Debut Album of Modern Heist

Modern Heist – All I Ever Loved

A new indie band by the name of Modern Heist approached me about a week ago to check out their album and to write them a review on it.  I HAPPILY took them up on their offer and listened to the album that I predict will become a hit within time as a debut album.  Modern Heist was born in the city of  San Diego, California and their primary genre is Heavy Folk with a touch of Alternative.

1.       Sad Condition – I really wish that this song was longer.  Even for being only a minute and 44 seconds, it is still my 2^nd favorite song on the album.  I thought that the lyrics were great and there was a progressive story being told throughout the duration.  The guitar riff at the very beginning was an awesome opening to the entire album, and the beat that followed it gave a very specific and yet very appropriate tone to the song.  I really wish that this song could have progressed to a longer version.  Adding another verse would have been a good add on.  “I know you forgave me” kind of left a cliff hanger that left much to desire. (8.5/10)

2.       Be Honest – Transition from verses one and two (1:22 – 1:26) was a little rough.  It was definitely the first thing I noticed when I listened to this.  The tone suddenly changed with no smooth transition.  I mean, it didn’t degrade the overall value of the song; it was just a…less than appealing attribute.  Overall though, I thought it was a decent song by itself; however, another transition that bugged me was the lyrics of this song compared to the first.  I feel like that; it didn’t flow from the first song nearly as well as it should have.  “Sad Condition” was talking about how the singer blamed themselves for the unhappiness, and now here, the general mood of the rest of the album was set.  It’s his fault, not the singers.  Maybe it’s just me.  Don’t get me wrong, still a great song. (7.5/10)

3.       Creature Own Adventure – First off, I wasn’t too sure on the title.  At first I thought it was a typo, but now I’m not too sure.  I think it may be a play on words?  Not too sure if I’m right.  I really liked the sound of this song, but the biggest thing that I liked was the lyrics of the song.  It was an extremely sad story that actually made me think of my own father.  A very relatable song about depression and anguish in life.  Small complaint. The traffic at the end was a little unnecessary. I wound up skipping over it all three times that I listened to it. (7/10)

4.       So L.A. – This was by far my favorite song of the album.  Right off the bat, the rhythm/lead guitar started off with a killer riff.  Definitely a catchy sound that kept me entertained the entire song.  I also enjoyed the lyrics.  More specifically the “Sit your ass in your beamer”.  I have to say that I laughed when I heard that.  Being that I know people who own new BMW’s who act just like the person in the story of the song. (10/10)

5.       Dance Number – I honestly found this to be my least favorite, even though it’s a fan favorite.  It had a good rhythm and a very catchy tone, but I found the lyrics lacking, especially compared to the rest of the album.  To me, this song was kind of a breather from the past four roller coaster rides of songs.  For that I give respect, but it’s definitely not the first song on my playlist. (5/10)

6.       The Natives are on Dexaphenadrine – The most fun song.  The tone of the song was definitely playful.  Although, I found the lyrics to be humorous, but then again, once the very end of the song hits and the lyrics, “For you I would change my evil ways, put all of the bodies back in their graves. I know I've done a lot of shit in my life but I'd do anything if I could make things right” sends a certain message to the listener about the singer.  Even though they like and enjoy their lifestyle that they possess at the moment, they’d give it all up for one person.  It’s a heavy hitter if you think about it. (6.5/10)

7.       Postcards from Perfect – a song with respectable lyrics.  The character of the story very much misses their loved one, even though they never write back.  This song kind of hints at the tone of the first song “Sad Condition”.  The singer is once again blaming herself for what has happened, but she still puts part of him at fault.  This song was honestly hard to interpret.  I liked the tone as always.  Very upbeat.  (7.2/10) <-- only because I couldn’t interpret the song

8.       Tithing – definitely the….black sheep of the album.  I’m not saying this in a bad way, but it’s obviously the most unique song of the album.  As far as the guitar and drums, it was done well and on par with the rest of the album, but the lyrics were definitely a lot more powerful in this song.  The singer steps away from talking about one person, and speaks to society and speaks her mind.  She strong, independent and not willing to back down.  I guess, in my opinion, I take it as a recovery song from the rest of the album.  The singer realizing that she’s strong, she doesn’t need him, or his lies. (8/10)

Overall, for a first time releasing, this was an excellent album.  I really enjoyed listening to the play through of the entire thing multiple times.  I bought So L.A. on iTunes instead of downloading it for free.  I love contributing to a band that doesn’t have a lot of followers.  I suspect bright things in the future for Modern Heist and I cannot wait to hear what they have to offer next.

