Let me start this off by just saying that I really enjoyed
Batman Begins and I thought The Dark Knight, while overhyped due to
circumstances around its release, was a good follow up too. I’m also a big fan
of Christopher Nolan – Memento would rank within my top 5 movies of all time,
with the Prestige and Inception not too far behind. However, I’m not a huge fan
of comic book based films in general. There’s a tendency there by those who
create these films to be lazy in the knowledge that the name value will sell tickets
on their own and plot and character development takes a backseat to cheap
thrills and dumbed down products. However, since Nolan took the reins of the
Batman franchise, we’ve had a series of movies that blurred the lines between
your standard comic book based fare and action thriller movies. The first two
movies were driven by emotion, strong plots, an unusual amount of realism and great
characters with genuine motivation portrayed well by their actors, and I hoped
for more of the same from The Dark Knight Rises. For this reason, I came away
from the cinema with a feeling of disappointment and annoyance.
I’ll start with the good points from the movie. It opened with
an exciting, fast paced mid-air hijacking and kidnapping (as well as a faking
of a death) of an unknown man by our new antagonist, Bane. It was well shot,
original and got the ball rolling on a really positive note. The Nolan brothers
are fast becoming the best in Hollywood at creating incredible set pieces like
this, but it was topped around the midway point of the film. The scene where
Bane “takes” the city of Gotham is fantastic. The eeriness of the child singing
solo to a backing of pure silence as Bane and his followers make their way to
the packed stadium was chilling, the football player running for a touchdown as
the pitch collapses behind him was priceless and the collapsing of the bridges leading
out of the city really got across the hopelessness and desperation of the
situation. This was probably my favourite part of the movie, although there are
numerous other impressive action based scenes, many of which included the very
cool Bat flying tank.
I was also pleasantly surprised by the performance of Anne Hathaway
as Selina, or Catwoman to most of us (although she’s never referred to as this
throughout the movie). She provides most of the lighter dialogue and the odd
bit of comic relief (although not too much, this is a Christopher Nolan film
after all). Hathaway was effective in portraying a damaged kleptomaniac who is
torn between doing the right thing and doing what benefits her most. Of course
we all knew she would come good in the end, but it was still a nice little bit
of character development. Michael Caine, as always, was fantastic as Alfred,
and provided the voice of reason for Wayne, although ultimately it was ignored
and he was cast away. On a personal note, I also really enjoyed seeing Wade
Williams (Brad Bellick from prison break) make a very small appearance, and it’s
good to see he’s still working in the prison service and even seems to have
been promoted! The score, as always, was good. I love the music in all the
Batman movies. If I did have one gripe with it this time around though, was
over reliance on the main theme. It was playing for a good 50-70% of the movie
and was used more often than actual acting to create tension and it became a
little tiresome.
Onto the first major grievance I had with the movie now –
the plot. It’s quite difficult to summarise the plot in a short paragraph as it
is quite convulsed and entangled, so I’ll just assume for now that anyone reading
this has seen the movie and do not require me to retell the story. One of the
main problems I had with the story is a confusing lack of direction by the
antagonists. Initially, when Bane takes over the city, he claims to be doing so
in order to take back the city from the corrupted government that covered up
the death of Harvey Dent. Sentence hearings are set up for the more powerful
men in the city and they are sentenced without trial to death or exile
(although really death is the only choice). He releases those imprisoned under
the Dent Act and arms them to create his own army. Hardly liberation is it?
When the twist occurs and we find out that Miranda is actually the daughter of
al Ghul (and it takes a major leap of faith to believe that out of everyone on
that board, Wayne chose the betrayer to entrust his company with), the plot
really is thrown into chaos. If we choose to believe that the takeover really
was to “liberate the people” and to free them from their oppressors we must
question the methods used to do so. For instance, why activate a nuclear bomb
that is set to go off in 5 months no matter what? Hardly the way to go about
saving a city from a corrupt government. Killing innocent people, sentencing without
trial and not allowing anyone to enter or leave the city with threat of
immediate death for everyone are other methods used in this uprising. I felt
that this aspect of the story was just thrown in to distract from the fact that
the story was no more than a standard “madman with a bomb” plot, and I couldn’t
get past this. On the other hand, if we choose to believe that the sole aim all
along was to destroy Gotham City, which Miranda more or less admitted to
towards the end, then why didn’t she just pull the trigger? What were the
benefits of keeping the police alive and toying with the people? Either way,
the motivation for the characters just does not make sense.
