Christopher Nolan -All About the Story

“It’s all about the Story”
- Christopher Nolan

Few people understand how important a good story is to a movie. Sometimes, we only notice the sick action sequences, or the insane visual effects that are presented to us on screen, but we forget other important things like direction, acting, and storyline. You can have Oscar-winning actors and actresses in a film, but if the story sucks, you are good as dead. With this said, today we’re gona review the work of an awesome director we’re all familiar with by now, one that has won our acclaim and respect with just a few, but great films.

When we say Christopher Nolan, the only thing that comes to our minds is “The Dark Knight”, and I don’t blame any of you for it, because that film was pure perfection, but it is not the only good film he has made. His earlier films have gone under the radar, but that doesn’t mean they’re not good. For instance, his second film, Memento, is now considered a cult classic. It didn’t do that well at the box office at its time of release, but did you know that the screenplay written by him and his brother Jonathan gained them an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay? This was good enough to get top dogs like Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hillary Swank to work with him in his third film Insomnia.

Every great writer/director tends to have a certain genre that makes them unique in a sense of style. Being the gifted filmmaker he is, Nolan has written and directed all of his films, and produced most of them too. He has developed a flawless craftsmanship in Psychological Thrillers, a genre that can be seen in all his movies.

With few good well directed/written films, he convinced Warner Bros. Pictures to revive the Batman franchise. His work in Batman Begins was bound to change the Comic Book Movies forever. I’m gona take a few moments to talk about how stupidly awesome this movie is. As you all know, Batman movies were so shitty in the past that we thought no one could revive the super hero anymore. Tim Burton is a great director, and you can say his 2 Batman movies were good, but not as we would’ve liked them to be. Then comes along Batman Forever, which was not that bad, but it was still flawed by all the neon shit at the time, and it was exaggerated at some point. And let’s not even mention Batman and Robin. I mean what the f@!*k!! Did you saw that movie? Not only was it a waste of film, it completely buried Batman and left him for dead. We thought that was it the dark knight, until Saint Nolan came and raised him from the grave.

With a more realistic and darker set and story based on the characters created by Bob Kane, Batman Begins meant the dawn of a new era for comic book movies. The origin story that Dave Goyer and Chris Nolan wrote linked the audience into the deeper roots of Bruce Wayne. The use of fear and control are some of the themes that are well used in the story to complement its darker tone. Not to mention the amazing design of the new batmobile, batsuite, and the more realistic Gotham that was created for us (not like in the other movies where it was exaggerated with giant statues and shit).

Nolan did it again with another psychological thriller, The Prestige. Based on a novel of the same name with a screenplay written by him and his brother, it introduces us into the world of magic and illusions. During the whole duration of the movie, it plays with our minds and makes us wonder what’s magic and what’s not. As you reach the end, you realize that the whole movie, the whole thing IS the PRESTIGE.

And now, let’s review what I like to call “The Greatest Comic Book Movie of All Time”. The Dark Knight was not great, it was perfection. This time, Nolan gave us something way more than what we saw in Batman Begins. He gave us love, purpose, hope, corruption, and madness. The story in this movie is flawless, the action is perfect, the direction is above any level, and the acting was Oscar-winning. The Joker that he created for this film is the Joker we all wanted to see, a madman with no reason or purpose to cause the sickest messes around Gotham, ruthless and with no mercy. Heath Ledger gave us a performance that all of us will remember forever. He even topped Nicholson’s joker, and that alone is an accomplishment. The use of IMAX cameras in some action sequences is the beginning of a new approach in direction. I can go on all day long describing how fantastic this movie is, but let’s move on shall we.

Sophisticated, simple, and visionary, Christopher Nolan is just starting to dazzle us with his genius. His next film will be Inception, which will feature a great cast that includes Dicaprio, Marion Cotillard, and Ellen Page. Thankfully, they have not given out much information about it, so I’m looking forward to seeing it, cause hey, Nolan wrote it, so it must be good. It is said the that third Batman movie will began filming next year for a 2011 release, and I know Nolan is not stupid to make another Spiderman 3. I have faith the third film will be as awesome as The Dark Knight, and I am really hoping that Johnny Depp can be casted as the villain, Depp and Nolan together would be magic.

PS: I know Nolan will win an Oscar one day, what do you think?