear weapon, thus forcing the government forces to guard the city and stop anybody from leaving. The lone bridge still intact is meant as a means to provide food and relief supplies to Gotham’s citizens.

Bane then proceeds to the prison where more than 1000 prisoners have been incarcerated as per the Dent Act, which gave enormous powers to the police. Here he reads out Gordon’s intended speech revealing the truth about Harvey, and declares the prisoners free, as the man who drew up the Dent Act himself was a murderer and a madman. The prisoners join Bane and together they enforce what Bane calls “martial law”; forcing the rich out of their homes, holding kangaroo courts (presided over by Johnathan Crane, aka, the Scarecrow) and offering them a choice: exile from Gotham or death.Exile means being forced to walk on the frozen river under the detonated bridges, where the ice cracks and drowns anyone making the crossing.

Detective Blake, meanwhile, with the help of the few policemen still remaining in the city, begin tracking three large military trucks, one of which carries the nuclear weapon. To avoid detection of the weapon, the three trucks are driven around the city continuously.

Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne, holed up in the prison, is watching the havoc in Gotham on a TV set in the prison. He gets the doctor there to crudely fix his vertebrae. Enduring the pain, Bruce hallucinates that he sees Ra’s Al Ghul (Liam Neeson). As the days wear on in the prison, Bruce’s anger builds, and he is determined to save Gotham. Rigorously training his body, he attempts to make the escape twice, but fails each time.

After the second attempt, Bruce questions how a child could have escaped, but he can’t. The doctor explains that if Bruce truly does not fear death, then there is no need for him to try to escape using the safety rope. Bruce realizes that was how the child escaped, and his third attempt without the rope succeeds!
Bruce returns to Gotham as Batman, and with the help of Selina, frees Miranda and Fox from Bane’s captivity, and saves Gordon and some of the policemen, who had been captured and were being forced to cross the frozen river. Fox reveals that trigger or no trigger, the nuclear device is unstable and will detonate anyway the next day, and recovers a signal jammer from the Bat which can block the signals from the trigger.

With Blake and Selina’s help, Batman frees the 3000 police trapped in the sewers, who then march the streets and attack Bane’s army. A brutal combat ensues on the streets of Gotham. Batman fights Bane again, and has nearly defeated him, detaching some of the tubes on his mask that feed Bane his anesthetic, which weakens him greatly. However, as Batman tries to force Bane to reveal the location of the trigger device, Miranda suddenly stabs the Batman in the side.

It is then revealed that her real name is Talia, and that she was the child who had escaped from the Hell on Earth prison. Bane had been a prisoner there, and had become her protector. During the prison riot that claimed her mother’s life, Bane helped her to escape, but in the process was hurt severely. The prison doctor attempted to repair the damage, but his methods resulted in Bane needing anesthetics to constantly keep the pain at bay.

After she had escaped, Talia then tracked down her father: Ra’s Al Ghul. She convinces her father to rescue Bane, and both were trained within The League of Shadows.Apart from the realization that Bane was an extremist monster, the injuries inflicted on Bane’s face became a reminiscence of the suffering endured by Talia’s mother in the pit for Ra’s Al Ghul and hence Bane was excommunicated from the group. Talia’s intention is to take revenge on the Batman for killing her father, as well as finishing the mission of destroying Gotham for its greed that cost her father’s life. She then hits the trigger of the nuclear weapon, but Gordon has managed to fit the signal jammer on the weapon just in time. However, there are only eleven minutes left for the nuke to detonate. Miranda says farewell and leaves Bane to kill Batman.

Selina, riding the Batpod, crashes into the lobby and blasts Bane with the Pod’s large cannon, killing the villain. Talia escapes, and takes control of the truck carrying the weapon, but eventually her escorts are all finished off in a prolonged chase sequence, with Selina riding the Batpod and Batman flying the Bat in the air, and attacking the convoy carrying the nuke. Talia’s truck goes off the road and crashes, fatally wounding her. In her last moments alive, she explains how her access to the reactor chamber allowed her to set a timer to flood it, preventing the weapon from being returned there. She soon dies believing she had finally completed her father’s work and avenged his death.

Lucius Fox soon escapes the flooding chamber and realizes there is no way of stabilizing the weapon. The weapon cannot be deactivated in any way, and will detonate in less than 2 minutes. Before deciding to fly the bomb out of Gotham. Batman explains that the Bat has no autopilot, and that he will need to fly the bomb out of Gotham Batman shares a kiss with Selina, before discreetly revealing to Gordon his true identity.

