Warning: This article contains spoilers. Do not read if you have not seen The Dark Knight Rises.
That’s right; I said it. Christopher Nolan’s new (and supposedly final) Batman epic left me thinking, “Yeah, that was probably worth seeing, I guess.” Is this another case of hype leading to a letdown, or was this movie really just not all that great (or was this the type of movie that you love despite all of it’s shortcomings)?
A big part of this film shows how mortal Batman really is. We see him at his absolute lowest, with the impossible task of fixing himself in order to save the city that, is not only the target of every psychopath who has the ability to destroy an entire city but also the city that hates Batman. A city whose citizens didn’t hesitate to join the newest bad guy in helping him in his conquest to… well… help Talia avenge her father, Ra’s Al Ghul, who Batman killed because, you guessed it, he wanted to destroy the city as well.
Still with me?
Good.
In the midst of all this we have Catwoman, played the incredibly talented Anne Hathaway. If you couldn’t catch that sarcasm, I’ll spell it out for you: She was the worst part of this movie and didn’t need to be in it. Her character, to me, is the personification of the overall problem with the film: The entire thing felt forced.
It looked as if Nolan was tired of being locked down to Batman, so he had to hurry up and finish the story. Characters like Commissioner Gordon and Alfred had to do things that seemed extremely out of character. Alfred threatens to leave out of the blue if Bruce Wayne keeps being Batman? Just like that? Gordon decides to tell the world that Harvey Dent was no hero, just… because? Because his personal feelings all of a sudden became more important than the hope of the entire city? Not likely, but how else would Bane find out about it? To be honest, that seemed to be the catalyst in getting the citizens to join Bane. What would have happened if Gordon would have actually read his speech?
Throughout the film, Bruce Wayne falls head over heels with every girl that so much as looks at him, and he is continually betrayed by them. Like a teenager who can’t stand up to himself in a relationship, he keeps coming back to them no matter how terrible they are. Apparently his line is getting stabbed in the ribs… anything less than that and he’ll still pursue his love(s).
OK. I know I’ve been just bashing the movie so far, but to be honest, I did enjoy it. Bane, despite his laughable Sean Connery voice, was an awesome villain. If Heath Ledger hadn’t put up such an incredible performance in The Dark Knight, I would have said Bane is probably my favorite superhero villain of all time. The action sequences were breathtaking and, hopefully, Nolan did actually wrap this series up. It doesn’t give complete closure, but in an effort to make the city continue to, well… exist, he had to leave some things open.
Unlike Nolan’s two predecessor’s to The Dark Knight Rises, this is a superhero film in which you need to turn off your brain and just drool at the action sequences. It wasn’t smart, it wasn’t fresh, and when it was over, I was glad. As a trilogy, this is undoubtedly the best of the superhero genre, but like the original Star Wars trilogy, The Dark Knight trilogy starts off strong, peaks with the second film and falls off dramatically with the third.
11 Posts in Total
I’m sorry but I totally disagree with most of what you said. The only part I agree on is Bane.
Did you see the twist ? I don’t think anyone in a million years could see that twist coming up before it happened which in this day and age is pretty rare. Most of the time you spot the character twist from miles away this one was very well done with Talia flying quite under the radar as a fairly minor character until she is revealed.
I think you missed the point of the commissioner Gordon letter. I think the whole point is that he has had this speach ready for 10 years but every year decides that its not yet time. Alfred leaving is not out of character it is perfectly in line with comments he made during the dark knight about Bruce loosing his parents and him not wanting to loose Bruce too.
Just because you don’t see a twist coming doesn’t mean its a good one. I didn’t even touch on the ridiculous twists for the last 30 minutes of the movie, because I didn’t want to seem like I was bashing it TOO much.
SPOILERS!!!
Easily the worst of the three. Robin knows who Batman is because they both share the same pain? Robin is named Robin? Really? Why was Catwoman even in the film? Other than killing Bane in one of the worst deaths in movie history. Just bam. He’s dead. People I watched it with actually did not even realize he was dead until the movie ended. Bale gives a lifeless performance. Unsurprising since a ton of the movie has nothing to do with him. Batman’s back gets fixed by a few quick smacks and working out? The deepest darkest prison in the world, which is neither deep nor very dark, requires only a good jump to escape? WHAT?! Bane’s voice was cool, but he did not look intimidating. He looked like a chubby guy who was just starting to get cut and Batman, a trained ninja, fought him strait up like a fool? Bane’s mask explanation was equally moronic. Ra’s Al Ghul daughter? Her death makes Bane’s look Shakespearean by comparison. Just awful. The only great performance the entire film is Gary Oldman’s. Hell, he’s ten times the hero Batman is in the film. And thh ending…flying away with a nuke and then ending up at a cafe happy and Batman free? Fuck off. There’s cliche and then there is insulting. Just top to bottom dumb. The whole movie feels like they spliced together bits of disparate stories and jammed them together. Just lots of stuff thrown in to serve an arbitrary purpose later on. Like the flying bat jet thingy. Only in the film so he can carry the nuke. Whole thing was messy and a low note to go out on. Whereas the previous films had tenuous ties to the source material series they were based on, the third film feels like they put way too much in and could give two shits if it made sense. Definitely a movie for the masses and not fans of Batman or good film making.
I agree with all of this. Not much else to say.
Ok I agree the Robin thing was a bit obvious but to be honest without it at the end the character is just some guy. True Bane not being Rhaz Al’Ghul’s child didn’t make much sense but it being Talia for me went under the radar pretty good.
I think you also need to distinguish between people who love the comics, people who love the film and people who love both. I think this film is more aimed at people who loved the dark knight than those who loved the comics. Personally I think Bane is a much better bad guy than the Joker however the Jokers performance was outstanding. I do not have any interested whatsoever in the comics however I have never and will never like comics.
I love the way that they had to make bane a proper baddie by giving him a nuke that will go off no matter what, because otherwise he wouldn’t be bad enough?
The twist was the worst thing I have seen in any batman movie, it was properly crap. As was Bane’s “death”, oh cool whatshername just turned up and shot him, cool :P.