So the two big movies this summer were Comic Book based movies, which is a genre of movie that isn't exactly showing signs of slowing down in either volume of content or volume of money being made. Not only are they the two biggest movies of the summer, but they also have some of the top opening weekends of all time, with that title held by The Avengers.
Obviously, I saw them both, and was really looking forward to both. Admittedly, I'm a Marvel fanboy, and have never been very attached to DC franchises, but Christopher Nolan's treatment of Batman was so very refreshing and excellently executed.
The Avengers was an impressive culmination of at least 5 years of work by Marvel producers, tying in the characters from their marquee movies, taking away the need of an original story in it's climactic group movie. For characters like Thor, Iron-Man and Captain America to have been given their solo movie treatments with different directors and writers and still have them all mesh together seamlessly in the ensemble movie was a marvel (sorry) of editorial oversight by the people in charge. Even the Hulk, with the two commercially and technically dubious solo movies finally was done justice. Immediately after having seen The Avengers, I was ready and wanting to immediately sit through a second showing. Joss Whedon has again proven that he is the master of giving fans what they want to see, and choreographing perfectly the dynamics of groups that don't necessarily believe in the same moral views. I truly hope that this buys Whedon some damn collateral the next time he takes a show to TV, if he ever bothers with an outlet that has spurned him so often.
I think the most impressive piece was that Whedon was able to make me care about (IMO) second stringers Hawkeye and Black Widow. I think Jeremy Renner was very good in his role, and even Scarlett Johansson was passable as Black Widow.
I did end up seeing The Avengers a couple time in theatres, which is the first time I've paid to see a movie multiple times in a theatre since The Matrix (4 times in the theatre when it was released) which I think demonstrates how much fun and how well this movie was done.
The Dark Knight Rises is also the culmination of 7 years of work, although this time it was one director's impressive vision and body of work. What Nolan has done with Batman will make it very difficult for any director to follow without completely changing the dark feel of Batman. I sincerely hope this does not meana return to the neon foolishness of Joel Schumacher in the late 90s. I would guess that Dark Knight Rises was critically acclaimed more than The Avengers, based on it being more serious in it's writing and style.
Upon finishing The Dark Knight Rises, I simply felt... nothing. There was no excitement, there was no talking with my wife about scenes in the car on the way home and there was no talking about it at the next day. I enjoyed the movie, overall it was pretty much what I expected to see, and maybe that's the difference. The Avengers gave me what I wanted to see. Some might consider that pandering to the fans, but I'm sorry, I'm paying money to see a movie, and sometimes I want to see things for MY enjoyment, not for the director's.
The Dark Knight also had more annoyances for me. For one, Banes voice was annoying at best, and way too difficult to hear. It absolutely broke my immersion in the movie. Everytime he spoke, he sounded like it was doing a bad Patrick Stewart impersonation through a drive thru speakerbox. A very rare gaffe by Nolan, who's villains up to this point were very well done and easy to accept. Even Anne Hathaway did well, both in her Selena Kyle and Catwoman roles.
I felt the ending was unnecessarily direct. Without going into spoilers, I would have appreciated either a darker or more questionable ending than was provided, and it would have been more fitting to Nolan's handling of the franchise. Too many things were wrapped up that didn't need to be overtly hammered over our heads.
Now Nolan is involved at some level with the Man of Steel movie, which is a redo of Superman, and rumours are that Nolan will be overseeing the DC major franchises for a Justice League ensemble movie in 2018 or something. I'll reserve judgment on this until I see how the Man of Steel is pulled off, but I'm not seeing a dark gritty Justice League doing as well as the lighthearted, exciting, over the top action of the Avengers which holds true to the source comic books. Yes, Batman works as gritty realism. Superman, Wonder Woman... not so much, but Nolan has the collateral with me for me to give it a chance at least.
There, again, is the difference. I'm willing to give Christopher Nolan a shot with involvement with Superman based on his body of work. I was absolutely unwilling to accept ANYONE by Joss Whedon a chance with The Avengers 2, which has since been confirmed as belonging to Whedon.
So for me, The Avengers was by far the better movie, is recommended by me for anyone whether or not you enjoy comics, whereas The Dark Knight was a worthwhile end to a strong trilogy.
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