With not much time left, Batman attaches the bomb to the Bat, and flies it away from the city, and out over the bay. The citizens of Gotham watch awestruck as the weapon detonates on the horizon, and the mushroom-cloud balloons over the bay.

In the aftermath, the freed criminals are rounded up by Gotham’s Police Force.

A private funeral is held on the grounds of Wayne Manor for Bruce, by those who knew his true identity (including Gordon and Blake). Alfred sobs quietly, feeling that he let Bruce’s parents down by not protecting him.

Blake resigns from the Gotham Police, and explains to Gordon that the City will never really know who saved it. Gordon tells him that they will know that it was ‘The Batman’ who saved them. In tribute, a statue is erected in Batman’s memory.

In the aftermath of Bruce Wayne’s death, certain provisions are made. The majority of the estate is sold, with the money given to Alfred. Wayne Manor is given to the city of Gotham, as a place for orphaned boys to stay. Strangely, one of the Wayne family’s treasures (a string of pearls) cannot be located.
John Blake is surprised when he is also given a duffel bag as part of Bruce’s will. When presenting his I.D., the woman who checks it says he should go by his real first name as it appears on his I.D.: Robin.

Back in Applied Sciences, Lucius has several workers go over the second camouflage rotor(The Bat) in the underground storage area. Wanting to know what he could have done to get the autopilot functioning, he is surprised when the workers explain that the autopilot is functional, and the computer log shows that Bruce Wayne made the changes 6 months prior!

Up on the roof of Gotham’s Police Department, Gordon finds the once broken Bat signal (destroyed by him personally by the end of The Dark Knight) repaired.

Meanwhile, John Blake has opened the duffel bag, and finds a spelunking rope, and GPS coordinates. The information leads him to a waterfall (the entrance to the batcave). He makes his way past the waterfall, and into the cave, where his light attracts a flurry of bats.

In Florence, Italy, Alfred has returned to the same restaurant that he had visited during Bruce’s absence long ago. As he scans the room, he smiles to see Bruce and Selina at a nearby table. A fleeting glance between both Alfred and Bruce, is enough to assure the other that each of them will be alright.
In the final shot, we see John walking over a pool of water. As he does so, his movement activates the black flooring containing the batsuit. John just stares around him as the flooring rises up.

The best was save for last. An absolute must see on the big screen.

Rating” 5.0 out of 5

In order to gain influence over their North Carolina district, two CEOs seize an opportunity to oust long-term congressman Cam Brady by putting up a rival candidate. Their man: naive Marty Huggins, director of the local Tourism Center.

A Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis toilet humor slap fest. Entertainment Weekly gave this movie an A-, which further confirms their critics don’t know anything and their subscription is overpriced.

Don’t waste your money.

Rating: 0 out of 5

During the Prohibition era, the Bondurant brothers — Forrest (Tom Hardy), Howard (Jason Clarke) and Jack (Shia LaBeouf) — run a successful liquor bootlegging business in Franklin County, Virginia, with the help of their friend, Cricket Pate (Dane DeHaan), using their bar as a front for their illegal activities.

One day, Jack witnesses mobster Floyd Banner (Gary Oldman) eliminating a competitor and they exchange looks before Jack returns to the bar, where Forrest hires Maggie Beauford (Jessica Chastain), a dancer from Chicago, to be their new waitress. Shortly afterwards, the bar is visited by brutal Special Agent Charlie Rakes (Guy Pearce), on behalf of District Attorney Mason Wardell. Rakes informs Forrest that he wants a cut of all profit made by Franklin’s bootleggers, but Forrest refuses and threatens to kill Rakes if he returns. Forrest later meets with the other bootleggers and convinces them to stand up to Rakes as well, though they eventually give in to Rakes’ violent intimidation tactics.

Meanwhile, Jack meets Bertha Minnix (Mia Wasikowska), daughter of the local preacher. He attends the church drunk and makes a fool of himself, causing Bertha’s father to forbid her from seeing him, which only makes her more interested in Jack, with whom she flirts. Jack later finds Rakes raiding Cricket’s house in search of his distilation equipment. When they don’t find it, Rakes brutally beats Jack when he tries to intervene. Forrest hears of this and tells Jack that he needs to learn how to fight for himself.