I only have a couple complaints as a whole on the album.  As a whole, the flow was good, just the transition from “Sad Condition” to “Be Honest” was rough.  Maybe next time, write a song that kind of talks about the narrators transition from blaming herself to blaming the male?  Just a thought.  The next complaint is a couple of the songs endings seemed to drag a bit.  As in…added sound effects or just transitions to the next song seemed to take forever.  Maybe cut it up a bit at the ends of the song to make transitions a little smoother.  Again, maybe it’s only me.  Overall, as I said, this was an awesome attempt at a debut.  I really enjoyed it in its entirety.  Grade?  81/100 …..B

Links to Modern Society:

http://modernheist.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/modernheist/info

Bond 23

I've been anticipating Skyfall for as long as I can remember.  I first saw the trailer during the Dark Knight Rises premiere but I've known about it since the beginning of 2012.  Dubbed "Bond 23" starring Daniel Craig, I was hoping and praying that it was nothing like the atrocity of a movie that we call Quantum of Solace.  Director Sam Mendes delivered with superior excellency.  Skyfall is a hell of a ride and nothing to be forgotten soon.  My buddy Luke asked me to go in early December and I'm so happy I went.  Everything about Skyfall is what Bond needed to be through every movie, and then a little extra.  I couldn't ask for a better Bond with the exception of Goldfinger.
The story is rather, bold for a Bond film.  007 is shot on a routine mission to stop a criminal from stealing a lot of money and killing a lot of people.  His partner, Eve, played by Naomie Harris, covers him with a sniper rifle.  Bond is on the roof of a train fighting a man before the train enters a tunnel.  Eve and Bond are both talking to M as the incident is happening.  As Bond as fighting, Eve is trying to get a clean shot of the target.  She's running out of time and M tells her to take the shot.  Eve is hesitant, but M insists.  She shoots, and Bond is hit in the chest.  He plummets 500 feet off the bridge, straight down into the river.  The next camera shot sent chills down my spine.  A close up of M just waiting for a response from Eve.  All she says is, "Agent down".  M responds, the scene cuts to black, and the opening credits for the movie start playing, which is led by the amazing song "Skyfall" written by Adele.  The opening 10 minutes was very well done, and by the time the opening credits were over, I was ready for more.  MI6 is attacked by an unknown enemy and it leave M in a minefield not knowing what to do.  She's being volunteered into retirement for the loss of Bond and now the bombing of the agency.  Gareth Mallory, played by Ralph Fiennes, is the consultant for M that is trying to make her decisions for her.  I won't dwell on telling the whole plot.  Summed up, the agency is attacked, Bond comes back, and thus a quest is delivered of epic proportions.  Javier Bardem plays the antagonist, Silva, who is a former agent of MI6.  His character is very interesting.  The way that Bardem plays it is incredible.  As I watched his villain, I felt vibes of Heath Ledger's Joker.  He was a very playful and yet incredibly dark and insane villain.  Beautifully acted.  Silva wants to sabotage MI6 forever.  Bond is not going to have that.  Together, Even and Bond go after Silva.
I think the reason I liked this movie so much, besides the incredible story and acting, was the fact that the audience got to see a side of 007 that nobody has ever seen before.  We got to know a little about James' past and where he grew up.  It brought the movie down to a personal level, instead of it being a straight action movie like the rest of them.  Never has and Bond movie brought his past into it like Skyfall did, and I enjoyed every minute of it.
Acting in it was top notch.  Javier Bardem steals the show with flying colors with his Silva.  I couldn't get enough of him.  Dare I say Oscar Worthy?  Editing was very well done.  The movie flowed like a river and from what I viewed, there we're no plot holes.  I really enjoyed how this became a more of a detective movie and not just an action movie.  Using the cool gadgets and using stealth to achieve his goals.
Skyfall is a great movie that is not to be trifled with.  A truly monumental Bond that hasn't had this kind of momentum since the Sean Connery days.  Daniel Craig is one of the best bonds that the series has seen and Javier Bardem plays the best villain since Goldfinger.
The music of Skyfall is amazing.  Rarely do I ever download a soundtrack to a movie, but Skyfall was a soundtrack that immediately went into my collection.  It kept a dark but driving mood to the movie.
Overall, I loved this movie.  After Quantum of Solace, I honestly didn't know what to expect.  I didn't know if the movie was going to be bad or good.  I was really hoping the film would be good, and I wasn't disappointed.  This movie really shows that comebacks are possible.   8.5/10

