#1 Frigid watched The Dark Knight Rises.
Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2012 5:42 pm
I went to a 11:30am showing.
Please be aware that spoilers follow:
This is very clearly the last Nolan Batman movie, as he makes brutally clear within the film itself. While one could do further films within the universe I think, it would be a mistake to call them Batman movies. In fact after seeing these movies it may be a mistake to think of these movies as being about Batman. You see, they're about someone else entirely.
Up til now most of the movies have been about Batman or just as commonly his villains with Batman as the opposing force. While in each of those movies we're rooting for the masked crusader, it's the villain's story. They're the ones struggling to achieve goals, the ones with hopes and desires and moving to make it happen. Batman in those stories becomes a force of status quo, moving in with those hopes and desires and the goals they set become dangerous to others and society as a whole. The Nolanverse isn't about that. In movies about Batman, it's about Batman finding the resolve to start, continue or adjust his quest for justice, he either puts on the mask, finds the ability to keep it on or changes to allow others to fight with him. The Nolanverse isn't about that either.
Nolan has made the first set of movies that are about Bruce Wayne and his journey from start to finish. In all 3 movies we have been taken into the mind of Bruce and the sacrifices he makes to become and stay batman. How he cannot stay batman and keep the same ties that rest of us do. How everything that is Bruce Wayne is put on the altar so that The Batman can exist and do his work. And how for Bruce Wayne to live, he'll have to put down the mask. This is Nolan's position and the story he has told through these 3 movies. One can disagree with it, but I feel one cannot ignore it or fail to consider the commitment and artistry with which Nolan has told his story.
This movie is about Bruce's final journey with Batman and moving on. Nolan spends time in this movie making sure we learn completely and totally the price Bruce has paid, from becoming a recluse with little to no social contact out of grief for the loses suffered in The Dark Knight, to the fact that his knees, back and more are worn the fuck out and falling apart. To becoming alienated and distant from Alfred of all people. This is a result of the universe Nolan's Batman inhabits. In the mainstream comic line, Batman has relationships and human connections, with the various Batgirls (of which 2 are sorely missed DC) and Robins, as well as the various other heroes. If nothing else the fact that Superman insist on Bats being social from time to time has helped humanized The Batman. In this universe no such thing exist. The Dark Knight made it clear that The Batman considers his quest a lone one that no one else may share and it has cost him. Without those ties, Bruce has lost much of his humanity and given that he has given up the mask between the movies, he even lost the quest he gave up so much for. He is at the start of this movie literally barren, practically a shell. It takes a combination of Miranda Tate, Bane and Selena Kyle to wake him back up (we'll come back to this in a bit).
As for Bane, while in the comics is not as heavily tied to the League of Shadows (or to the Demonhead), his story and character remain more or less intact (although there is no venom here, a pity). A man born in hell, who seeks to unleash it on the world complete with the false hope he felt everyday. He might claim other goals, but in the end that impels his loyalties, even if he doesn't realize it. He cloaks himself in revolutionary rhetoric, claiming to be bringing the liberation of Gotham, I honestly doubt to many bought into that considered he recruited his police force from a prison for violent offenders. As well as starting his liberation with a 911 style terrorist attack that would have by necessity killed hundreds or more.
The scenes that follow would fit in quiet well as modern retelling of the French Revolution (complete with Jacobin excesses) as well as the lawlessness that follows, instead of the communist rebellions (not to say that there wasn't terror in those but it was of a different sort. While I am sure much political hay will be made of this storyline, I have to honestly say for me the only political statement I found was the one I brought with me. Selena Kyle's speech to Bruce Wayne is honest and heart felt, is more from the bitterness of someone who just wants out to start over then some would be socialist rebel. Bain speeches are a cover for a nihilistic mad man who wants to kill millions and has chosen a road that will let him twist the knife while he does it. If anything, this movie makes the statement that most extreme politics are in the end self serving and self destructive (in a purely political context, we cannot consider The Batman any less an extremist then Bain, after all Nolan took 3 movies to prove that point to us). Miranda Tate's speeches are all about tactical goals (watch the movie). And so it goes. Additionally all of these speeches are ripped away so that true goals and motives behind them can be seen. No lie last forever in this movie.
Going back to Selena Kyle, we see very clearly that all she wants is a do over. She started from a bad place, made bad move after bad move and cannot get away from them. Nor will anyone allow her to forget them. It's that desperate desire and the bitterness of having it denied that drives her. She's the girl who just wants to go away and cannot understand why everyone keeps pulling her back in. It's interesting to me that as long as that desire is frustrated she seems utterly unable of anything but self interest but once it is granted...