Another major issue I had with The Dark Knight Rises was the
fact that pretty much every character did stupid, illogical things. Starting
with Bane – he knew everything about Batman having come from the League of
Shadows. He knew how dangerous he was and what he had accomplished previously
when fighting the forces of Evil. Yet when he had him in his hands, at his
mercy, he locked him away instead of killing the only man who could stop his
plan. Stupid. Not only this, but he put him in this “hell on earth” which both
he and Miranda had already escaped from. I’m sorry, but if a child can escape
from that prison fricking Batman can. Miranda was also a stupid antagonist,
again falling into the trap of not pulling the trigger when she had the chance.
There’s only so much a person can suspend their disbelief when the characters
are as stupid as this. Additionally, the relationship between her, Bane and her
father made little sense. She initially says that she could never forgive her
father for out casting and excommunicating Bane from the League of Shadows.
Until Batman killed him. Suddenly, she not only forgave him but also wanted to
carry on his work and extract personal revenge on Batman for killing him. Not
only this, but Bane would help her to do so. So now, we have Bane who was
outcast and rejected by Ra’s al Ghul and Miranda, who was betrayed by her
father attempting to complete his work. Stupid. I understand the loyalty and
friendship between Bane and Miranda, but I just can’t believe that they would
so ferociously follow her father’s wishes having not forgiven him for so long
prior to his death. Also, where’d she get the knowledge and qualifications to
become a high ranking board member in a global company such as Wayne
Enterprises having grown up in a prison and then with the League of Shadows?
Incredible lack of attention to detail.
Batman himself came across as a bit stupid at times too. He
fell for Catwoman’s tricks on multiple occasions, he got betrayed by Miranda
and worst of all, he dragged an extremely unstable nuclear bomb on a bit of a
rope out of a van and crashed it into every lamppost and telegraph pole he
could find. And it STILL didn’t go off! Another request by Nolan to suspend
disbelief. Way too many at this stage. Even with all the stupidity that’s I’ve
already mentioned, the worst was still to come. The police. I’ve never seen
such ineptitude in my life before! I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt
slightly due to the fact that they haven’t had much crime to fight for eight
years, but that assault on Banes men was pathetic, bordering on “special”. They
sent all their men from one direction down a narrow street straight for them. They
didn’t even put the armed and shielded officers at the front! So you had a few
thousand unarmed police men in an almost polite queue waiting to be killed by
the armed henchmen of Bane. No snipers, no flanking, no attacking from multiple
directions. Didn’t they watch 300!?
There were other niggling issues which I don’t want to dwell
on too much which annoyed me also – the fact that Bruce Wayne was using a cane
for 8 years and was suddenly able to walk freely and fight freely in a couple
of days after a bit of time with a leg brace. This “Hell on Earth” prison didn’t
seem that hellish. In fact, most people seemed quite nice in it and there was a
TV. How’d they even get signal way down there? Also, I thought that Batmans
arsenal was only known about by Wayne himself and Fox, so how did Bane know
exactly where to burrow to?
The best compliment I can give The Dark Knight Rises is that
it kept my attention for the full 2 hours and 45 minutes. I didn’t check my
watch once, which is quite the feat on Nolan’s part. The set pieces and action
sequences were just enough to keep me in the movie and for that reason I can’t
be too negative about the experience as a whole. However, considering what came
before it, the plot and emotional development just were not there for me. It
felt too comic book-y to me (which of course is a good thing for a lot of
people, and it will get praised through the roof for this), and didn’t have the
same sort of impact as Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. For these reasons I
give The Dark Knight Rises….
5/10