A Rushed Sequel

In 2009, in my opinion, one of the greatest action movies of the modern age was released.  Starring Liam Neeson, Taken, caught the world by storm in a very short amount of time.  I actually saw it twice in the theatre and currently own the 2 disc special edition on blu-ray.  Taken  is one of my all time favorite movies, so naturally like any movie fan, I wanted a sequel.  There wasn't much a set up for a second one, but I just wanted to see Liam Neeson kick ass like that in another film.  In 2011, the sequel was announced on IMDB and it was being dubber Untitled Taken Sequel.  If I remember correctly, I said "YES" very loudly when I said that and my mom gave me a weird look.  I didn't care.  The sequel that I had been waiting for was finally being made...I hoped.  I know how sequels work.  Sometimes they're made and sometimes they just die in pre-production.  This sequel; however, seemed to be right on course.  When Dark Knight Rises was released, I had hoped that the trailer would be released during the previews.  Up until then, there had been no movie posters, no trailers, no advertising at all.  Just the announcement with an October 11th release date.  It never showed during the previews, so naturally I started to realize that this movie wasn't going to be as big as I thought it was going to be.  Finally, in August of 2012, the first trailer was released on IMDB.  A whole two minutes and twenty seconds of pure Liam Neeson awesomeness.  My anticipation rebuilt and I knew that I couldn't be more ready.  The disappointment; unfortunately, hit me like a train when I finally saw it.
First thing is first.  The opening credits to the movie.  They are some of the best that I have seen to date.  The music flows perfectly with the editorial cuts to different things and the way the text is presented to show actors and what not fit perfectly.  The opening scene of the movie set a very dark tone to the movie right off the bat.  For the first 10 minutes of the movie, the viewer watched the bodies of all the men that Liam Neeson killed in the first Taken.  They were put into coffins, put on a plane to Albania (The first movie says the men are from Albania), and taken off the plane for transport to a traditional grave yard for burial.  Before the bodies could be loaded, men show up in black SUVs to take the bodies away.  Beautiful shots of Albania and the middle east were the main aspect of the scene.  The cameras were following the trucks as they were shooting establishing shots.  A gorgeous scene.  So far, the movie was great.  The movie cuts to a scene of a burial of these body as a man speaks to the people watching the bodies being buried.  He is speaking of revenge against Neeson for what he's done and vows that he will pay for his crimes.  The scene ends.  So, the opening scenes of the movie were fantastic.  Great music, great flow, good acting, and amazing camera shots.  The rest of the move; however, felt so empty.
I'm guessing that it has not been very long since the end of the first movie.  Definitely not the three years time span that it took to make the film.  If I had to guess, it's been close to 6 months.  Maybe.  Neeson is shown washing a car, so we establish that he has found a normal life back in the states, away from his old job working as a torturer.  He heads to Lenore's house to pick up his daughter for a driving lesson.  Kim has failed her driving test 3 times now and is going for 4th try in a couple weeks.  She can never get the parallel parking right.  To me, this was a huge foreshadow for the rest of the movie.  I wasn't wrong.  Kim turns into a professional NASCAR driver about 3/4 of the way through.  It didn't make much sense to me, but I just sort of rolled with it.
I'm not going to tell anymore of the story, because there wasn't much of one.  A story of vengeance.  That's about it.  There was do depth or detail done to the story, and that was a big factor for me.  I also thought that the movie itself went by to quickly.  Lenore and Neeson are kidnapped so Kim has to go rescue them.  She turns into this super human with similar sleuthing skills as Liam Neeson.  I didn't really buy it, but again, I just rolled with it.  This definitely Kim's movie.  Going from saving her father and mother to the director showing her body off.  There were so many shots of her in her bikini.  It was  pleasant to look at, but I just feel like it didn't fit in the style of movie that the original had made so famous.  Pure action to exploit that people will go to great lengths to get back their loved ones.  Taken 2 started doing it, but they never quite got there.
Overall, the acting was solid.  There were a couple corny lines but it was mostly done well.  The two things that really turned me off were the story and a couple action scenes.  A few of the kills were very questionable and also a couple of the action scenes.  For example, at one point, Liam is in a car chase and all of the bad guys wind up surrounding him from all sides.  They crash into the car and the people get out to go fetch him.  Upon further investigation, Liam is not in the car.  He's walking down an alley about 30 feet away.  I called shenanigans.  There was not a single point in the car chase where Neeson could have gotten away that fast.  Also, Kim's scene where she is driving the car is complete shenanigans too.  ONLY because earlier in the movie she was established as a terrible driver. Hence failing a test 3 times.  One last thing, the story went WAY to fast.  Everything happened over a span of a day.  I wouldn't normally be upset about this, but so much happened during the movie that it seems almost impossible for it to happen.
To someone who hasn't seen the first one, it was a decent flick.  To someone like me, who loves the first and had high expectations, this was mediocre.  At best.  I want to like it so much, but I just can't.  As much as I wanted to see the sequel, I feel like it either shouldn't have been made or it should have had a different story.  Well; maybe not different, but definitely a more in depth.  The ending was straight forward. The story was straight forward.  Last thing, the last song that plays in the last scene is very inappropriate for the particular situation that is happening.  As much as I hate to say it, Taken 2 was a Hollywood sellout.  Mediocre.  6.5/10

