Post by Fickle81 on Jul 22, 2012 16:31:45 GMT -5
“Every great story demands a great ending.”
-Christopher Nolan (regarding The Dark Knight Rises)-
After a 4 year wait, the 3rd and final chapter in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy arrived just a couple days ago (this would make Nolan the only film maker to do 3 separate Batman films). Due to the combined weight of how amazing the series has been so far, Nolan must have been under indescribable pressure to deliver something that is the caliber of what he’s done with the series up until this point. While my expectations soared beyond the heavens in between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, I kept my expectations for this on a tight leash (UNLIKE a lot of fans, that expected this to be on par or BETTER than TDK)… cause let’s face facts, making a Batman film to even come close to RIVALING The Dark Knight is pretty much flat out impossible, LET ALONE one that tops it. All I was hoping for was something to rival or top Batman Begins. So I went Thursday night to the Dark Knight marathon (they showed the first 2 films before leading into the midnight showing of TDKR…7 years of investment in 1 night) with the same hope firmly intact. So what did I walk away with?
While I did get the great ending Nolan promised, I couldn’t help but walk away with some disappointment. It did NOT live up to my expectations of even being on par with Begins. Whereas with The Dark Knight I knew I had seen an instant classic and it was extremely easy for me to put my thoughts of it into a critical review, I had to let THIS movie digest in my mind and this review is actually quite difficult to write (I had hoped to see it again before writing this review, but no such luck so I have to make due with what I got from the initial viewing). While Nolan DOES technically break the “3rd movie in a comic book series curse” in the sense that this movie is STILL great overall, one could argue that even the mighty Nolan failed to break said curse because the film didn’t quite live up to the pedigree set with the previous 2 films.
Let’s start with the positives first. Acting was solid across the board. Bale once again showed that he is the definitive live action Bruce Wayne/Batman (NOBODY beats Kevin Conroy though)…fuck the haters, I’ll defend him in the role till my dying breath. Here he brought a new angle to his ongoing personal struggle. If Batman Begins was about his transformation into Batman, and The Dark Knight was about how the transformation ultimately affected Gotham, then this film is about how the transformation ultimately affected himself and those around him. Next is Anne Hathaway…as I stated in my Batman Returns review, I don’t give an ounce of a shit about the Catwoman character. However here, Nolan tried something interesting…he didn’t really have Catwoman in the movie…allow me to explain. Hathaway’s character was merely Selina Kyle and at no time in the movie is she ever called Catwoman, and her performance represents that. She at no time ever exhibits any corny cat like behavior and is merely a femme fatale who is a highly skilled fighter. Moving on to Tom Hardy as Bane…absolutely awesome just like I knew he’d be. The man was an absolute monster of a beast that showed surprising and even moving depth to his character near the film’s end. All of the supporting cast do great things with their roles as well, from those that have been in since the beginning (Oldman, Freeman, and Caine) to new characters introduced (Levitt and Cotillard).
Writing, for the most part, was solid as well. In keeping up with the tradition setup by the previous films, this film used specific Batman graphic novels/story arcs as influence for the film’s story…namely The Dark Knight Returns, Knightfall, and No Man’s Land. I had expressed immense displeasure in finding out the story would take place 8 years after The Dark Knight. Thankfully however, they gave a great explanation as to why Batman wouldn’t have been needed in those 8 years, so it turned out to work. The story structure being influenced by disaster and war films was an interesting choice and ultimately worked. I also spotted the major themes of atonement and the conflict of letting go of the past all throughout the film, all building up to an emotionally powerful finale. Although I will say that everything I personally predicted would happen in this film did in fact happen…and I do mean EVERYTHING. The action scenes, the few that there were, were the best part of the film. Seeing Batman and Bane going at it was intense and thrilling as all hell.
Now however, it’s time to discuss the film’s failings, cause this is without question the most flawed film in the trilogy. It’s biggest problem is the pacing…Batman’s return happened much too quickly, as did his first confrontation with Bane…then the middle of the film drags quite a bit as Batman is absent for a good chunk of it, leaving JGL’s character as well as Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) and eventually Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) to become the focus, something those characters just couldn’t handle. Believe it or not, but the nearly 3 hour movie actually should have been longer to compensate for these problems…or just restructured entirely. Thankfully the third act was absolutely solid. Next problem is that Alfred disappears completely after being in it for only the first third of it, which I found to be absolute bullshit, especially given WHY he disappears. Also, there were moments when the writing was rather sloppy…you mean to tell me that JGL’s character just KNEW that Bruce Wayne was Batman because he “felt a connection to Wayne as a kid because his parents were killed too?” The FUCK kind of bush league shit is that?! Also, the mayor was planning to all the sudden up and remove Gordon from his police commissioner status because he “was a war hero during peacetime?” A peacetime that had been lasting 8 years, but somehow NOW was the time to get rid of him? Nolan…you’re a better fucking writer than that, cmon man! The motive of the villains in the first third or so of the film essentially being a forceful corporate takeover rubbed me the wrong way as well. Granted it was explained why and it turned out to be a ruse, but I just wished Nolan would have done that a different way cause it felt really out of place. Another thing was Matthew Modine’s character being an annoying twatbag who didn’t serve any real purpose other than to be an annoying twatbag. Finally, Bane’s ultimate fate left a bad taste in my mouth similar to that of what happened to The Scarecrow in Batman Begins.
Just like with Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, this film got a standing ovation from everyone in the theater…I myself clapped along, but nowhere near as long or as enthusiastically as I did for Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. This is a movie that has already started to divide the die hard fans of Nolan’s trilogy…some of them are ranking right along with The Dark Knight as a work of magnificent brilliance while others are condemning it as a profoundly disappointing pile of shit. I personally think it’s neither. It’s an overall great movie and a fitting touching end to the story, but as a whole it left something to be desired. I DO intend to see it again, and hopefully when I do the rating will change for the better (and not worse like Prometheus did), but for now the current rating will have to stand.
Regardless, I feel that Nolan’s Batman trilogy is the Star Wars trilogy (original) of this millennium (ironically, I give the same rating for each individual movie as the individual movies in the Star Wars trilogy…with New Hope/Begins getting a 4.5/5, Empire/The Dark Knight getting a 5/5, and Jedi/Dark Knight Rises getting the rating below) and will go down as one of the greatest cinema trilogies of all time. Nolan, I sincerely thank you for this amazing and memorable 7 year adventure…and to the individual that will eventually be hired with the task of rebooting the Batman franchise following this trilogy, I say good luck…you’re damn sure gonna need it with how high the bar has been raised.
4/5