Where has The Dark Knight and Batman Begins could frankly exist separately, The Dark Knight Rises could not. Plot points and ties from the last two movies hold up this movie and drive it. Like the Avengers this movie is all about pay off. From the Pact between Gordon and The Batman that gave rise to the lie that allowed them to clean up Gotham, at the cost of both their humanity. Gordon loses his family and more as well here, becoming utterly committed to his job (given that his job isn't solitarily he however doesn't lose all of it and is still able to interact with his fellow human beings). To the League of Shadows and their goal of utterly tearing down Gotham and the life of the Demonhead himself. In this movie, Bruce is literally haunted by the ghosts of his mentor and his past mistakes. How he exorcises these ghosts and makes peace with them is how he finds his way back both literally and figuratively is perhaps the whole turning point of the movie.
Each of the movies had themes running through them and in this one, it's truth. By the end of the movie every lie is laid bare. All the lies told to buy peace and good will in the last movie are stripped away. No matter what that lie was, who told it or why. If this movie has one moral to impart, it is this, all lies eventually come crashing down. All falsehoods decay. Sooner or later the truth emerges, even if no one cares to admit it.
This movie is the end of The Batman, there may be a Batman after this but never The Batman. That said, this movie is also the rebirth of Bruce Wayne. Frankly I have to give Nolan respect for being daring enough to tell the whole story of Bruce Wayne from start to finish. This is a story that the comic industry has flirted with telling from time to time, a story that was perhaps most famously told in Batman Beyond. But Nolan was willing to do it without reservation.
Which leads me to what was for me frankly the weakest part of the movie. That being the relationship between Officer John Blake and Batman. This isn't a problem with the actor or even the idea of Batman getting buddy, buddy with a cop. It's the fact that the mentor/protege relationship doesn't ring true, there simply isn't time for it. There are touching moments where they are brought close by shared experiences and goals, there a perhaps 2 or 3 moments of lessons taught but frankly Nolan wants me to believe that Blake (legal name Robin) is capable of putting on the cowl without showing me that he has the skills. And after ensuring that he won't have the resources. While Blake has the spirit and the drive, that's frankly not enough. Why is okay for Blake and not the men in the 2nd movie? Because he and Bruce are on a name basis? What, only people with dead parents can be Batman? Bruce had to train with bloody ninjas before he had the physical capability to be Batman. Blake is in great shape but he's not up to fighting 6 men at once. He barely took on two when he had a gun! In short this part falls flat for me.
Despite that, I still give Dark Knight Rises an A. It is a well done story willing to embrace the it's own logic and themes and follow through. It is a good and well done ending to Nolan's Batman and I encourage everyone to go see it.
Please be aware that spoilers follow:
This is very clearly the last Nolan Batman movie, as he makes brutally clear within the film itself. While one could do further films within the universe I think, it would be a mistake to call them Batman movies. In fact after seeing these movies it may be a mistake to think of these movies as being about Batman. You see, they're about someone else entirely.
Up til now most of the movies have been about Batman or just as commonly his villains with Batman as the opposing force. While in each of those movies we're rooting for the masked crusader, it's the villain's story. They're the ones struggling to achieve goals, the ones with hopes and desires and moving to make it happen. Batman in those stories becomes a force of status quo, moving in with those hopes and desires and the goals they set become dangerous to others and society as a whole. The Nolanverse isn't about that. In movies about Batman, it's about Batman finding the resolve to start, continue or adjust his quest for justice, he either puts on the mask, finds the ability to keep it on or changes to allow others to fight with him. The Nolanverse isn't about that either.
Nolan has made the first set of movies that are about Bruce Wayne and his journey from start to finish. In all 3 movies we have been taken into the mind of Bruce and the sacrifices he makes to become and stay batman. How he cannot stay batman and keep the same ties that rest of us do. How everything that is Bruce Wayne is put on the altar so that The Batman can exist and do his work. And how for Bruce Wayne to live, he'll have to put down the mask. This is Nolan's position and the story he has told through these 3 movies. One can disagree with it, but I feel one cannot ignore it or fail to consider the commitment and artistry with which Nolan has told his story.
This movie is about Bruce's final journey with Batman and moving on. Nolan spends time in this movie making sure we learn completely and totally the price Bruce has paid, from becoming a recluse with little to no social contact out of grief for the loses suffered in The Dark Knight, to the fact that his knees, back and more are worn the fuck out and falling apart. To becoming alienated and distant from Alfred of all people. This is a result of the universe Nolan's Batman inhabits. In the mainstream comic line, Batman has relationships and human connections, with the various Batgirls (of which 2 are sorely missed DC) and Robins, as well as the various other heroes. If nothing else the fact that Superman insist on Bats being social from time to time has helped humanized The Batman. In this universe no such thing exist. The Dark Knight made it clear that The Batman considers his quest a lone one that no one else may share and it has cost him. Without those ties, Bruce has lost much of his humanity and given that he has given up the mask between the movies, he even lost the quest he gave up so much for. He is at the start of this movie literally barren, practically a shell. It takes a combination of Miranda Tate, Bane and Selena Kyle to wake him back up (we'll come back to this in a bit).