Endless time Loop

After seeing Looper on opening weekend, I couldn't believe that it didn't get more advertising than it did.  Positively one of the best if not the best sci-fi movie that I've seen since Star Trek in 2009.  Joseph-Gordan Levitt plays a "looper" in the past for a future mob.  Time travel is invented and it quickly becomes illegal due to the fact that it becomes to powerful of an asset.  The mob secretly still has it and uses it to send "hits" back in time to be killed.  Levitt plays the assassin that kills the hit.  The mob sends the person back in the past due the fact that it is utterly impossible to hide a body in the past.  There are cameras everywhere that sees everything and hears everything.   As soon as the hit appears in the past, the looper kills him with a blunderbuss shotgun and the looper collects his pay in silver bars.  If the mob wants to kill the looper and not have them working for the mob anymore for any reason, they "close the loop" by sending the looper's older self back into the past and the looper unknowingly kills himself in the future.  This is what happens to Joseph-Gordan Levitt.  His older self, played by Bruce Willis, actually lives during the assassination and knocks his older self out to escape.  The movie is packed with action and adventure, and the story is absolutely awesome.  Half of the run-time is Bruce Willis's movie showing the 30 years after Levitt kills his loop the 2nd time around.  Yes..I said 2nd time.  After the 1st time and Bruce Willis gets away, he goes back to his apartment to get all of his silver and get out of town, because well...you see...not killing one of your hits is punishable by death.  With that being said, Levitt is in very big trouble.  This concept of what happens to you when you don't kill your hit is shown during the beginning scenes of the movie when Levitt's friend doesn't kill his.  I won't give it away but let's just say that it involves razors and dismemberment.  Anyway...Levitt's character goes back to his apartment only to find 2 men there ready to kill him.  He attempts to get away but winds up falling on top of a car and killing himself.  As soon as he hits the car, the scene cuts back to him standing there with his blunderbuss waiting for the loop to get there.  This time he doesn't miss.  Reason being...Bruce Willis's head is covered this time so Levitt doesn't hesitate.  Now, when your loop is closed, you are giving a golden pay day.  The translation is quite literal in meaning that you get gold bars instead of silver.  The mob fires you and you have 30 years to live your life as you please.  That's exactly what Levitt does.  He lives his life.  He goes to China and eventually gets married.  I wont give anymore away but I can tell you that involves a mother and small child.  Amazing story and flow.

CG and special effects are stunning.  Nothing seems corny and the futuristic scene seems a lot more realistic than "Jetson" style.  The producers went all out in making this movie non-computer animated looking.  Weapons of the future seem very plausible for being so many years in the future.  Music was very well scored and done.  As I said before, story and plot are amazing.  I'm expecting an Oscar nomination for best adapted screenplay.

The one thing that I really liked was the make up that was used to make Bruce Willis and Joseph Levitt resemble eachother.  There were some points in the movie when I wasn't sure that it was Levitt that I was looking at.  It was really cool to look at.  Another close runner up though was the ending.  I'm not saying anything but it was an awesome ending.

Overall the movie was exceptional.  I didn't know what to expect going in to the film but I was happy when I left the theater.  Score of 8.7/10.  B+

Psycho in the basement in the house at the end of the road

First off, I only saw this movie for one thing and one thing only.  Jennifer Lawrence.  As did most other guys who saw this movie.  After The Hunger Games and being the cover story of Rolling Stone magazine, Jennifer LAUNCHED into stardom.  Her first movie after Hunger Games? House at the End of the Street.  When I first saw advertising for this flick, my expectations immediately became extremely low.  Being the person that I am...I don't really enjoy scary movies.  Not because they are too scary for me, but just for the shear fact that they never seem to have any sort of solid story or flow to them..  With that being said, I generally tend to steer clear of new age horror.  House of the End of Street was no different to me.  Unfortunately; however, I was asked to go, and being the nice guy that I am..I didn't say no.  So after forking out 10.25 for this movie, I expect to get my money's worth.  One can only wish right?  That's how I felt with this.  Jennifer should've known better than to pick to do this movie.

