Like every other hardcore geek in North America, I had to do the midnight release of The Dark Knight Rises. I truly enjoyed the movie, but I’m not letting Nolan off the hook that easily. My thoughts in no particular order:
– So, how long til one of those orphans hits the right key combination on the piano?
– Who’s gonna clean up all those dead football players?
-Was that a legal touchdown?
-That’s not how Batman “ends”, but I’ll take your Hollywood ending
-No, he’s not going to become “Robin”. That’s what you call “fan service”.
-A good chunk of the movie depends on the fact that all of the cops are now supposedly “good”. This is trying, as Gotham’s known for the fact that about 30% of the cops are dirty. I guess The Dent Act got rid of organized crime, which meant there wasn’t anyone left to bribe the cops.
– The breaking of the bat, while a symbolic visual, came off lackluster. One thing people never realized about that whole sequence in the comic was that it’s not the knee to the back that fucked up Batman – it’s the fact that Bane, then, threw him off a building in the next issue.
– When Talia’s taking forever to die in the truck, keep in mind that Gordon has no clue she’s the villain, as he was in the back of the truck the whole time. Yet, he never asks anyone “What’s going on here?”
-I love Anne Hathaway. Always have. But she got the Venom treatment here. She really didn’t add much, and much of her interaction seemed shoehorned in at times.
-So, he runs off with a thief? Don’t get me wrong – she’s the type of person who could teach him to have fun and enjoy life, but it just seems too easy.
-I really thought Bane was gonna turn out to be Ra’s. You see, I figured the morphine and whatever else had kept him alive from the train disaster. And his voice had a Liam Neeson brogue to it.
-Of course it was Talia. Foreign white woman with a non-descript accent.
– Good to see Scarecrow again.
-Did no one care that Mayor Sanchez or Rodriguez or whatever is dead?
-I actually got my No Man’s Land movie, without the convoluted quake backstory.
– How big is the bay? I ask because Bludhaven could be dealing with the fallout, which alludes to the events of Infinite Crisis.
– Kinda nice of the people of Gotham to let Gordon keep his job, even after finding out he lied to them. Then again, are they gonna believe the rantings of a mad man?
-Batman fighting, in a riot, in broad daylight. Not sure people realize how big a deal that was. He was an urban legend in Begins, a shadow monster in The Dark Knight, and stands revealed in Rises.
-So, was the rope too short? No one made it out because there wasn’t enough slack in the rope. Sure, you could jump without it, but you’d die if you fell.
-Holly was just more worthless fan service.
-the missing No Man’s Land aspect is the fact that you had 1,000 freed criminals just running the streets, who did nothing. The downtrodden were the ones who were all about the Occupy Gotham movement, but some of those prisoners were just straight murderers. I doubt even Bane’s martial law would’ve kept some of them in line. Why weren’t they causing any havoc?
-The Bat…unique design, but ultimately not impressed. Give me a Batwing any day.
-Can you even fly from bumblefuck desert to Gotham in the amount of time Bruce had at his disposal? It was like the time Jack Bauer came over from China one morning on a boat.
-Um, I get that you’re wearing a ski mask, but you’re also wearing what must be a $5,000 suit. It doesn’t take Columbo to solve this one. You better hope Gordon’s just hopped up on meds.
– Man, Catwoman sure did take to the Bat Pod like a pro. Sure, maybe she’s ridden a motorcycle, but the whole wobbly wheel direction change doesn’t seem like something that’s easy to pick up.
At this point, I went to sleep. I woke up with more thoughts.
I feel like “Batman” never makes an appearance in this movie. At the beginning, Alfred is telling Bruce that The Batman is behind him, and he’s not that guy anymore. For the next 2.5 hrs, Bruce does nothing to prove Alfred wrong. He HAS lost that zeal, and he appears more as a symbol than as a man convicted. Maybe it’s because Bale as Batman has been parodies so much over the years, but when Batman appeared, it was almost hard to even take him seriously.
The Batman mythos revolves around the fact that Bruce Wayne was a mask that Batman wore. This movie, however, seems like the first time that Batman was a mask that Bruce Wayne wore, and it shows.
Batman is driven to the point of insanity. Though he’s crazy paranoid, he’s not been driven by grief in years. He continues to be Batman because he sees a need, and he’s arrogant enough to think no one else can do the job. The Nolan Batman is different, however. He is always driven by the pain of loss, and is constantly looking for happiness. He thought he’d found it with Rachel, and when that was denied, he just ran from everything. This is reminiscent of the TV Birds of Prey Batman, who fled Gotham due to the grief he felt when Joker killed Catwoman. I said it then, and I’ll say it now: Batman is not a little bitch. Batman would NOT run and become a recluse. He would just fight harder. Also, Batman would not fake his death in the pursuit of a happy future. He’s beyond such fairy tale notions. There is no “happiness” in Batman’s worldview.
Don’t get me wrong – I have loved the Nolan franchise, but I’m not willing to call it the definitive Batman. It is merely an interpretation, like an Elseworlds story. That doesn’t ruin my enjoyment of the cinematic presentation, but it’s as “Batman” to me as the notion that Jack Napier killed Bruce Wayne’s parents.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
I agree with your final words completely.