As for Bane, while in the comics is not as heavily tied to the League of Shadows (or to the Demonhead), his story and character remain more or less intact (although there is no venom here, a pity). A man born in hell, who seeks to unleash it on the world complete with the false hope he felt everyday. He might claim other goals, but in the end that impels his loyalties, even if he doesn't realize it. He cloaks himself in revolutionary rhetoric, claiming to be bringing the liberation of Gotham, I honestly doubt to many bought into that considered he recruited his police force from a prison for violent offenders. As well as starting his liberation with a 911 style terrorist attack that would have by necessity killed hundreds or more.
The scenes that follow would fit in quiet well as modern retelling of the French Revolution (complete with Jacobin excesses) as well as the lawlessness that follows, instead of the communist rebellions (not to say that there wasn't terror in those but it was of a different sort. While I am sure much political hay will be made of this storyline, I have to honestly say for me the only political statement I found was the one I brought with me. Selena Kyle's speech to Bruce Wayne is honest and heart felt, is more from the bitterness of someone who just wants out to start over then some would be socialist rebel. Bain speeches are a cover for a nihilistic mad man who wants to kill millions and has chosen a road that will let him twist the knife while he does it. If anything, this movie makes the statement that most extreme politics are in the end self serving and self destructive (in a purely political context, we cannot consider The Batman any less an extremist then Bain, after all Nolan took 3 movies to prove that point to us). Miranda Tate's speeches are all about tactical goals (watch the movie). And so it goes. Additionally all of these speeches are ripped away so that true goals and motives behind them can be seen. No lie last forever in this movie.
Going back to Selena Kyle, we see very clearly that all she wants is a do over. She started from a bad place, made bad move after bad move and cannot get away from them. Nor will anyone allow her to forget them. It's that desperate desire and the bitterness of having it denied that drives her. She's the girl who just wants to go away and cannot understand why everyone keeps pulling her back in. It's interesting to me that as long as that desire is frustrated she seems utterly unable of anything but self interest but once it is granted...
Where has The Dark Knight and Batman Begins could frankly exist separately, The Dark Knight Rises could not. Plot points and ties from the last two movies hold up this movie and drive it. Like the Avengers this movie is all about pay off. From the Pact between Gordon and The Batman that gave rise to the lie that allowed them to clean up Gotham, at the cost of both their humanity. Gordon loses his family and more as well here, becoming utterly committed to his job (given that his job isn't solitarily he however doesn't lose all of it and is still able to interact with his fellow human beings). To the League of Shadows and their goal of utterly tearing down Gotham and the life of the Demonhead himself. In this movie, Bruce is literally haunted by the ghosts of his mentor and his past mistakes. How he exorcises these ghosts and makes peace with them is how he finds his way back both literally and figuratively is perhaps the whole turning point of the movie.
Each of the movies had themes running through them and in this one, it's truth. By the end of the movie every lie is laid bare. All the lies told to buy peace and good will in the last movie are stripped away. No matter what that lie was, who told it or why. If this movie has one moral to impart, it is this, all lies eventually come crashing down. All falsehoods decay. Sooner or later the truth emerges, even if no one cares to admit it.
This movie is the end of The Batman, there may be a Batman after this but never The Batman. That said, this movie is also the rebirth of Bruce Wayne. Frankly I have to give Nolan respect for being daring enough to tell the whole story of Bruce Wayne from start to finish. This is a story that the comic industry has flirted with telling from time to time, a story that was perhaps most famously told in Batman Beyond. But Nolan was willing to do it without reservation.
Which leads me to what was for me frankly the weakest part of the movie. That being the relationship between Officer John Blake and Batman. This isn't a problem with the actor or even the idea of Batman getting buddy, buddy with a cop. It's the fact that the mentor/protege relationship doesn't ring true, there simply isn't time for it. There are touching moments where they are brought close by shared experiences and goals, there a perhaps 2 or 3 moments of lessons taught but frankly Nolan wants me to believe that Blake (legal name Robin) is capable of putting on the cowl without showing me that he has the skills. And after ensuring that he won't have the resources. While Blake has the spirit and the drive, that's frankly not enough. Why is okay for Blake and not the men in the 2nd movie? Because he and Bruce are on a name basis? What, only people with dead parents can be Batman? Bruce had to train with bloody ninjas before he had the physical capability to be Batman. Blake is in great shape but he's not up to fighting 6 men at once. He barely took on two when he had a gun! In short this part falls flat for me.
Despite that, I still give Dark Knight Rises an A. It is a well done story willing to embrace the it's own logic and themes and follow through. It is a good and well done ending to Nolan's Batman and I encourage everyone to go see it.
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