The Dark Knight Rises Indeed

I am going to make an incendiary statement. The Dark Knight Rises was a better movie than The Dark Knight. #unpopularopinion


Spoilers and reasons after the jump..


"Why?" you might ask. I'm trying to be absolutely honest here. No disrespect to Heath Ledger's Joker, this isn't going to be an analysis of his acting or anything even close to that. This is going to look more at the plot and characters.

But I guess I do have to talk about The Dark Knight and in conjunction talk about Heath Ledger's Joker just a little bit. So. The Joker has always been a little flamboyant, mischievous...insane. But he was never so out there that you didn't feel some sort of connection to the character, whether it was hatred or understanding or even love (I don't know...I suppose people can feel that way toward a villain...?). The one line that people always use to talk about Ledger's Joker is that he 'just wants to see the world burn.' This concept of utter chaos, of complete anarchy is something that I myself don't understand. I never understood the appeal of a world with absolute no rhyme or reason. As someone who puts a lot of stock into common sense, a world with some sort of structure makes sense to me. He blows up a hospital, he takes people hostage, he plays out a morality riddle, but for what purpose? Just to show that he can? He burns the money, so you know that it isn't a monetary reason. The appeal of this lawlessness, I just can't understand.

So. I watched The Dark Knight. And it was a fantabulous movie. With fantabulous actors in all the roles (except maybe Maggie Gyllenhaal but...that's for a different post). Heath Ledger was unrecognizable as the Joker, immersing himself to the point of complete believability. But if you think about the character of Joker, you could argue that The Dark Knight was less a super-hero movie, but in fact, a horror-thriller akin to the likes of the Saw movies. Which, I don't know about you, was not what I signed up for when I walked into the theater. It was a more brutal film than any superhero movie that I ever saw; Joker's 'magic trick' of making the pencil disappear...into a man's eye, comes immediately to mind. The corpses hanging right and left, Dent and Dawes getting kidnapped and placed in a room full of gasoline, Batman having to choose between them and ultimately choosing the wrong one...how is that not a Saw plot? It was a great set up but was unfinished in story...obviously. (And there is the death of the tumbler aka the batmobile that I will never forgive Nolan for but again...that's a different post).

But I digress. The basic point that I'm trying to make is that while the Joker, Ledger's Joker, is the ultimate villain and will be remembered as the standard to which all other villains are held, he was too much for me. Too out there, too crazy, too unsympathetic. His character held nothing for me to feel any emotion for him whatsoever. His mental state was too alien to me. I couldn't even feel repulsion for him, or hatred. I just felt like he was there. And he was doing things. And that was it. Just to antagonize Batman. And I just felt like I was sitting through the whole movie going 'Why? Am I missing something here?' Batman was just a footnote on a movie that, I felt, was devoted to the villain. I can't even remember what Batman did, other than play to the tune of the Joker for an hour and a half, and then for the last 10 minutes saving Gordon's family. Not even from the Joker, but from Dent. The Joker was defeated, again, for what reason, I have no idea. And Dent was killed. Was it even a movie about Batman? The main characters for me were Dent and the Joker. Bruce gets angsty about Rachel then saves the hostages, and then becomes the next 'villain' and blah blah....I don't even know, I'm bored already.

Okay, it seems like I'm getting more brutal as I go along trying to critique this movie. I do actually really like the movie. It's a solid addition to the trilogy and has some stand out moments, i.e. Joker and Batman's showdowns. But I wouldn't see it again. I never actually have seen it again. It just rubs me the wrong way and maybe that's what does make it a great movie. Because it makes you think. But then again, I'm sitting here going, think about what? Is Nolan making this ultimate statement that chaos is bad? That, we as humans need some form of order? If that's the case, he isn't making a very clear statement. Sure, Joker is defeated, but he's had a very large amount of screen-time. His defeat only comes in the very last moments.