Forrest and Howard arrange to meet with potential clients from Chicago, but Howard misses his appointment to get drunk with a friend, and Forrest ends up beating the two men with Cricket’s help when they harrass Maggie. Later, after Cricket leaves, the men return, slash Forrest’s throat, and rape Maggie.
Howard and Jack meet a surviving Forrest at the hospital, and Jack decides to travel to Chicago with Cricket to sell the liquor. Arriving there, they are doublecrossed by their clients, but are rescued by Banner, who recognizes Jack. Banner already knows of the attack on Forrest, as well as the identities of the two assailants, and he provides Jack with their address, and also advises Jack that they are working for Rakes. Forrest and Howard later find, torture, and kill the men to send a message to Rakes.

Banner becomes a regular client of the brothers, who move their distilation equipment to the woods and have great profit. The money allows Jack to continue courting Bertha, while Forrest begins a relationship with Maggie after she moves into the bar for her safety, though she doesn’t tell him she was raped.
Jack eventually decides to show Bertha the distilation center, but they are ambushed by Rakes and his men, who had followed her. Howard incapacitates Rakes and Jack nearly kills him before they are forced to flee from Rakes’s men with Bertha and Cricket, who is later recaptured and murdered by Rakes, who snaps his neck. Wanting revenge for Cricket’s death, Jack goes to confront Rakes and his men at a roadblock in the local bridge. Howard follows after him, rallying the bootleggers to come to their aid. Forrest decides to join them, though Maggie tries to dissuade him, telling him that it was she who had found him with his throat slashed and took him to the hospital. Forrest realizes then that she was also attacked that night, but Maggie continues to deny having been raped.

The bootleggers engage Rakes’ men in a violent firefight, during which Rakes shoots Forrest multiple times before being shot in the leg and attempting to escape. A wounded Jack follows him to the bridge and shoots Rakes in the chest, wounding him. Howard later stabs Rakes with a large knife and leaves him to bleed to death. With Rakes and his men dead, the Bondurant Brothers decide to save their money and retire after Prohibition ends. Jack marries Bertha, Forrest marries Maggie, and Howard marries a local woman, all having children. During a reunion at Jack’s house, Forrest drunkly dances on a frozen lake and falls into the freezing water, dying of pneumonia a few weeks later.

Great movie. Based on a real story. Having grown up in the deep South in the age of bootlegging, it seemed all too familiar.

Rating: 4.3 out of 5.

Note: the events in this movie take place at the same time during the events in the previous movie “The Bourne Ultimatum”, thus making this movie a spin-off to the Bourne trilogy.

Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner) is a member of Operation Outcome, one of the Department of Defense’s black ops programs, which provides its agents with green pills that enhance physical abilities and blue pills that enhance mental abilities. He is given the moniker of “Number Five” and is deployed to Alaska for a training assignment, where he meets another Outcome operative, Number Three (Oscar Isaac). Their exchange is initially intense, as Number Three questions Cross as to why he is two days ahead of schedule for their rendezvous. Cross explains to him that he had to take a shortcut through a mountain ridge after having lost his kit of program essentials during his travels, including his requisite bloodwork he draws on schedule to send back to Outcome for analysis. This confounds Number Three, as the mountain ridge is generally acknowledged as being extremely difficult for agents to essay even when assisted with a program kit, yet Cross has done so in record time without one, a fact that ostensibly irritates Number Three, since it is implied that Cross has bested Number Three’s unofficial “record”. After a further exchange in which Number Three agrees to re-package send some of his bloodwork and label it Cross’s, both men call an uneasy, implied truce to their tension. A fast-moving blizzard is on the horizon, and Number Three says Cross can stay an extra day, since he won’t be able to get ahead of it, despite his early arrival. While lying in bed that evening, Cross happens to notice a number of carvings done in the woodwork above his head, including one of the name “Jason Bourne”.

Meanwhile, Jason Bourne is in New York City exposing Operation Blackbriar and the Treadstone Project, leading to CIA Deputy Director Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) and Operation Blackbriar supervisor Noah Vosen (David Strathairn) being investigated by the FBI. Upon learning of this, CIA Director Ezra Kramer (Scott Glenn), also under investigation, calls Eric Byer (Edward Norton), a retired USAF Colonel responsible for overseeing the CIA’s clandestine operations, for help.

