Before the latest news regarding The Dark Knight Rises excluding The Riddler as the most likely villain to take the place of The Joker; I had felt the film would present a perfect opportunity to explore the inner workings of Batman's uber detective skills. Which is not to say the chance doesn't still exist. What seems a sure bet though, and why those who like their Comic Book Movies to be deep and meaningful and artful can rest easy, is that with Inception, we seem to have witnessed a crystallization of one of
this century's premier filmmakers.
Firstly, it's not my intention to read too much into things or get deep into archetyping or try and give anyone a lesson in "sacred" geometry. However, I think it's safe to say, after Nolan's successful filmic experiments into the realm of science fiction - with
Memento,
The Prestige, and
Inception setting the tone, and him naming his production company Syncopy with a maze as the logo, he has a definite interest in and tends to consciously explore structure, patterns, and puzzles - on a very high level; more so than most directors past or present. In theory, most of are constantly using pattern recognition in everything we do in life, but it's very often a subconscious venture. When a person becomes aware of these things and begins to consciously manipulate archetypes; especially in writing or art, things can become very interesting and we end up with masterpieces such as
Watchmen,
The Dark Knight, and
Inception.
Another thing we can now safely say about Christopher Nolan is that, after
Inception, he's successfully joined the very small group of mass market film makers that have pushed the combination of digital effects with story and character integrity and originality in a very rich and pioneering way - along with, and arguably even surpassing, maybe James Cameron and Peter Jackson. And of course, Alan Moore, and Frank Miller are masters in the literary area.
With these things in mind, let's take a look at what patterns seem to be emerging from how his interim films seem to influence his return to the Gotham Bat.
Now The Prestige was an adaptation from a novel, but the very clever thing that the Nolan's did was bring forth magic's allegorical and metaphorical meaning toward the standard structure of a movie script and a distilled film itself; the three acts, and how if done well, they function essentially as a pledge, a turn, and a prestige - sucking a viewer into not knowing exactly what just hit them. It strikes me that
Inception was quite possibly a bit of a perfected Nolan "magic trick,"
if you will.
The thing that has prompted me to use write this, is that the structure of
TDK was undoubtedly, I believe, at least a little bit influenced by
The Prestige. It goes without saying that for most of us, everything we go through leaves its imprint and influences what we do next, and intuitively how we approach life in general.
There was alot of talk and analysis about the Greek style triumverate formed between Batman, Dent, and Gordon in
TDK - I believe this is probably pretty dead on. It appears, in fact as a subjective archetypal exploration of the villain, the man in the middle, and the hero; then there is the love triangle, as well as the triangle formed amongst Bruce Wayne, Alfred, and Lucius Fox; so it is, in a sense a triangle of interweaving triangles - which in nature becomes one of the strongest architectural forms. High end manipulation of structure is again, nothing new in literature, or film, or art, but I will reiterate, I believe, when it becomes conscious is when the artist/viewer ascends to a heightened level of perception.
The Nolans' partner in crime on the Batman franchise, David Goyer has also mentioned in many interviews that he tends to adhere to the so-called "rule of threes." As most of us here know, this is why movies tend to come in three acts, and trilogies. A side note, but something that still applies to these ideas is what George Lucas has done with
Star Wars, and while he, or another party, could very well redeem that franchise with the final trilogy of trilogies. I actually believe Hollywood will eventually get out of this whole "reboot," "remake," "re-whatever" trend, and gravitate toward "tilogies of trilogies." With the usual rule of third in the trilogy of a given film, becoming stale and exploitative - there is always this truly spectacular potential for greatness lingering in the air, and why I think so many of us are so let down by what we've seen so far in this genre, and with the final film in a trilogy in general.
Please Hollywood: Do not hand off the capstones to brilliant franchises to directors like Brett Ratner, or Michael Bay, with only visions of exploding cars and sugared boobs dancing in their heads. Leave this area of expertise up to ComicBookMovie.com's own Teabag.
I do firmly believe if more people in Hollywood became conscious of this, we'd end up with many a more satisfying a dollar spent at the box office. It would pay for everyone involved.
The one thing I find truly eye opening, is that if you go back and observe Nolan's filmography and evolution as a director, and how he is so great at playing around with unfurling interlocking fragments and structurally exploring archetypes, his experimentation seems to have been evolving. And for those who enjoy architecture and puzzles, there are other useful forms to play around with, such as pentagons, the lucky number seven, nine, and twelve. There have been some great franchises that make use of a five fold episodical structure, most notably
Dirty Harry.
Here are a few things I feel offer some insight to what we may potentially get:
1. Cypher is mentioned and referenced to over and over, many times in
The Prestige, and
Memento, and
Inception; they are basically gigantic relatively complex filmic puzzles.
2. The Syncopy logo is a maze/puzzle
3. Three is a highly valued commodity by the Nolan's and Goyer, and if they're going to pull a rabbit out of their hat, it's going to be on the third try. Nothing about it will be wasted.
4. I expect Nolan is still a little weary of this sequel, because he lost two friends and two irreplaceable contributing talents, but they will most likely be paid great homage to. I don't know if that's what
Inception was doing, but it seemed that some very existential and depressed themes were creeping up in there - primarily that of loss.
5. Having Hans Zimmer on board wanting to score the Riddler (I know I keep repeating this in my articles), and with Nolan's now concretely apparent interest in cyphers, puzzles, mazes, structure, patterns, mathematics, archetypes, architecture, and ordering chaos in general - The Riddler seems beyond an obvious given for the third act...
6. Those of us who want The Riddler may still get him; Those of us who are adamantly opposed to The Riddler are likely to see something done with him and his riddles that drastically exceeds our expectations, makes it worth our whiles, and just blows our minds.
Not that it's all done on purpose, or even should be, as he and any great filmmaker understand and is personally quoted "that he likes to leave
his movies greatly open to interpretation," "he likes to leave the viewer walking around with lots of ideas rattling around in their head."
With all this said, bear in mind, there is also a great chance we may see Nolan explore an interweaving 5, 7, 9, or 12 fold character structure or story - something truly innovative.
So where this leaves us with
The Dark Knight Rises? This time 'round, I think we're in for something potentially unparalleled, because, I'll say it again and again and again, Nolan seems to be so highly conscious of these ideas.
TDKR may shape up to be one of the greatest films in history - and even The Riddler remains a distinct possibility. It will be the top of his pyramid afterall... his crowning glory; and if there is a person out there who can pull off a modern trilogy successfully, it is this man/these man. There is no doubt in my mind Christopher Nolan will now demonstrate his
Prestige and teach the uninitiated how a modern trilogy is supposed to be done.
Ratner, and Bay, take note... this is going to be real movie magic.