On the other hand, The Dark Knight Rises had a clearer story line. There was a reason behind the action. I didn't feel like the plot was meandering along this extremely slow and winding path. Bane came to finish what Ra's al Ghul started and basically was going to blow Gotham to kingdom come. Batman had to stop him. And Bane's strategy to do so, was pretty genius to me. Get rid of the Mayor, trap the police, blow the bridges, prevent military help from the outside, let out the prisoners to join his twisted army and get rid of the Batman by bankrupting him, injuring him and throwing him into a hole. Under the guise of a 'revolution' he makes sure to keep a semblance of order for five months, waiting for the bomb to explode. Instead of turning on him (not that anyone could), everyone would be too busy taking the law into their own hands and condemning the 1% to death. People run scared, they hole up and not do a thing hoping that if they keep their head down and imagine that it'll all go away, they'll get out of the crisis alive. It's an amazing plan, one that keeps right in line with Bane's love of giving just a little hope so that his victims know true despair.

And then comes Talia aka Miranda Tate, who for the whole time I knew was a bad guy. And every time Bruce would trust her I would go NO BRUCE DON'T DO IT in my head. I ended up really not liking her in the end, which was good. That's how the villain is supposed to work. I actually ended up feeling more sympathy for Bane in the five minutes of backstory that I got rather than Talia.

I guess what really confused me about this particular movie is again...the reason behind the action. Talia said she didn't even like her father until Batman killed him. But why? I mean if you don't like your father, what does it matter if he's dead or not. You still don't like him. How does his death change anything? Why would you continue his 'work' if you didn't even believe in it as much as he did? I can understand Bane's reasons, he loved her, he would do anything for her, he was at the most base level, a thug for her. But I don't understand her reasoning, unless, it's like what Bruce says, you don't know how much you miss something until it's gone. But that still doesn't justify her blowing up 6 miles of city.

A little intermission to talk about how much Tom Hardy rocked his role of Bane. The physical aspect he had down, but he could convey a lot with just his eyes. I mean how difficult is it to act while most of your face is covered? And the way he changed his voice for the role (I mean before they put it through all the filters) because he made it deeper and changed his accent to something that totally fit the character of Bane. It kinda reminded me of Sean Connery. His voice had a lot of presence (which is why I thought of Sean Connery). When Talia is talking about how he was her protector, I mean you could see it in his eyes, how much he loved her. And when you see the flashback scenes, those cement your sympathy with Bane forever, just by the looks on his face. He doesn't even utter one word, but you already feel sorry for him.

Bale as Bruce was still great. Bruce Wayne's problems actually make a lot of sense. His physical afflictions as well as his financial ones. I still don't like Bale's Batman voice. It just makes me cringe, but he wasn't Batman for very long in this one. And for those people crying out about how he wasn't Batman for very long and how this is supposed to be a Batman movie...he wasn't Batman for very long in The Dark Knight either. In fact, I could argue that while he might be Batman for less in this movie, this movie is more about Batman and what Batman stands for rather than The Dark Knight, which was more about trying to reconcile this Batman persona with Bruce Wayne. I felt that while he was "Bruce Wayne" more in this film, you could see how Bruce Wayne and Batman have almost become synonymous with each other. There is no clear divide between the two. When he comes out of the "Bat" and takes his cowl off without taking off his suit and sits himself down in front of the computer to do something, he has truly become one with well...himself. His time in the prison shows how much Batman and Bruce Wayne are the same. There is no separation anymore. His goals and Batman's goals have always been the same (Obviously, they are the same person), but he does feats of agility and strength without his suit as well. In TDK, he was trying to keep the two separate. He was still playing the billionaire playboy in the fast car and tailored suit. In TDKR, he has become that recluse and extremely private person, the person he truly is, without a care of what people think. What I'm trying to say is, Bruce Wayne's screentime is also Batman's screentime. Those two cannot be separate.