The general plot line of House was a mother and daughter move into a rural house that sits inside a national park.  The house is extremely cheap due to the fact that  several years earlier,  there was a double murder involving a mentally disturbed girl.  The mother and daughter go to a cookout as part of a "welcome to the neighboorhood" party, and they learn gossip of the house at the end of the street where the murders took place.  They say that the house is abandoned, but of course, knowing horror movies, it isn't.  It turns out the son of the family is living at the house.  I won't give any more away...but this movie is a ride of twists and turns.  As the movie progresses, the viewer starts to realize that the mother plays a larger role then one might expect.

Overall this movie was mediocre at best.  Acting was sub=par with the exception of the son of the murdered family.  He does exceptionally well.  No special effects.  Actually...the place where this movie shines is the lighting.  It is wonderful throughout the movie.  Not just natural lighting either.  Soundtrack was typical.  The end of the movie did have a good twist to it of all things, but it didn't really effect my overall enjoyment.  A lot more boring than suspenseful.   It failed to make me jump once.  Overall grade of an F.  4.5/10

Hardy is Lawless

Fresh off of Dark Knight Rises, Tom Hardy has released another awesome movie that proves once again that he is the most bad ass actor at the time that can play any role.  Also fresh off Dark Knight Rises, Gary Oldman takes on the role of mob boss Floyd Banner and proves as well that he can play any role.

The story of Lawless follows the famous Bondurant brothers of the 1930's; moonshine bootleggers out of Franklin County, Virginia during the prohibition era.  At first Jack Bondurant (Shia LaBeouf), Forrest Bondurant (Tom Hardy), and Howard Bondurant (Jason Clarke) produce and distribute the White Lightning around their own state of Virginia and the business is booming.  Cops don't mess with them as long as they get a jar and people always anticipate them coming.  They distributed to white and black folk.  It didn't matter what skin tone they were, just as long as they got their money.  As I said, their business was booming.  This of course ended when the detective from up north by the name of Charlie Rakes (Guy Pearce) comes in and tries to tell the Bondurant brothers that they have to start giving profits to up state authorities.  Forrest Bondurant, the muscle and spokesman for the family, kindly denies the offer by basically telling rakes to fuck himself.  Obviously Rakes doesn't like this and tells Forrest to tread lightly.  For the next 70 minutes of the 2 hour movie, a war breaks out between Rakes and the Bondurant family.  I'm not going to say because that would give away the entire movie.  I will say this though; for those of you with a weak stomach, I recommend steering away from this movie.  Or at go in knowing it's going to get graphic.  The blood and gore effects are tremendously accurate, which makes it a bit nauseating at times.

The story of Lawless  is solid.  Considering that it's based off a true story, I would hope that it follows pretty well.  I, unfortunately, do not know much about the Bondurant story, so I'm not going to say whether the history is accurate.

As far as acting goes, the characters could not have been cast any better.  Gary Oldman knows about being an evil mob dealer from movies like Book of Eli, so his role is perfect.  Guy Pearce playing rakes was also a top notch performance.  Honestly; however, the two the really stole the show were Shia and Hardy.  I have never been a huge fan of LaBeouf's acting but his role in Lawless was absolutely incredible.  His sarcastic and childish attitude fits perfectly as the youngest brother.  Hardy's performance was Forrest was just as well acted as Labeouf's "Jack".  Being the older brother that sticks up for the younger brothers and also being the muscle of the group, the brother has to be an all around hard ass, and well...Tom Hardy fits the description.  Bane shows that potential obviously.  Anyway....Hardy's grittiness in Lawless can not be played any better by anyone else.

