Re: The Wing Kong Exchange
Eight years after the Batman mysteriously vanished after "killing" Harvey Dent, crime in Gotham is at an all time low thanks to an act created in Dent's name. That is until a terrorist named Bane and a cat burglar named Selina Kyle set forth a series of events that threaten to bring the city to its knees. Bruce Wayne, who has been living life as a hermit, is compelled to once again don the cowl of the Batman and fight for the fair people of Gotham, but how far will he have to go to save them?
The Dark Knight Rises is the final film in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy and quite the fitting end for it. That statement is not necessarily meant to be complimentary either, as the film does more than enough to hammer home the egotistical delusions of grandeur that its director must experience on a daily basis. At the same time, it certainly caps off a trilogy that was always about that director's careless self-indulgences and stands as a shining example of why editing really is an art form unto itself. To be fair, with the massive amount of over-hype prior to this films release, it would have to have been the greatest motion picture of all time to even come close to living up to that. It doesn't even come close, and more often than not falls flat on its face while attempting to take the story told in the previous film to new heights and new ideals. Ridiculously expensive, erratically stirring and ideologically illogical, The Dark Knight Rises is sure as hell a summer home run, but it sure isn't a grand slam.
"Mmfhrtdsjghdf Gotham usgtyfdsjhgsdts"
Once again directed by Christopher Nolan and written by he, his brother Jonathan and David Goyer, the film does manage to outdo its predecessor on nearly every level. Unfortunately it mostly outdoes it in a negative light and at the end of the day it becomes a muddled mess, much like the voice of its main villain. Nolan's direction here is slipshod, and while he handles the grandiose action sequences well, there's very little coherency to the plot. There are also several uncharacteristic errors in terms of continuity, the most glaring of which is a scene that shifts from day to night in the blink of an eye. I don't always expect a lot out of comic book films, but Nolan has proven in the past to be a director who was capable of dealing with these challenges. Here it appears he has graduated from the Peter Jackson Academy of I Can't Edit A Film Down To Save My Life, because everything including the kitchen sink is thrown into this chaos. The script does have its moments, including a fully physical and emotional arc for Wayne/Batman, but too often it falls victim to tired plot devices and overly preachy dialogue. Luckily the actors are the real highlight here and most of them are more than capable of delivering that awful dialogue properly, allowing it to be a lot better than it has any right to be.
"So I only get to wear this suit for 20 minutes? Cool, I'm claustrophobic anyway."
Christian Bale returns for one last kick at the can as the titular hero and he's his usual solid self, particularly in the emotional journey that I mentioned before. Other series regulars Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine (in his best work in the series) turn up for the final paycheck but do their usual excellent work with their respective characters. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is cast as honest cop John Blake, and also does great work with a character written solely for the film. In fact, Levitt's performance is my favourite and he continually proves to be one of those actors who is simply destined to win an Oscar sooner rather than later. His Inception co-star, Marion Cotillard, shows up as a steamy ally of Bruce Wayne's, though its fairly obvious that she's going to make an obligatory heel turn before things are through. Tom Hardy does fine work as Bane from an acting standpoint, but unfortunately his dialogue is just absolutely appalling a great deal of the time. To me he came across as a poor man's Blofeld wearing a mask that Darth Vader didn't want. To his credit, Hardy does his level best to rise above this and turn in a strong showing, particularly when he's besting Batman in physical combat, the only villain in the series to be able to stake that claim. Finally, Anne Hathaway is dynamite as Selina Kyle and really does make the character her own. In fact, she would have had my favourite performance in the entire film if not for her Han Solo moment towards the end, which basically had me cringing in my seat.
"She's hot and she can act...double bonus."
Now, before all of you that loved the film start jumping down my throat, I'd like to take a moment to examine the positive elements that I found in it. For starters, I really enjoyed the kangaroo court scene with Jonathan Crane serving as judge, since it basically plays like a film version of exactly what would happen if the 99% got their way and were put in charge. This scathing satire was not lost on me and was an excellent element, though it wasn't touched on quite enough for my liking. I also have to give credit to Nolan, and more importantly composer Hans Zimmer, for being able to distract the viewer multiple times during the film, through either expansive set pieces or pulse pounding soundtracks. This distraction serves as a useful tool, since it prevents the audience from sitting back and saying "what the hell just happened there?" or "why is it suddenly night when they went into that tunnel during the day?" Nolan has proven in the past to be quite adept at this form of theatrical trickery (just watch Inception) and here he shows his mastery of it. Above all else, The Dark Knight Rises is a spectacle to be sure, and certainly worthy of a viewing on the big screen even if its got a myriad of issues keeping it from being a truly great film.
"Step into my parlour little bat..."
Speaking of those issues, yeah, there's a lot of them alright. I've already covered the continuity problems and the dialogue, so let's look at a few other things that really didn't work. One is Bane, and while I didn't have the drastic issues understanding him that some did, I can see where it would become a problem. However, its not so much the actual speaking as it is what he's saying. To me, the film itself was much like Bane, trying to make interesting observations about class in a commanding yet ultimately incoherent voice. I understand that the filmmakers were trying to make this their "Occupy" film, much like the last had been their "War on Terror" film, but to me they failed at showing anything other than how flimsy and pointless the entire Occupy movement was in the first place. Another issue I had was the need to have everything be bigger than the last one. The Joker wants two boats full of people to blow each other up? Fuck that, Bane's got a nuclear device bitches! This one-upmanship seemed unnecessary to me, since the previous two films were already quite over the top as well. I would have preferred a more grounded finale, but then again that's down to a matter of opinion. Regardless, while its entertaining to be sure, The Dark Knight Rises misses the mark on many occasions and the final 25 minutes don't redeem the first two hours as far as I'm concerned.
"So I actually get paid to be this close to Hathaway? SCORE!!!"
The Dark Knight Rises has already made back its $250 million budget and I'm sure it will continue to do well at the box office despite the tragic events that marred its opening. At the end of the day, I guess that's all that matters, since critical opinion of the film is not going to sway both fanboys or the general populace from going to see it. This review is not meant to chastise the film nor is it my intention to provoke those who loved it, I simply didn't and I felt that it was only fair to voice the concerns I had with it. From my standpoint, this trilogy started out with a bang, continued to burn well in the middle and then fizzled out at the end. That's kind of unfortunate, because I believe The Dark Knight Rises could have been so much more. Perhaps if someone at Warner Brothers had the balls to tell Nolan that he's not the greatest filmmaker ever and that editing is sometimes a good idea, it may very well have been.
6.5/10.
"Next up...what the hell is this?"
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