New Movies to Crave: The Dark Knight Rises to Cap Epic Batman Trilogy

By Chris Kavan - 07/19/12 at 02:52 PM CT

Once again, there is only one movie with a wide release opening this weekend. But boy, is it going to be one that everyone will be talking about come Monday morning.

1) The Dark Knight Rises has been the subject of endless speculation and debate since it was announced. Everything has been scrutinized from the casting to who the villain would be - and once things got rolling, there were even more questions. People wondered how Christopher Nolan would deal with the death of Heath Ledger, and by turn The Joker and more recently people were up-in-arms over the hard-to-understand Bane character. Yet for all the quibbling and back-and-forth that has gone on, early reviews point to this being another slam dunk for Nolan and Christian Bale. The Dark Knight Rises looks to be an even darker film than The Dark Knight, with Bale playing a broken Bruce Wayne who must put himself back together when a peaceful Gotham City is disrupted by Bane and his brand of terrorism.

The big test will be how this film compares to the year's biggest blockbuster, the superhero smackdown that is The Avengers. The biggest disadvantage for The Dark Knight Rises is its longer running time (164 vs. 143 for The Avengers) and the Nolan's disdain for 3D means it will have to hope IMAX screenings make up for the higher 3D prices. It should come close, but I have a feeling that Batman is going to edge The Avengers thanks to a more screens and bigger fan anticipation.

Even if it doesn't quite match up it's going to be very close, and I have no doubt that this franchise is going to end on a high note. I'll be back on Sunday with the complete details on how one Batman (and a Catwoman) stand up against the entire Avengers assembly.