In order to cover up the existence of the Blackbriar program, Byer decides to eliminate all Outcome assets and, upon discovering that both Numbers Three and Five are at the same location, deploys a U-CAV to terminate both agents. Cross’s enhanced hearing picks up a faint echo in the distance, and Cross asks Number Three to confirm what he’s just heard. He cannot, but he and Cross decide to split up and survey the area separately. Cross exits the cabin moments before the U-CAV missile deployed by Byer’s people finds its target location and explodes, instantly killing Number Three. Cross uses a sniper rifle to destroy the U-CAV and, realizing that his superiors have ordered his assassination, goes about removing a tracking device that has been sewn into his abdomen, which he then forces a wolf that attacks him to swallow. Based on the active signal Cross’s tracking device still emits, Byer realizes that Cross is still alive and orders a second U-CAV to be deployed to eliminate Cross once and for all. However, the missile keys on the tracking signal inside the wolf and destroys its target, allowing Byer to mistakenly assume that Cross has finally been terminated. He then sets his sights on terminating the remaining Outcome agents across the globe.

Byer issues a mandate to have agent handlers replace the other Outcome assets’ green and blue pills with triangular yellow ones that will kill them in a matter of hours, and then goes about capturing one of Outcome’s foremost scientists, Dr. Donald Foite (Zeljko Ivanek), chemically brainwashing him to shoot and kill his other colleagues, one-by-one in the Outcome research lab. The only survivor of the massacre is Dr. Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz), who escapes after Foite commits suicide in order to avoid being questioned by security. Shearing is later attacked in her house by CIA agents ordered to kill her, but is rescued by Cross, who convinces her to help him after explaining who he is. Shearing reveals that Cross was genetically modified to retain the benefits of the green pills without need of continuous consumption, a process they call “viraling off”. Because he hasn’t taken a blue pill in several days, Cross realizes that he will soon lose his mental enhancement. He then coerces Shearing to travel to Manila with him, as the pills are manufactured there, in the hopes of being able to viral off the blue pills in the same manner he did the green.

On the way to Manila, Cross reveals to Shearing that he is actually Kenneth J. Kitsom, a U.S. Army soldier who was “killed” by a roadside bomb in the Iraq War and then offered an opportunity to serve his country via the Outcome program. Meanwhile, Byer continues to hunt down Shearing and discovers that she has been aided by Cross. From security intelligence gathered at major transportation hubs across the country, Byer deduces that Cross and Shearing have departed the US and are travelling to Manila, where the pills are manufactured, ostensibly to help Cross attempt to viral off the blue pills. Byers decides to activate Larx-03 (Louis Ozawa Changchien), the ultimate Outcome super soldier, who has had the viralling off process done for both the blue and green pills and has been programmed to become a completely lethal and emotionless killer. Larx-03 is deployed to Manila to eliminate Cross & Shearing while Cross is still presumably weak from the viraling off process. Byer also learns that Landy is expected to face charges for assisting Bourne, while Vosen is expected to be declared innocent and returned to duty.

In Manila, Cross and Shearing arrive at the factory where the pills are produced and Shearing administers to Cross the blue-pill viralling off procedure. Byer contacts the factory’s supervisor and orders a lockdown, but Cross and Shearing are able to escape before Larx arrives and take shelter in a local apartment, where Shearing helps Cross through his recovery from the process, during which he hallucinates on his recruitment to Outcome, ironically achieved under Byer’s direction. While partly delirious, he tells Shearing that he has money in his jacket and that if anything happens she should take it and get out of there. Cross also says that Shearing should go home, that she’s done enough for him.

The following day, Larx-03 informs the local police of Cross’ location while Shearing is away buying medicine. She is able to warn Cross, who has now fully recovered from the process, and he escapes from the police and rescues Shearing before they steal a motorcycle and escape, pursued by Larx. After a chase through the streets and marketplaces of Manila during which Cross is shot, Shearing kicks Larx-03 off from his motorcycle and into a pillar, killing him upon impact, while Cross’ damaged motorcycle crashes alongside them as they come to rest. Cross and Shearing are then rescued by a boatman and bribe him with a stolen golden watch into taking them to a ferry, which they board, departing to places unknown.

Great action packed movie. Jeremy Renner is primed to be the next phase of the Bourne franchise. He will have trouble balancing this with his takeover of the Mission Impossible franchise as well. I would have preferred a few more things being blown up and a lot more gratuitous killing, but still worth seeing on the big screen.

Rating: 4.3 our of 5

S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) arrives at one of his agency’s facilities during an evacuation. The Tesseract, an energy source of unknown potential, has activated. It opens a portal through space and the exiled Norse god Loki (Tom Hiddleston) steps through. Loki takes the Tesseract and also takes control of the minds of several SHIELD personnel, including Dr. Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård) and Agent Clint “Hawkeye” Barton (Jeremy Renner), to aid him in his getaway. As SHIELD personnel pull out of their base, some pursuing Loki and others merely fleeing, the ground beneath the base collapses and it’s destroyed.

