At the Theater - The Dark Knight Rises - Picking up eight years after the events of The Dark Knight, this supposed last film in Christopher Nolan's Batman Trilogy is equal parts awesome spectacle and over-plotted, pretentious bloat- it's an O.K. film that could have been great if Director/Co-writer Nolan would have re-visited the art of restraint. I firmly believe that this film should have been rearranged/re-cut and split into two parts, the first part ending in a grim cliffhanger fashion (similar to The Empire Strikes Back) with the finale being released several months to a year later- it would have solved a myriad of pacing/timeline issues and broken up the tedium of so many momentum-killing sub-plots.
Nolan's heavy-handed approach to the Caped Crusader has promised a determination to ground itself in realism, yet he has apparently worked diligently to suffocate his story-lines with overstuffed plots, logic-shredding contrivance and a few too many secondary characters (many of them unnecessary); all problems that I felt marred other Nolan films like The Dark Knight (to a lesser extent, and held together by Ledger's performance), Inception and The Prestige. I think he's a very good Director who is far too overconfident as a writer- he's just nowhere near as crafty as he thinks he is. Batman Begins is the shortest/leanest entry of this particular trilogy (140 minutes)- it's also the most fun and overall entertaining of the three. The Dark Knight Rises is approximately 164 minutes long, with about 25 minutes of that being expendable.
There's admittedly a few scenes of grand, high-flying action, though they're unable to fully ignite and sustain any kind of story momentum because too many other things are going on simultaneously- I think George Lucas started this whole mess with the last act of Return Of The Jedi (it later plagued his Star Wars Prequels)...
Hans Zimmer's thunderous score is a very good creative piece of work yet technically over-utilized and highly-problematic when it comes to the sound mix- it often drowns out the dialogue and you may find yourself hearing quite a few fellow movie-goers whispering, "What did he just say?" - It's a serious flaw that seems to be a universal complaint even amongst those that have loved this film. Be forewarned- even I was wishing for subtitles to English dialogue...
Christian Bale continues his excellent turn as Bruce Wayne. The guttural growl that his Batman has displayed (and has subsequently drawn much ridicule) is still present, but at a minimum. There's a serious injury that his character suffers in this film- some may find the rather crude treatment/rehab to be laughably inadequate. I still don't care for this Samurai/X-Games Biker inspired Bat-suit he is wearing once again (the suit in Batman Begins was superior)- it's just too damned cluttered and gaudy for my tastes. Then again, there's an argument to be made that there's actually very little of the suited Batman character in TDKR at all...
Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle/"The Cat" (not once is she referred to as "Catwoman" here) steals the show outright- she's appropriately sexy and playful, with a few great one-liners. That said, I'm not so sure she unseats Michelle Pfeiffer's oh-so-sexy turn in Batman Returns... perhaps it was Hathaway's decidedly bland costume. I have a feeling we may be seeing a spin-off with her character... here's to hoping Pitof doesn't Direct it...
Tom Hardy (Inception, RocknRolla, Warrior and the future "Mad Max" Rockatansky in Fury Road) bulked up something fierce to play "Bane" here- it's something I felt the actor had to do to make up for his relative lack of height (Hardy's listed as 5'10", Bale 6'). I'm still not quite sure that it was necessary to cast him here (Nolan's familiarity with Hardy, Cotillard and Gordon-Levitt from the Inception shoot surely helped them all land roles), as his acting talents are rather wasted; "Bane's" electronically amplified voice comes across as a little awkward and some may have a hard time understanding snippets of his dialogue- again, the overbearing score is partially to blame while not being able to see his mouth/lips (due to his pain-alleviating mask) doesn't help matters. I'm positive that there's a number of huge, athletic pro-wrestlers/athletes available that could have pulled off the role with equal success. It's obviously an entirely different role in nature than that of Heath Ledger's "Joker" in TDK; there's an undeniable presence in "Bane"/Hardy, but the performance is nowhere near as mesmerizing and never carries the film as Ledger's did in the previous entry.