I really enjoyed watching this film.  The music/soundtrack is fantastic and the plot flowed like a river.  Editing and Cinematography is well done.  Lighting is done with precision to emphasize parts of the movie such as the church scene and most of the night scenes in the bar.  The gore of the movie was kind of a set back for me but it doesn't effect my overall liking of the movie.  It was just a bit....excessive for me at points.  Maybe not to other viewers but it was for me, but again....it doesn't effect my grade for it.  I really enjoyed it overall.  a solid 7.5/10

Rise. (SPOILER)

Christopher Nolan is the most innovative and creative mind of the past 10 years when it comes to movies, and the Dark Knight trilogy has been his holy grail, and the also the world's holy grail of Batman movies.  The Dark Knight Rises was not a disappointment; in fact I think it was the best movie that I have ever seen.

When I first heard about the "Untitled Batman Sequel" being announced in 2009, I immediately became excited.  I started imagining what the great mind of Chris Nolan could come up with the finish off the trilogy.  Considering that the death of Heath Ledger was a lot more recent, I figured that a tribute or several references would be made about the Joker in the new movie.  This, of course, was not the case, and for good reason.  In an interview with Christ Nolan right before the release of the movie, he stated that, "No Joker references were made purely because I don't want people to think about the Joker during the movie.  I want them to purely focus on Bane and the current movie."  In my opinion, this was definitely a good move.  Tom Hardy gave a career making performance as the notorious villain Bane.  In terms of comparing Heath Ledger's Joker to Tom Hardy's Bane in terms of quality of performance, Hardy played his version of Bane just as well at Ledger's Joker.  I would ever dare to say that it was a damn near perfect performance.  There is not an actor out there that could've made a better performance.

The story of Dark Knight Rises is a rough telling of the Knightfall graphic novel.  The reason it's a rough story telling is because in Knightfall, the Joker plays a major part, so obviously that could happen in Dark Knight.  The terrorist leader, Bane, comes to Gotham City to "liberate" the madness of a legacy that the former Harvey Dent left.  Batman (Bruce Wayne), being wrongfully accused of killing Harvey Dent, has been run out of town and he has no plans of returning to the black suit.  Only when Wayne saw the madness that Bane was causing and with a little help from Lucious Fox and his fabulous inventions did he decide to suit up once again, and with a little help this time.  Anne Hathaway plays a fabulous Catwoman, who for most of the movie, is only worried about getting herself a new life on a clean slate.  She is so caught up with this that she is willing to betray the only ally that she has made.  Batman.  She hands him over to Bane on a silver platter, and Bane quite literally breaks Batman.  Catwoman quickly realizes her mistake.  Now that Bane has defeated Wayne, he has freedom to take over Gotham in anyway that he pleases, and he chooses terrorism to do it.  The famous words of Joker in The Dark Knight, "Let's induce a little anarchy" plays a major part in Bane's run on terror.  By pouring cement that has been laced with explosives, he blows up the entire outside ring of the sewer tunnel system.  This is the same system that the police officers at the same were traveling through in order to catch Bane.  Bane was at a the Gotham football stadium showing off his new toy.  Bruce has created a fusion reactor that is safely sustaining clean energy to all of Gotham.  Unfortunately, with the forced help of Fox and a couple board members, bane is able to remove to core and create an atom bomb that is set to go off in 5 months.  This brings the movie up the the very end of the rising action into the climax. Even though this is a review, I'm not going to give away the last 40 minutes of the movie.  It is just too good for words with one of the best twists I've seen to date.

All around, The Dark Knight Rises is the best movie that I have ever seen.  I will watch it over and over again once the Blu-Ray is released and I will more than likely see it a few more times in theaters.  It is just that good.  One of things that I loved about Rises more than the Dark Knight was that the ending was 1000 times better than the Dark Knight ending.  It left me wanting so much more, and yet, I don't want anything else.  It reminded me so much of the ending of Toy Story 3.  As much as I want another movie to be made, I just know that it wouldn't be the same.  It was a perfect ending to a perfect series, and I'm going to leave it at that.

Editing was top notch, the movie was extremely easy to follow.  Cinematography was amazing.  I have never seen better special effects other than the Lord of the Rings series.  The Bat really looked like the machine was flying in the air.  There was no hint of that corny CGI look that some movies have.  Acting was some of the best that I have ever seen.  Tom Hardy sells his character unlike any other, Christian Bale's re-prise as Batman was top notch as usual, and Anne Hathaway's Catwoman could not have been any better.  Hans Zimmer is a master of composing in the modern age and he does not disappoint with the Dark Knight Rises. Every camera shot goes along with the music perfectly.  The very last scene of the movie does this the best.  My overall score for The Dark Knight Rises is plain and simply a 10/10.  It could not have been any better and the ending could have been any more fitting.  Bane was the perfect villain to finish off an awesome series.    I can't wait to see it again.  A+