2011-07-09

Great Expectations

There are two (or actually three) upcoming movies that I'm thrilled to see once they hit the theaters. It's been a long time since I've been so very excited about films to come.
The first movie is the new Batman movie: The Dark Knight Rises. Christopher Nolan's last couple of movies have been absolutely awesome and I just hope he has preserved his form. The last Batman movie is without comparison the best superhero movie ever and one of the absolute best in the whole action/thriller genre. But in that movie he had an ace (or rather a joker) up his sleeve, in Heath Ledger, who made the performance of a lifetime. It's going to be difficult to top that in the next movie.
Nolan's most recent movie, Inception, was a wonderful science fiction thriller. I know it's not everybody's cup of tea but I just love it. It seems to me that it comes down to whether you're prepared to accept the premise of the movie. If you are, then you are in for a wonderful ride. I guess it's the rule of cool at work.
So with these two movies as his latest achievements I'd say I have good reasons to expect quite a lot from Nolan. Will my high expectations make me disappointed? Perhaps, but I can't shake the feeling.

The other movie(s) I'm really psyched about is The Hobbit (part I and II). After Peter Jackson's phenomenal work with The Lord of The Rings I'm absolutely dying to see how he handles the prequel. The tone of The Hobbit (the book) is quite different, more fairytale like, than epic The Lord of The Rings, so it's not like he can just use the same blueprint once again and expect good results. It is also interesting to note that those parts of LOTR that are similar to The Hobbit are those that were mostly left out of the movies. But I'm nevertheless confident that Jackson will do a good job. I'm particularly pleased that The Hobbit finally ended up as his project given how stepmotherly it's been handled at times.