July, 2012 is going to be an epic year for comic and movie nerds with Dark Knight Rises (July 20, 2012) and Spider-Man (July 3, 2012) reboot coming out within 3 weeks of each other.  This will be a crazy battle:  Marvel vs. DC, Sony vs WB, who will be the blockbuster king?  I know I’ll watch both but which movie is going to be better?  Let’s look at the important factors:

Director:
This is the most important factor.  Directors can make or break a movie.  Christopher Nolan is on his third gig as the director for Batman with Dark Knight Rises.  His track record is pretty impressive, which includes Inception, Memento and Prestige.  Marc Webb is the director of Spider-Man.  Webb only has one real movie under his credit, the awesome drama, 500 Days Of Summer. It wasn’t predictable but still left the audience with a satisfying ending.  It kept you hook because it wasn’t in chronological order (Hmmm, Memento anyone? ) and the characters were likeable.

Christopher Nolan, Dark Knight Rises Director

Nolan has proven he can work under pressure with The Dark Knight and Inception.  Two big budget movies that both fans and critics adored.  He chooses his stories wisely and focuses on character development.  Nolan also has a knack for creating cool sequences that has become his trademark: Gordon’s speech at the end of Dark Knight, Training sequence in Batman Begins, Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) explaining the dream world to Ariadne (Ellen Page).

Marc Webb, Spider-Man director

While Webb definitely has potential to be a great director, he hasn’t proven himself yet.  He started out in the right path with 500 Days but we haven’t seen him direct a big budget movie.  Nolan has proven himself on several occassions that he can make a great movie even under pressure.
Advantage: Dark Knight Rises

Story:
 This one is going to be tough because we don’t know the general plot of both movies.  We know which characters are going to show up so the story will be based on it.  Dark Knight Rises will have Bane and Selina Kyle aka Catwoman.  Bane is my favorite villain because he broke Batman’s back in Knightfall.  Unlike in Batman & Robin where Bane is portrayed as a roid freak, the comic book version is very different.  He’s really smart and wanted to take down Batman for the challenge.  I’m pretty sure  Selina Kyle will become Catwoman in the movie because Nolan said this will be his last Batman movie.  Where’s the fun of introducing a character and not have her fight Batman?  If they just wanted a love interest, they could’ve chosen a character not as famous as Selina.  Just like the previous two Batman flicks, I think the story will be dark and serious.  Batman will probably get beat up by Bane and find a way to RISE in the end.   

While Batman’s story is dark, Spider-Man might be darker.  That’s because Gwen Stacy is Spider-Man’s love interest, not Mary Jane.  Gwen Stacy got killed in the comics due to Green Goblin throwing her off the bridge.  Spider-Man used his web to save Stacy but the whiplash caused her death.  More than likely, Stacy probably won’t die in the movie but suffer a serious injury.  If she dies, kudos to Sony for following the comic book story.  The main villain will be the Lizard/Dr. Curt Connors.  Connors is a surgeon whose experiment turns him into a half man/half reptile.  In the comics, he’s somewhat good so he probably won’t be as evil as Venom. 

This is tough, Dark Knight Rises is intriguing because of Bane but I really want to know what happens to Gwen Stacy in Spider-Man and how it will affect the web slinger.   Both stories will be good because the directors care about character development.
Advantage: Spider-Man

Actors
Dark Knight Rises has an all star cast including Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman and Anne Hathaway.  Spider-Man has Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Sally Fields and Martin Sheen.  This one is an easy call, Dark Knight Rises wins by a mile. 

Emma Stone will play Gwen Stacy

Andrew Garfield was good in Social Network but right now he’s not close to Bale’s acting ability.  The cast of Batman has also been proven they have chemistry with the previous movies.  Who knows how Martin Sheen and Sally Fields will act in a comic book flick.

Anne Hathaway will play Selina Kyle

Advantage: Dark Knight Rises

Music:
This can’t be decided yet because Sony hasn’t announced a composer for Spider-Man.  But Warner Brothers has announced Hans Zimmer is back on board.  He did the previous two Batman scores.  So that’s going to be epic.  James Newton Howard was involved in the Dark Knight but hasn’t confirmed for the third movie.

Costume:
Spider-Man’s costume was revealed earlier this week and I liked it.  I like how Peter Parker looks skinny in it,  that’s how it is in the comics.  He has web shooters on his arm, which doesn’t make sense for a teenager to create, even if he’s a nerd.  But that’s how it is in the comics so props to them for following the comics closely.

Batman’s costume hasn’t been revealed for Dark Knight Rises but if it’s similar to the previous two flicks, I won’t like it.  I know it makese sense that he wears a bullet proof costume to fight “real” crime but it looks too heavy for him to be agile.  The costume factor also can’t be decided because it’s unfair for Batman, since WB hasn’t shown it yet.

Overall:
I’m sure both movies will not disappoint.  The directors are both good, maybe even great.  Nolan will go out with a bang with Dark Knight Rises and Webb has a lot to prove with Spider-Man.  The story are both intriguing but I’ll give a slight edge to Spider-Man because I want to see what happens when/if Peter Parker deals with the Gwen Stacy angle.  The cast for Batman is an easy win over Spider-Man because of the proven chemistry.  Music and costume can’t be decided yet because we don’t have enough info on it.

I think in the end, Dark Knight Rises will be a better movie because of Christopher Nolan.  Not only is he directing the movie, he’s also one of the writers.  He respects the characters and puts new twists.  Some people don’t like Nolan’s action scenes because he shoots it too close but to me, it’s cool.  I can tell what’s going on.  Spider-Man director Marc Webb hasn’t shot an action scene yet so I want to see what he comes up with.  Maybe it’ll be better than Nolan’s, I have no problem with that.  I just can’t until July, 2012!

In the end, I think the real winners will be the fans.
Overall: Dark Knight Rises

 

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