The Dark Knight Rises Review

So, it’s finally here; the last installment in director Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy. The Dark Knight Rises premiered in most of the world Friday the 20^th and I went to see it that evening. Now, unlike with The Avengers, my expectations weren’t as high for this one. Not because I’m not a Batman fan, huge fan right here, that’s for sure. It’s just that as a reader of the comics you’ll never be able to overlook some of the changes Nolan has made to the characters, the dark knight in particular. Mind you, I’m not saying that the two previous films weren’t great entertainment. Batman Begins stands out as my favorite of the two even though it’s in this film that the worst and biggest change occurs. Joe Chill, the man that shot and killed Bruce Wayne’s parents is caught the very same night of the crime, in effect removing the original desire for vengeance and fighting crime. The thing is that the fact that Chill was never caught is what creates the obsession that drives Batman in his fight. Deep down, he’s still looking for the man responsible for making him an orphan.  That being said, I did enjoy the film, just like I did with The Dark Knight. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about TDKR… I was extremely disappointed to be honest; I hardly know where to begin with this. But first things first, the 8 year gap between TDK and TDKR; I don’t find that believable at all and I think it’s due to me obviously disagreeing completely with Nolan on how Batman as a character should be interpreted. As I mentioned, his crime fighting is basically an obsession which means there’s no way he just stops being Batman all of a sudden, it’s simply not in his nature, but more on that later. There is of course a very good reason why the Joker isn’t featured in the movie, since Ledger sadly died from an overdose of sleeping medicine shortly before TDK premiered. That’s a reason for him not being physically in the film, it’s certainly no excuse not to make one single mention of him in TDKR at all. The Joker escaped custody within 30 minutes or so in TDK. Are we really supposed to believe authorities were capable of holding him for 8 years, much less catch him without Batman when he did escape? Not plausible in my opinion. I’m aware of the fact that Nolan has said it is due to respect of Ledger that there’s no mention of the Joker in TDKR. Personally I disagree and thinks the character would’ve been done more justice with a sort of easter egg, perhaps in the form of a news headline declaring “Joker escapes custody – Last seen leaving Gotham” or whatever, the point is that the Joker should’ve been mentioned in some way, not included for real, but not ignored either.  

TDKR’s main villain was the character known as Bane, infamously known in the comic book world as “the man who broke the bat”. This isn’t the first time we’ve had an interpretation of Bane on the big screen; Jeep Swenson portrayed him in Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin from 1997. Possibly the worst Batman film EVER in history, I sincerely doubt that there will never be a worse Batman film. In any case, this version, while it might have been more faithful to the characters original design, was basically a braindead goon acting as a bodyguard to Poison Ivy (Uma Thurman).  In TDKR, Tom Hardy delivers a Bane that is very much different from aforementioned version and even though the character is different in appearance and origin, in other ways it is a much more faithful interpretation than seen before. Hardy definitely manages to make Bane a brutal looking villain, but also an intelligent one which is what Bane really is. Aaaaandd that was the positive things; his voice…! I don’t know who had a mental breakdown at the studio when they decided it was a good idea to make him sound like a poor Sean Connery parody, but the people in question should be fired; that voice was nothing less than laughable.  

Now on to “Catwoman” or Selina Kyle since she is never addressed or titled as Catwoman in the movie itself. I’m not really sure how I feel about her in the film. I love the character of Catwoman as she is seen in comics, but this was something else. Anne Hathaway portrayed a good cat burglar/femme fatale, but it wasn’t Catwoman.  Catwoman is sexy as hell, simple as that and I know that Nolan has proclaimed that his films take their depature in realism which certainly means a female cat burglar most likely wouldn’t run around half naked. Then again, realism isn’t much of an issue in lots of other aspects of this film so I don’t really think his arguments hold tight, but I’ll get back to that.  Conclusive, I think Hathaway’s acting is fine, but ultimately, she isn’t Catwoman which is what I expected and wanted and her inclusion in the film seems mostly to be just to have her there. 

