The Dark Knight Rises

WHAT’S DOIN

It’s hard to believe four years have passed since Heath Ledger’s brilliant performance as Joker in The Dark Knight. With Memento, The Prestige, Inception and Knight on his resume, Christopher Nolan has built up a lot of film credit with me, but I’ll be the first to admit that I was not as excited as many others when characters, storylines, stills, teaser trailers and other promotional materials for The Dark Knight Rises started being released to the public. The more snippets I saw of Rises the less I saw a well executed conclusion. After watching Rises in its entirety, it appears as if Nolan only made the third film because of some sense of obligation to the studio and fans to bring to a close his trilogy, and that I only went because I wanted closure on this update to the Batman saga, but neither of us really wanted to be there.  

My favorite Batman storyline is his initial encounter with Bane. In preparation for Rises’ release, I started reading the Knightfall comics from the 1990s which, looking back, may have been a mistake, as I found myself comparing the film to the comic and being disappointed that much of the rich material was ignored. I’ve never been a fan of Superman and, after this underwhelming wrap to the Batman trilogy, I have very low expectations for Man of Steel, the next movie Nolan is producing.

GOOD TIMES

Initially, I did not understand the casting of Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle/Catwoman. Hathaway is a great actress and I enjoy most of her work. I just could not imagine her fitting the typical Catwoman mold. I was wrong. Nolan’s Catwoman was refreshingly different, taking full advantage of Hathaway’s range as an actress. Hathaway stole every scene she was in, whether it was as Kyle or her costumed alter-ego. Catwoman’s movements were also very well done. It’s a shame Batman’s weren’t. Batman’s first fight with Bane was clumsy. And that’s being kind.

Michael Cain also turned in a stellar acting performance, even when his lines weren’t the best. The reveal scene between Cain and Christian Bale was heartbreaking.

The League of Shadows tie-in was a great idea, even if the execution wasn’t. I’m reminded of the Randy tape from Scream 3.

I enjoyed Cillian Murphy’s small part and he has the best line of the movie.

NOT SO GOOD TIMES

The eight year time jump didn’t make sense to me before watching Rises and doesn’t make any more sense after. I totally get that Nolan was trying to make Bruce Wayne appear like Howard Hughes. But when you have Batman and Bruce disappear at the same time it doesn’t take a genius to connect the dots. Who else would have access to the technology Batman uses on a regular basis? Maybe the man who owns the company where all of the technology was created who went into seclusion the same day Batman stopped patrolling Gotham? Even with the passing of The Harvey Dent Act and after mourning Dent’s death, it doesn’t make sense that Batman would stop fighting crime, wanted man or not. And why was he crippled? He’s not Batman any more so he stops taking care of his body? I’ve never been a superhero, but I don’t think being Batman is like riding a bicycle.

I have many gripes when it comes to Bane. The first I was aware of before I even got into the theater. Nolan’s version of Bane’s mask looks stupid and is impractical, especially for someone who headbutts as much as Nolan’s Bane does. You can’t have Two-Face without the coin and you can’t have Bane without Venom. What was Nolan thinking (something I asked myself a lot during this film)? I still don’t completely understand the convoluted reason(s) Nolan made up for the mask. Bane’s voice was also terrible. Any Bane dialogue was unintelligible to the point of needing subtitles. Because there were no subtitles, I often had to rely on the other characters’ reactions. Sometimes this worked. Most of the times it didn’t. The rest of my Bane gripes are in the spoilers.

The bomb scene was such a cop out. The saddest part is that it seemed to be a rip-off of the bomb scene from Batman (1966). And if it wasn’t, why didn’t Nolan do something that I swear I’ve seen already in Iron Man and The Avengers? For a writer/director who’s known for his creativity, this was a huge disappointment.