This is an interpretation of a character and his world. There are tons of things in this trilogy that I don’t find ideal for Batman, just as there a loads of clever ideas that I’d love to see explored in other interpretations. I find all of it interesting, because it is one particular vision and nobody’s saying “THIS is your Batman from now on! FOREVER. Deal with it!’ I only say this because I found a reviewer on a major movie news site to be particularly bitchy and angry about what parts of this he felt betrayed the characters.
That said, was it strange that dead parents = Become Batman while dead not-quite-girlfriend = Quit Batman? I’m not sure.
*ADDITIONAL SPOILER WARNING*
I just got back and it’s really late, but right near the end, I thought “Are they going to Iron Giant his Bat-ass?” I know it wasn’t intentional, but they totally did. Right down to the hopeful epilogue-type scenes. And then I thought about the whole “boy makes best friends with someone the public perceives as a monster and killer” and I currently find it funny to compare this entire movie to Iron Giant, right down to our heroes having crazy voices. I admit though, it’s like 4:30 AM and all kinds of shit gets funny about now.
Anyway, I think I liked this one. I may have to see it again to know for sure, since I wasn’t feeling much of anything throughout parts of it.
Oh yeah, I thought Liam Neeson was going to return all for real-real, based on the Movie Master figure and rumors. I also thought Lazarus Pit resurrections would be an odd fit for this series, but I suppose you could say Batman vs. Nuclear bomb can be considered a step outside of Batman’s playground.
Also, I know Batman doesn’t kill but he may want to save some precious time before a nuclear explosion by using his magic helicopter to shoot the knees out from Bane. Thomas and Martha may forgive that little loophole in Bruce’s rules.
I know Bruce is a far better and richer man than me, since if I was personally placed in the same situation with a catastrophic explosion moments away, “Where’s my Lamborghini, bitch!?” would be just about all I’d be capable of saying. But seriously, Catwoman was pretty good. Good enough that I’d have liked to see even more of her. She could have easily held up a larger portion of a film that didn’t have such high stakes that take flirting out of the equation.
Yeah, it’s late and I ramble a lot and probably won’t remember typing this with my sleep fingers.
Batman’s lucky he didn’t kill Gordon in that truck! “Commisioner Gordon Day” is a lot rougher on the tongue than “Harvey Dent Day”.
Agree on all.
Just got done recording our TDKR review for KLIQ Nation. Love all the points you made. I had someone online tell me that Batman died at the end, and when Alfred saw Bruce and Selina at that restaurant, it was a dream. Just because Alfred mentions he always dreams of seeing Bruce at that restaurant. Now I know everyone loved Inception but c’mon.
Other ramblings…..so the way to cure a broken back is to tie a person to a rope and hang them from it until they can stand upright? Chiropractors around the world take notice!
Batman is REALLY trusting of Catwoman. She turns him over to Bane, he gets his back broken and thrown into a prison, and when he escapes and gets back to Gotham City, he STILL seeks her out for help. I mean Selina does look good in a skin tight black catsuit, but c’mon. Also worth noting that Selina Kyle is never referred to as “Catwoman” in the film. Keeping with Nolan’s realistic take on the Batman mythos.
That’s all I’ve got for now.
Thanks for all the comments, guys!
I’ve heard people describe this as “the perfect end to what Nolan was doing.” I couldn’t agree more. I mean, I have enjoyed the trilogy immensely. What I will say, however, is that whatever Nolan was doing, it *wasn’t* “Batman. Instead of getting an “excellent Batman trilogy”, we instead got an “excellent trilogy…that happened to focus on a guy called ‘Batman’. He’s simply not the focus here. On Twitter, @jinsaotome said something along the lines of “you could put character names in those roles and still have the same movie.” I couldn’t agree more. As far as amazing performances, you’ve got Michael Caine and Joseph Gordon-Levitt to thank.
If you don’t get what I’m saying, let’s look at this analogy: you’ve got gods and then you’ve got God. There’s the many, polytheistic equal gods, and then you’ve got the monotheistic Big G. In terms of the Batman in this franchise, he’s the former. He’s an example of Batman, but doesn’t really do the job of delivering the *core* Batman.
I liken this to an Elseworlds story because there’s just enough familiar points to imply it’s Batman. You’ve got:
-Rich guy
-named Bruce Wayne
-murdered parents
-dresses like a bat
-has butler named Alfred
After that, the similarities end. Nolan’s Batman is NOT:
-the world’s greatest detective
-the world’s greatest fighter
-a great inventor
-even remotely conveyed to possess above average intelligence
If nothing else, Nolan’s Batman is closer to what would happen if a real dude became Batman. I can appreciate that, but that’s NOT Batman. Comic Batman, admittedly, suffers from “doingtoomuchitis”. He’s too many things at once. I get that. I also feel that, while comic booky in nature, RDJ was able to accomplish this with Iron Man. Sure, the movies are different tonally, but there are a lot of similarities between the two. Nolan’s Batman is more grounded in the “Real world” than most comic book movies, but is that to its detriment?
In closing, it’s an amazing trilogy. I’m not taking anything away from Nolan or the actors on that. It isn’t, however, BATMAN.
My lady said yesterday that she realized the reason why she doesn’t like this Batman movie is Batman is so depressed and morose. He doesn’t feel like Batman or a hero at all. Pretty much you nailed it on the head here.