("A worthy conclusion to the Mortier era," wrote the same Frankfurt paper).
"The Dark Knight Rises," which stars Christian Bale as Batman and Anne Hathaway as Catwoman, inspired a sense of awe in many reviewers, who found its nearly three hours a worthy conclusion to this three-film cycle.
The novel runs out of steam in its last quarter or so, but that is often the case with a bildungsroman (see "Huckleberry Finn," "My Ántonia"), because it is the quest that is romantic, and no ending of that, no fall into adult life, will seem a worthy conclusion.
THE BRILLIANCE OF THE MOON, by Lian Hearn (Riverhead, $24.95), is a worthy conclusion to an inventive trilogy that the pseudonymous author calls "Tales of the Otori"; all three volumes are set in an imaginary medieval Japan where some people, including the hero, Takeo, are capable of truly mind-bending powers.
With its vision of revolt and chaos in a disintegrating Gotham City, "The Dark Knight" has already inspired a sense of awe among some reviewers, who found in its nearly three hours a worthy conclusion to a three-film Batman cycle.
It all barrels to a gasp-worthy conclusion, and then, after the action comes to a halt, we're pounded with a conversation designed to exact the moral proclamation we'd already surmised.
One assents to the conclusion because one comes to see how the middle term leads to the conclusion and makes the conclusion worthy of assent (QLIS 13, 33.2 3; see also DOS 472).
"So," Brand says in a conclusion worthy of a Thought for the Day vicar, "when Elton John said Marilyn Monroe was 'like a candle in the wind' he was probably bloody right, and if he wasn't we'll never know".
Not really, he quickly amended, brightening as he offered a nonfocus group conclusion worthy of Shady Rest: "Bush blows smoke, Gore rides Clinton's shirttails, and the race is going to be close".
By page 216, just when we are panting for a conclusion worthy of the title, what we get instead is a wistful warning that in this topsy-turvy new world, youngsters have the advantage, and "ambitious people needed to understand that their moment in the spotlight would likely be brief".
It is also worthy noticing that these conclusions confirmed the observation that the combination of heat and drought exceedingly complicates the corresponding molecular pathways compared to separate stress, rather than a simply additive effect.