Anyway, Bruce is actually funnier in this movie. It's less pessimistic and angsty, and he's a lot more human rather than a huge ball of angst and emotion. Selina Kyle has a lot to do with that I suppose. I liked Anne Hathaway as Catwoman, rather a lot. Her first scene was what really sells her. She goes up as a scared server, "startled" at the appearance of the bearded and crippled Bruce Wayne and when he calls her out on her thievery, she changes her persona instantly. It was like...I don't know...watching someone with multiple personalities change at a drop of a hat. Her eyes drop into a uninterested gaze, her whole body posture changes, her lips curl into a sneer and then she drops him like well...like a sack of potatoes. I didn't think Hathaway could pull of a mean girl, or a femme fatale, but she does it extremely well. She can pull off a coy almost pent up hiss of venom that has real menace in it. And she can act like nobody's business. When she's manipulating the police that pull into the bar, it startled me when she started screaming as if someone had shot her.

And you can understand why Batman is smitten. She's not 'sexy', she may be wearing a skin tight catsuit and stilettos but she is not sexy. I never got that vibe from her. The vibe I got was strength. She is strong, she can take down men twice her size. She uses those stilettos as weapons, like when she kicked that one guy in the crotch...(I winced for him because...that looked like it was painful as hell). She may saunter her way through life but I never for one second said to myself, oh she's just eyecandy, or oh she's just a "strong" female character who kicks butt but has no depth. She was complicated, and sympathetic, and strong and had weaknesses, and was what a real woman would be...if you know...real women could take down 20 armed men on a regular basis and can pilot the Batpod. (I mean did you see her manipulate that thing? It was freaking cool...but I love the Batpod anyway...I love how it turns...the whole wheel turns...IT WORKS IN REAL LIFE RIGHT?)

A problem I did have was the roommate she had. I mean...it was sort of a random addition of this extra girl...who I didn't know who she was at all character-wise (I mean I know she's Juno Temple). I don't know why she was included in the cast, like what purpose her character had in furthering the plot. I feel like Chris Nolan just wanted to work with her so he just...added her in which he did a lot...because this brings up my next semi-problem of how many cameos were in the film. It was like playing can you spot the famous person. Maybe it's just me...because I spend way too much time on the computer and watching TV and making it a point to know actors but I can tell who people are. There was a cop who was played by the actor from Blue Bloods (he plays a cop there too), and a member of Bane's army from Stargate SG-1 who played an alien for like 12 seasons, and Cillian Murphy came back as Dr. Crane...even though he was like burned in Batman Begins...and didn't have any burn marks in this one. And Liam Neeson was back for a hallucination scene. That one guy from the TV show Torchwood was there, so was Daniel Sunjata who's been in Grey's Anatomy for the longest time. And he uses the same actors over and over again. Like Cillian Murphy and Tom Hardy. Why doesn't he give other actors a chance? Only person he didn't include in this go around was Leo DiCaprio and Ellen Page. I'm surprised he gave that bit role to Juno Temple and not Ellen Page. Then just add DiCaprio as a random police officer and he could have a Inception reunion.

I feel like John Blake makes this movie. He makes it. You know why? Because he is the heart of the movie. He is the one thing that TDK didn't have. TDK didn't have heart. (They tried to make Rachel the heart and they failed...monumentally.) And I'm being absolutely objective here. I'm trying very hard to keep my feelings about JGL out of this, even though it was brilliantly acted by JGL. ANYWAY. John Blake and Bruce Wayne are very similar when it comes to tragedy and how they decide to act upon tragedy. They both decided (Bruce took longer than John did) that they wanted to fight crime. But Bruce is cynical, a 'realist'. He's angry and that anger has made him brutal. When he was younger, he had no qualms about killing a man. When he gets older and becomes Batman, while he doesn't kill anymore if he can help it, if he does, he's not going to lose sleep about it at night. John Blake is totally different in that aspect. He still holds on to hope and goodness. When he kills that man, the look of horror that crosses his face at what he's done, how he drops the gun in shock, how he needs a moment to collect himself before being able to continue on to the task at hand. That is different from Bruce. Bruce doesn't exactly care if he dies. Blake doesn't want to die, the look on his face as a gun is placed to his head is not one of calm resignation to his fate, but a cringing one of fear. He's the one Bruce puts in charge of trying to get people out. Bruce can see the potential in him, that maybe John would be a better Batman than Bruce because he still holds onto hope and does all he can to help people. He is protecting people without the mask, fancy gadgets and money. Doing the best he can in a corrupt system, with the only resources he has. He has less darkness than Bruce, less angst. And if he takes the mantle of Batman, well...no one better for the job. (And hopefully he won't have a ridiculous voice like Bruce...and I really hope they continue with JGL as Nightwing or something...because I think he would be a freaking awesome Nightwing.)

