I should start by expressing my love of the comic book adaptation, ever since X-men back in 2000, the screen has been repeatedly filled with super heroes with varying degrees of success and perhaps none better than Christopher Nolan's envisioning of Batman. The Dark Knight Trilogy will go down in film as one of the greats, and despite the sadness surrounding the opening of the film, I cannot remember anticipating a film anymore so than DKR, the excitement at the cinema where I saw it was electric as people queued and waited for hours to get into a screening (as did I).
DKR is an entertaining and epic end to the trilogy, not as good as the Dark Knight, but still a good film. Hathaway is superb as Catwomen and shines through respectively, some wonderful moments from Bale, Oldman and Levitt give the acting superior advantage over all other supers films. Hardy's Bane, is a little dehumanized by his mask but that is completely reversed in the scene where he gets his little tubes cut, overall Hardy works well with what he had. The first fight scene between Batman and Bane was emotive and brutal and thoroughly fantastic! The cinematography was a particular highlight; the opening scene with the plane and of course the shots of Gotham.
However the praise can only go so far, because ultimately I left the cinema disappointed. DKR is a fine film and it makes the trilogy, but I could not help but find flaw after flaw, that in contrast to the near perfect Dark Knight, leave a bitter taste.
-Why after a slow progression in terms of story villainy do we suddenly jump to impending nuclear doom? Organized crime, psychopaths, nuclear bomb with a fine chrome finish? Pretty sure there is a missing link in that evolution. The great thing about Batman was that it was always unique and cutting edge, but using something so cliche as a nuclear bomb was just out of character for the film as a whole. Also that whole mushroom cloud/horizon ending...seriously?
- Alfred has been a great asset to the Bruce Wayne side of the story in previous films, in DKR he is the iceberg to the films Titanic. As soon as he narrates that stupid bit about finding Bruce in a cafe in like the first quarter of the film, we know its going to happen- so he basically ruined the ending and there was no spoiler alert. And where the fuck did he go? A little sarcastic Caine humor would not have gone a miss in the climax of the film, why so serious DKR? Well, Alfred has disappeared, that's why so damn serious!
- After going on and on about the moral decay of Gotham throughout the whole trilogy, why is it the people of Gotham stay hidden in their homes the whole film? Could they not have just killed all the policeman underground and used the people of Gotham as Batman's army instead, given them a chance to redeem themselves? Nope.
- The writing during the scene where Bale and Hathaway are dancing at times seemed like it had been taken from American Psycho, so much so that some of the sharp, sarcastic replies Wayne gave made him see more like Pat Bateman (although Im not really complaining). The writing seemed to lack the nobility of the first film and the narrative lacked the fluidity of the second, caught in some paradoxical purgatory that bounced from place to place, although I will say the Nolan's stayed true to the realism that dominates the trilogy.
- Marion Cotillard is a fine actress and turns out she was controlling Bane all along, firstly this is way too reminiscent of the Uma Thurman/Bane thing in Batman & Robin (1997)- worst film ever! Secondly, she was introduced as the villain way too late to have any real effect!
- Joe Gordon-Levitt is Robin (well durr!), why was he not used to greater effect in the climax? Because instead he was standing on a bridge with a school bus full of orphans...fucking orphans? Great actor, great character, wasted in favor of a cliche all to make Warner Bros life easier in making a Robin franchise, although I do want to see that (as well as a separate cat women film).
- The Bat much like the the chrome finished fusion bomb was a step too far in my opinion, perhaps some aliens and sarcastic Wheddon dialogue would have better suited. The Bat seemed to have been used to justify junky aerial CGI views instead of the simple yet stunning cinematography that would have been just enough to keep this film grounded.
Simply put DKR rose too far. It forgot its roots. So many of the things that made Batman unique and generally better than all other supers films seemed in DKR to have been forgotten, too often the film strayed into Marvel territory, perhaps to appease the under 10's or maybe the fan-boys which I can no longer call myself one. DKR is entertaining and easily better than the Avengers, but it could and should have been more. The fine line between the DK's awesome realism and the dismal fantasy that plagues so many supers films is repeatedly crossed, and some will (and have) disagreed, but for me DKR simply crosses the line too many times. Thankfully the film will be absorbed into the trilogy and its imperfections will be forgotten, but not just yet.
Over 10 years of continuous supers films and really the genre has becomes its own, but as we look back at others, a similar pattern emerges: when a trilogy comes along of great and outstanding quality, that overshadows all in its category, that category dies. What was the last sci-fi trilogy you saw that beat Star Wars? Critics and commentators have turned their noses at supers films in the past, but their voice was always drowned out by huge box office results and dedicated fans. Now DKR is likely to wipe out the box office, and set an unbeatable record, as a trilogy, making competition almost impossible, what is worse is fans like myself are unable to defend the 189 film contracts that are being given out to film makers, that wreak of nothing but greed! It is no wonder the cries are getting louder.
The supers franchises have been living too large and leaving too little for everyone else, and now the chant is 'fall'. I believe it is quite possible that end the DK trilogy marks the beginning of the end of the comic book adaptation. But we should remember it is always darkest before the dawn, and there are a number of potential films out there, that could avert this tragedy the Man of Steel shows promise and I begrudgingly see some potential in some of the many (very many) Marvel spawn. Plus, films like Chronicle (which I have no interest in writing about but I can say is my favourite film of this year...so far), are being made, super powers are always so very welcome in films. On that random and abrupt note I end, perhaps I'll continue this or maybe I'll draw out over a series of years, bleeding dry all remains of interest, only time will tell.
Oh and ps- for the love of god see DKR in IMAX!!
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