In response to the attack, Fury re-activates the Avengers Initiative. First he pulls Agent Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), a.k.a. the Black Widow, out of an interrogation (tied to a chair, she seems to be the victim rather than the interrogator, but appearances are deceiving). Fury sends her to India to find and recruit Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), a.k.a. the Hulk. At the same time Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) approaches “Iron Man” Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and requests that he review Dr. Selvig’s research. Fury himself approaches Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), a.k.a. Captain America, with an assignment to retrieve the Tesseract from Loki. During his exile, Loki encountered the Chitauri, an alien race seeking to conquer the galaxy. In exchange for the Tesseract, the Chitauri agree to help Loki subjugate Earth.

Suiting up, Captain America and Iron Man travel to Germany to apprehend Loki, who is recovering iridium needed to stabilize the Tesseract’s power, and demanding that the civilians kneel before him. Loki quickly surrenders when the two heroes arrive, and he is escorted to a SHIELD helicarrier, a high-tech, flying aircraft carrier. However, Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Loki’s half-brother and the Norse God of thunder, arrives and attempts to free Loki so he can reason with him on his own, but he gets into a fight with Iron Man and Captain America. Eventually, Loki is taken to the helicarrier and placed in a glass cell designed to hold the Hulk. Fury explains that if Loki attempts to escape, even by merely cracking the glass, a shaft will open below him and he’ll plummet to Earth and possibly be killed.

The Avengers, now brought together, argue and deliberate over how to approach Loki and the revelation that SHIELD plans to harness the Tesseract’s power to develop weapons, a discovery made by Rogers. Fury admits that the events in New Mexico a year before (recounted in Thor) made SHIELD aware of other races on other worlds, some of whom may see Earth as an easy target. The decision was made to produce weapons with the Tesseract as a means of deterrence. As the group argues, Clint Barton and Loki’s possessed agents attack the helicarrier, disabling one of its engines in flight. While Stark and Rogers attempt to restart the damaged engine, Romanoff tries to prevent Dr. Banner from turning into the Hulk and destroying the ship from inside. Her plan fails and she’s chased through the ship until Thor takes up the battle to pacify the beast and manages to fell him briefly with a hit from his hammer, Mjolnir. While fighting Barton, Romanoff slams him into a guard rail, and the blow to the head breaks Loki’s mind control. After the Hulk falls from the ship, Thor is tricked into Loki’s holding cell by Loki himself, who has recovered his scepter and releases the cell and allows Thor to plummet. Loki is held at bay briefly by Agent Coulson who is also tricked by one of Loki’s holographic projections – Coulson is stabbed in the back by the real Loki. Coulson later shoots Loki with a blast from an unidentified weapon, one that harnesses the power of the Destroyer. Coulson dies while Fury tries to save his life. Thor escapes from the cell a split second before it hits the ground. Banner wakes up in his normal form after crashing into an abandoned factory.
Fury uses Coulson’s death to motivate the Avengers to work as a team. Stark and Rogers realize that simply defeating them will not be enough for Loki. He needs to overpower them in a very public way so as to validate himself as ruler of Earth. Using a device built by Dr. Selvig, Loki opens a portal to the Chitauri home world over Manhattan, summoning a Chitauri invasion.

The Avengers rally in defense of New York, but quickly come to the conclusion that they will be overwhelmed as wave after wave of Chitauri descend upon Earth. With help from the reformed Barton, Captain America and Thor evacuate civilians while Dr. Banner transforms into the Hulk and goes after Loki, beating him into submission in Tony Stark’s penthouse. Romanoff makes her way, with a little help from the Chitauri, to the device that holds the portal open (conveniently located on the roof of the Stark Building) and hits Dr. Selvig over the head, freeing him of Loki’s control. Dr. Selvig reveals that Loki’s staff can be used to close the portal.

Meanwhile, the council overrides Fury and scrambles a jet that fires a nuclear missile at Manhattan to end the invasion. Iron Man intercepts the missile and directs it at the portal and the Chitauri base before running out of oxygen and plummeting back to Earth, but the Hulk catches him as he falls. A dazed Stark, awakened by the Hulk’s roar, offers to take the team out for shawarma, but they decide to get Loki first. Thor escorts Loki and the Tesseract back to Asgard, while Fury notes that the Avengers will go their separate ways until a new world-threatening menace emerges.

Action packed, entertaining piece bringing together our old friends Thor, Captain America, Hulk and Iron Man.

Rating:  3.4 out of 5.