There is no reference to "The Joker" in this movie whatsoever- it's obviously intended but unappreciated and could be understandably looked upon as one amongst a myriad of plot holes given the storyline. Cillian Murphy makes a couple of brief, unmasked appearances as "The Scarecrow" while Liam Neeson's "Ra's Al Ghul" shows up as a ghostly memory.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Inception, (500) Days of Summer) is serviceable in a pivotal role as an honest cop with a dynamic character arc. I understood the intentions here (regarding his character), but couldn't buy into it's execution. Gary Oldman is still in top form as "Commissioner Gordon" and has quite a bit to do throughout. Morgan Freeman returns as "Lucious Fox" in several brief scenes while Marion Cotillard (Inception, La vie en rose) is "Bruce Wayne's" love interest harboring a dark secret of her own- she's solid in limited screentime. Michael Caine (one of my all-time favorite actors) is very good in a few small, but poignant appearances as "Alfred"- I've always had the utmost respect for the actor and fear his age may begin to limit his future screen appearances. Other notable actors include; Matthew Modine (Full Metal Jacket), Daniel Sunjata (FX's Rescue Me), Aidan Gillen (Blitz), Ben Mendelsohn (Animal Kingdom) and Juno Temple (Atonement).
Some of my many complaints: There's an unforgivably stupid segment in which a shoulder-to-shoulder horde of heavily armed cops rushes to meet a (yes, shoulder-to-shoulder) horde of heavily armed thugs in the middle of a barren Gotham intersection that simply boggles the mind- so much for Guerrilla Warfare... or realism.
One of the issues I've always had with the "Batman" character is his unwillingness to dish out a bit of lethal justice when a golden opportunity presents itself- he could have saved hundreds, if not thousands, of lives had he not laid the "Bat-Pod" down when he had "The Joker" in his sights in TDK- there's a similar scene of wasted opportunity here involving "Bane" that's painfully out of touch. Thankfully, "Selina Kyle"/"The Cat" doesn't share his stance on the matter (it's a very cool crowd-pleasing moment that the film desperately needed more of).
In the eight years since "Harvey Dent" died and "Batman" disappeared, Gotham has somehow miraculously rid the city of major crime with the passage of the "Dent Act"- that must have been one hellatious piece of legislature that replaced a dead D.A. and a missing Crimefighter.... why were they even necessary in the first place?
A segment involving Gordon-Levitt's character and school bus full of underprivileged kids trying to pass through an armed barricade should have been left on the cutting room floor. It's a tedius subplot, to say the least, and only helps to destroy any kind of momentum that the film has garnered through other, more impactful proceedings.
I guess it's not really a spoiler, but this particular trilogy ends without any mention of "The Penguin", "The Riddler", "Poison Ivy", "Mr. Freeze", "Killer Croc", etc.,- that's somewhat disappointing. I'd love to see Joss Whedon, Guillermo Del Toro or James Cameron tackle the character of "Batman" next, possibly infusing a bit more fun into the matter and shying away from the self-seriousness the Nolan films have established.
Lastly, and probably most importantly- "Bane" and his army of henchman seal off Gotham City from the outside world and hold it's citizens hostage under threats of detonating an already ticking fusion bomb for a period of about 5 months- making no monetary demands and with apparently no means of escape, why not detonate the bomb immediately? Why wait 5 months for the bomb to reach it's meltdown? Think about it.
Things I liked: A first-half sequence involving our hero getting back into uniform and "flying" back into action in an attempt to thwart a Stock Exchange heist is admittedly heart-lifting but ultimately anti-climactic. "The Bat" is pretty damned cool.
The effects work is razor sharp; there's a relatively small amount of evident CGI - that's commendable in my book. Most of the action appears to be done with an excellent mixture of models/miniatures, stunt-work and life-sized props with an number of impressive set pieces as backdrops. The film never looks bad.
The initial mano a mano confrontation between "Batman" and "Bane" is very well filmed and choreographed- for the most part, Nolan has addressed the spastic editing and shaky-cam approach that marred the hand-to-hand fight scenes of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Needless to say, it was appreciated.
A series of parting, conclusive shots will undoubtedly leave a smile on your face- for myself, it was far too little and far too late. In my opinion, the best Comic-Book movie of 2012 (by far) was released in May...
The Dark Knight Rises - 6.0
FWIW-
Batman Begins- 8.5
The Dark Knight- 8.0
Other Christopher Nolan films-
Memento- 8.5
Insomnia- 8.0
Inception- 6.0
The Prestige- 5.5
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