*****SPOILERS*****

The underground prison annoyed me from the beginning. If Talia/Bane escaped from the prison why would they not come back, release the prisoners, and destroy the prison? And if Bane is going to continue to use the prison for his own enemies (I didn’t know he had any enemies that he didn’t kill) why give them a rope to escape? Why didn’t they use the rope to escape? And why was there so much emphasis placed on reaching the platform? It looked to me like any capable rock climber, which I believe Batman is, could have continued climbing up until they reached the top. When Bruce becomes a prisoner it reminded me of an earlier Bale film, Rescue Dawn. It also reminds me somewhat of the prison escape from The Chronicles of Riddick. I thought part of Wayne’s rehab was going to include the Lazarus Pit but, as with the rest of Rises, I was disappointed.

If you take away Bane, the Talia al Ghul twist is perfect. Bane is a stand-alone villain, something Nolan should have learned from the failure that was Batman & Robin. Going back to the Knightfall comics, Bane’s motivation was clear. Bane wanted to “break the Bat” and take over Gotham. Nolan completely muddies Bane’s motivation in Rises. After saving Talia’s life and being rewarded by banishment from The League of Shadows, why would he continue to be loyal to Talia, his banisher’s daughter, and agree to assist the League in destroying Gotham, which is really Ra’s Al Ghul’s aim? What is the cause of Bane’s animosity towards Batman? Isn’t he more likely to be on Batman’s side? Isn’t the enemy of my enemy my friend? Either way, Bane does not play second fiddle to Talia al Ghul. To make him Talia’s attack dog is to completely misunderstand the character.

Rises’ ending made no sense, yet still managed to be the best part of the movie. Wayne seems to have taken Alfred’s advice and disappeared with Kyle. Kind of. Bruce fakes his own death, but only after he reveals his true identity to Commissioner Gordon and fixes the bat signal. What? And why fix the signal before John Blake discovers the cave and even considers taking over as Batman? If Wayne’s intention wasn’t to have Blake become Batman, is it, as Nolan suggests by revealing that Blake’s name is Robin (you have no idea how much I wish it was Jean-Paul Valley instead), to have him become his sidekick? That would make more sense, as Blake has no training and was barely able to handle himself in an attack with multiple assailants, but then it brings us back to the question of what purpose Wayne’s faked death served, especially after he let everyone who knows his true identity know he’s still alive. Wayne has no resources, unless he steals Talia’s fortune, so I don’t know how it’s financially possible for him or Blake to continue being Batman.

Something I’ve always hated about Hollywood is that when a character has one or more love interests, they kill off one of the rivals because, god forbid, everything isn’t tied up in a nice, neat bow.

*****SPOILERS*****

RANDOM MUSINGS

I work Thursday nights from 4pm to midnight so going to a midnight showing of Rises was out of the question. I made plans to go to a local movie grill with my live-in lady friend the next night after she got off work. Because I work nights, I had no idea about the theater shooting until I woke up around 1pm on Friday. I still don’t know much about the shooting, outside of the casualty count and the booby trapping of the guy’s apartment. From what little I did read, it seems as if it, like everything else in an election year, is being overly politicized.

When I entered the grill I noticed a police officer and a rent-a-cop minding the doors, which I assume was a preventative measure in response to the recent shooting. After meeting up with my lady friend, who showed up to the theater 20 minutes before I did, I was informed that she didn’t buy tickets (never send a woman to do a man’s job). The end result was missing the 7pm showing, which was sold out, and having to wait around for the 8:05. Rises is 164 minutes long. I think we spent 4 hours at the theater. Or at least I did. She left to go back to the office, which is a 30 minute drive one way, because she left her debit card under her keyboard. I know what you’re thinking, but in my defense I’m not a cheap ass. I’m a broke ass. She made it back just in time to miss the opening airplane scene.

I had one of the longest pees of my life after Rises. While waiting for the 8:05 showing I had a sweet tea at the bar and later ordered a refill and a water. I didn’t even drink the water. The plan was to pee right before the movie started but, with people cramming into the theater and searching for empty seats, I had to stay in my seat because the lady friend was still in transit. And even though I didn’t think the movie was good, I still didn’t want to miss anything. Just for the record, I had to pee with over an hour left in Rises and still waited around for the end of the credits before making my way to the bathroom.

My list of top three superhero movies remains unchanged:

1. The Dark Knight

2. The Amazing Spider-Man

3. Iron Man