Here's an important lesson: when you're interested in a big-budget summer blockbuster NEVER follow it's production. Stay away from speculation and at all costs AVOID SPOILERS. As difficult as the internet may make staying oblivious, just do something else for the year before it comes out. Like, maybe, working at your job.
Maybe I had overexposed myself, made the final piece in Christopher Nolan’s trilogy difficult to enjoy, but there were still some surprises for me in so much as the order of events and the duration of scenes.
Aside from that, The Dark Knight Rises is a good film. A very big and brave film. It's brave in that it occurs such a great deal of time after it's predecessor, as Bruce/Batman (Christian Bale) has been in hiding for 7 years. But also brave to introduce so many new characters and jump around with flashbacks/forwards so much. But it certainly feels big, as the themes from the two previous films are escalated once again culminating in a villain whose threats are expansive and devastating.
I'm a Batman fan above all else and I find it hard to imagine that I'll ever see a portrayal as murky, dense and intriguing as the character was in Batman Begins (2005). Everything felt right in claustrophobic alleyways, dilapidated insane asylums and with a Batman that strikes in fleeting blows from dark corners. The Dark Knight (2008), in my opinion, owes a lot of its success to the death of Heath Ledger and is not without its flaws. But I won't go into that. Safe to say, I prefer Begins.
Actually, I'm so burnt out on this franchise now that I'm just gonna rattle off some of my problems:
As mysterious and powerful as Bane (Tom Hardy behind a muzzle) is made to appear for 99% of the film, he is completely unravelled with a simple flashback, loose wire and shot from a cannon. I fully appreciate that he would need to be made weaker to have been defeated, but turning the monster into the guardian of a little girl, having him shed a tear, and then demobilising him with a flick of the pipe on his mask... Nah.
Bane and Batman’s first fight in the sewers of Gotham city is the stuff of dreams, to be honest. A lack of soundtrack makes it brutal and gripping, whilst the fight is directed in a way that shows how far Nolan has come since Begins. It’s clean, but dizzying when the time calls for it. Intense and frightening.
Bane's voice is undeniably a problem, though. I didn't mind it when it was first revealed in the 6-min prologue before Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011). He was a little hard to understand, but it felt deep and original. Follwing a redubbing, the monster now sounds laughable in higher pitches and indecipherable elsewhere.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays the young good-cop, John Blake, and is fairly excellent. The character is a necessary addition considering that Commisioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) is too old and incapacitated to help Batman this time.
Blake is clearly a nod to Robin’s role in some of the comics, especially Knightfall. But he’s never referred to as anything other than Blake until it’s revealed in the final 5 minutes that his middle name is 'Robin'. It felt like a massive '[frick] you'. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a big fan of Robin, but I completely understand his role in Batman's character progression. As Bruce learns to deal with his past and his limitations he enlists the help of fellow heroes and starts to build a family, which he himself was robbed of. It’s a big deal, but John Blake is fine as John Blake sidekick. If you're going to explicitly say he's Robin just do it early and let us deal with it. The character is so divisive that it felt forced.
As a fan I was already well aware that when Marion Cotillard was cast as Miranda Tate, she'd in fact end up being Talia al Ghul, the daughter of Liam Neeson's character in Begins. But amongst such a grand and chaotic second-half I just couldn't understand why her and Bruce suddenly had so much of a relationship that he would feel so betrayed when she reveals herself. Their relationship worked in tandem with that of Bruce and Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway), I guess. One represented Bruce’s life and the other as Batman. But simply not enough was given to establish that Bruce was genuinely into either of them. Sure, he slept with Miranda, but this is the billionaire playboy who absconded with a Russian ballet in the last film.
Personally, I think the story should have featured Blake/Robin
or Miranda/Talia. Not both.
Matthew Modine as Foley is another strange one. He's established as the bad cop, which is fine, but as he ultimately reaches his redemption and hero status he is killed-off in the most pathetic way possible. Just a shot of his dead body on the ground. It felt so tacked on and lazy, which is not what I was hoping to see in a trilogy-ender billed as 'legendary'.
Stupid deaths? Miranda/Talia gives a speech whilst appearing miraculously unharmed after a car-crash and then dips her chin to her chest and dies like a hammy Shakespearean actor.
I'll try to let the film redeem itself:
The first fight between Batman and Bane. Epic. The stuff of boyhood dreams.
Batman's voice is better this time too, although it still has a few moments in which it's indecipherable.
Hathway is remarkably enchanting as cat-burglar Selina Kyle. I had my doubts about her, but she's believable and seductive.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is good in every scene he appears, aside from the 5 minutes in which the story let him down.
The scale and amount of action scenes is entertaining too. This is a huge blockbuster packed full of stunt and explosive sequences. The collapsing football field was teased as a breathtaking set-piece, but amongst the flying vehicles, stunt-jumps, truck chases and exploding bridges it gets a little lost. It’s kind of hard to gripe about sequences getting lost though, I guess, as you’re spoiled with action throughout.
I think I'll need to see The Dark Knight Rises again to decide whether I prefer it to The Dark Knight because it's very different. Very different. But I can't help but feel a little let-down. For all the build-up and emotional motivation (and it’s laid on thick) the film ultimately boils down to a silly truck-chase with a ticking time-bomb… that, get this, takes months to countdown. The suspense of a ticking bomb is pretty staple, but letting the intervening three months of a ticking bomb pass within a single scene destroys any sense of peril.
God, I didn’t want to dislike this film. It’s fine, it’s good. It’s as good as Batman Begins, probably. It doesn’t have the awe and star-power of The Dark Knight and Heath Ledger’s Joker, but it effectively ingratiates (most of the) new characters with pre-existing themes and takes the action to a higher level. It's entertaining, but feels bloated. Less of a thrilling journey and more of a dragged-out swansong.
I’m just burnt out now, and particularly miffed by the slap-in-the-face of dropping-in something-like-Robin in the final scenes. There’s a new franchise in the works apparently, something that will either try to extend this trilogy with Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the lead or will try to bridge a Justice League super-sequel like Marvel’s The Avengers. I’m not fussed either way any more. I’m glad that Nolan got this trilogy out and steered Batman away from the Joel Schumacher campiness (Batman Forever, Batman & Robin) that dominated a decade. I’m glad that amongst these three films there’s more than enough to please Batman fans and cinema-goers. Hell, I can’t wait to get all three films in a boxset and slog through it all, but I’m also glad it’s over.
7/10