I could go on for a long time about the things wrong with this film, but I honestly don’t want to spend all my time bitching. A couple of things more that needs mentioning  of which the first one is closely related to that whole “Nolan’s universe being a realistic one”  is Bruce Wayne’s healing his broken back. Apparently, it’s not considered unrealistic that all you need to do, to fix a broken back is slam the broken bones back into place and hang in a rope for a mere couple of months. Plus, once the back has healed it has no effect despite his fragile state, that Wayne climbs the prison wall to escape and repeatedly falls down a distance that looks like 10-15 meters and ending in a snap from the rope tied around him. No effects on a former broken, newly healed (how exactly?) back whatsoever? Seriously? This wouldn’t be as much of an issue if the argument of realism didn’t cause other things in the film being changed for the worse, such as “Catwoman’s” costume. The broken back thing is just one of several plot holes in the story, but the only other one I personally want to address is Bruce’s dismissal of his faithful servant and friend Alfred Pennyworth, also the closest thing he has to a family. Upon being told that Alfred hid Rachel’s choosing Harvey Dent over Bruce and that Alfred think he can’t be Batman again, Bruce banishes Alfred and 5 minutes later he seems to have forgotten so. This is an unjustified treatment of these two characters relationship and seems extremely forced, presumably to create a sense of Wayne being alone, even though this is hardly the case.

Left to right: Robin John Blake, Jim Gordon, Batman, Bane, "Catwoman"

Last, but certainly not least is the ending of the film which is what bugs me the most. Batman does not; I repeat DOES NOT retire… There’s no discussion in this matter, the character of Batman is as mentioned obsessed with his mission and would never retire, let alone trust others to do the work for him. Bruce Wayne would never be able to be at peace with himself without being Batman due to the simple fact that he is first Batman, second Bruce Wayne. The “revelation” that Miranda Tate was in fact Talia Al Ghul, daughter of Ra’s Al Ghul whom we all remember being excellently played by Liam Neeson in BB, was predictable to be frank and just as indifferent as Bane and Batman’s “final battle”. What the #%%# was that about? Catwoman coming in to save the day and blast Bane away because Batman doesn’t kill, that’s just weak. Sure, the caped crusader doesn’t kill, Nolan got that right, but then he should’ve beaten Bane to a bloody pulp; it should be Batman’s victory, there’s no other way for him to come back from being beaten by Bane in the first place. Speaking of the fighting, the fighting scenes in the film were really disappointing as well. Most of them seemed visibly fake, the acting and choreography was waaay off, which is too bad since this worked fine in the previous films. Last bit of critique I have is about the character John Blake and the way he worked in the ending. All I have to say about that is “Robin John Blake? Are you fucking kidding me?” and that’s the last I’ll ever talk about him, gone and forgotten.

The most positive I myself can say about the ending of Nolan’s take on one of my favorite comic book characters is that even though I’ve been somewhat happy with two out of three, I’m happy to see him go. It’s time to see someone else’s vision of what a Batman film should be. There’s absolutely no rush, Sony sure as hell rushed along with their Spider-Man reboot which was completely unnecessary and I think WB should give it some time now. And hey, just so there are no misunderstandings about things, even though I myself was disappointed in TDKR, I’m very happy that most everyone else, critiques and audiences alike loves the film. Lots of money made from one comic based film ensures better opportunities for other adaptations being made. I might give TDKR another shot at some point, but I have no need to hurry it, I understood and followed the story fine the first time and I’m not impressed, but there’s also such a thing as films that “grows on you”

Sadly, I'm ending this on a quite different note: at the midnight screening of TDKR, a man shot and killed 12 and injured 59 people in a theater in Aurora, Colorado. My Thoughts to those related to or otherwise familiar with anyone involved in this meaningless tragedy.

MO