Commissioner Gordon, oh Commissioner Gordon. My love for you is partly because of my love for Gary Oldman. But there is something about your dogged persistence and determination that makes you one of my favorite characters. I just felt so bad for him the entire movie. He did something he thought was right which just turns around to bite him on the ass and he does everything in his power to right that wrong. I'm glad he didn't die in the end. That would have been horrible, I was actually waiting for him to die or something, thinking he couldn't make it through all three movies. He's pretty much a BAMF through the trilogy, and has an understated presence that is perfect for the downtrodden Gordon.

And then there was Alfred. I kinda felt like he was given the short end of the stick for this movie. Or at least Michael Caine did. He basically cried throughout the whole thing. And while his little speech at the end made me tear up a little, the rest just annoyed me. I mean I can understand why, because he truly cares for Bruce, but I wanted him to get mad instead of just crying all the time. I guess leaving was a big thing but eh...I don't know. I mean he got what he wanted in the end right? Bruce living a happy life with a wife. I don't know. I don't have much to say about him I suppose. (I hope if they make a Nightwing movie that he stays on with Blake...Hey, a girl can dream).

Okay, a little paragraph devoted to the tech of Batman. I always love Batman tech...and while this one is a little light on gadgets...I have so much love for the Bat I'm not even kidding. Not as much as the tumbler but it's still freaking cool. I mean it FLIES. AND THE ROTORS ARE ON THE UNDERBELLY AND ARE CONTAINED. FREAKING WHAT? I MEAN THIS SHOULD BE ABLE TO BE FUNCTIONAL...BECAUSE I SAID SO. I don't know, I love it. And the Batpod...I mean I still freak out over that thing.

Other little things: The action was pretty cool. I mean all those police officers running at Bane's army? That sent a chill up my spine. And then the whole extraction scene of Dr. Pawel was freaking cool. I think that was probably the coolest sequence in the whole movie. And Catwoman kicked ass. And how perfect was it that she saved him from Bane? I mean really...Batman wasn't doing so well against Bane but then Bane went and put him in that hole and Batman found out his weakness...which was kinda dumb of Bane...But Selina went and blasted him through the door. So ultimately she saved Batman from a sticky end. I didn't really like how when Batman is pulling along the bomb he is like hitting it on all kinds of things...and it doesn't detonate. How is that believable? And like...you can't be a little more careful with the thing? It is a nuclear weapon. And then the whole nuclear weapon-sacrificing yourself and "green" energy subplots reminded me a lot of The Avengers. And then made me think of Tony Stark/Bruce Wayne parallels. Which is interesting but then made me wonder who came out with those plot points first...And the dialogue was less than stellar. Bane's dialogue was pretty good, Batman's dialogue sucked a lot for some reason. Maybe it's just the way Christian Bale says it...Or maybe it's the way that it's written. The dialogue is always better for the villains for some reason, rather than Batman himself. Batman should just...never speak. Bruce Wayne has a little better dialogue but not by much.

ANYWAY. This was a long post and if you have made it to the end then I congratulate you because it was a lot of me just ranting and raving. I hope I made my reasons clear...because I feel like I've been all over the place with this post.