Action/Adventure/Mystery/Thriller — 141 min — Directed by Christopher Nolan
Cast: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy

As a boy a young Bruce Wayne watched in horror as his millionaire parents were slain in front of his eyes, a trauma which led him to become obsessed with revenge but his chance is cruelly taken away from him by fate. After disappearing to the East where he seeks counsel with the dangerous but honorable ninja cult leader known as Ra’s Al-Ghul, he returns to his now decaying Gotham City overrun by organised crime and dangerous individuals manipulating the system whilst the company he inherited is slowly being pulled out from under him. The discovery of a cave under his mansion, and a prototype armoured suit leads him to take on a new persona, one which will strike fear into the hearts of men who do wrong - he becomes, Batman.

Batman is back. Yes, after the appaling Batman & Robin, he has returned, and he’s better than ever. It’s not as ‘cartoony’ as the other movies done, though they have put a few reminders in there that it’s a comics-movie. But all in all, it’s a more mature and darker Batman than all the other, and that’s damn fine with me. About time even. Bale actually pulls it off. I thought he wouldn’t fit the boots, but he’s simply put the best Batman yet.

The action scenes could have been better, sure, but you gotta see it as a comic - and it’s not as exaggerated as in the ‘old’ Batman movies. There is a bit of reality thrown in, and the stupid one-liners are kept to a minimum, thank god! But it’s Liam Neeson that steals the show. He owns every scene he’s in, dominating Bale in every way. Not that Bale is bad, he just shrinks in comparision to Liam. Michael Caine is all right, and I’m not sure he’s a better Alfred, the old one was great, but at least he’s not a total disaster like Katie Holmes. How in Hell did she manage to win this role? The only answer is that she must give good head and love it! I’d be hard pressed to make a worse choice, talk about scraping the bottom of the barell. Luckily for us, she won’t be back for the inevitable sequel.

I think they hit the setting and moods of the film spot on. This is, simply put, the best Batman movie ever. Yes, it even beat Tim Burton’s. I can’t wait to see it again.

My Rating: 9/10

Sci-Fi/Thriller — 116 min — Directed by Steven Spielberg
Cast: Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Justin Chatwin, Tim Robbins, Rick Gonzalez, Yul Vazquez

Ray Ferrier is a working class man living in New Jersey. He’s estranged from his family, his life isn’t in order, and he’s too caught up with himself. But the unthinkable and, ultimately, the unexpected happens to him in an extraordinary sense. His small town life is shaken violently by the arrival of destructive intruders: Aliens which have come en masse to destroy Earth. As they plow through the country in a wave of mass destruction and violence, Ray must come to the defense of his children. As the world must fend for itself by a new and very advanced enemy not of this world, it’s inhabitants must save humanity from a far greater force that threatens to destroy it.

Allright. What we have here is a story that just is too well known. Not that the movie is bad, but there just are no surprises at all. Well, there are some, they’re just not in the plot, which is good, or I would be complaining about that. We follow Tom Cruise along the trip, and there are almost zero heroics from him, which is good. Speilberg has chosen to concentrate on Tom keeping his family safe, instead of going for the massive counter-attacks by military on a large scale. We only get to see what happens close to Tom, and there’s almost no information on what’s going on elsewhere. I like that, because it seems plausible, and you can feel the hopelessness people feel when confronted by the pods. There’s no way, but to die. I think I wouldn’t have minded if they had changed the ending, because you knew that it was coming, just a matter of when. It could have been a nice surprise to have something else happen. Sure, it would have made H.G. Wells spin in his grave, but I would have enjoyed it so much more, not knowing the ending. It kinda… killed the suspense. And the Aliens not knowing Biology 101… Yeah, they would have known about that.

The Pods are awesome, and the CGI-work is flawless, as far as I can tell. If you took footage back 20 years and showed it to people, they would swear it was real. Yeah, it is that good. The Aliens themselves, are something in between Alien and the smaller Starship Troopers bugs. Exploding houses, flying cars and all such collateral damage going on is freaking amazing!

My Rating: 7/10