TDKR
The Dark Knight Rises is a very good film. This is not a compliment.
(No, really. If you have any intention at all to watch this film and haven't yet, don't read).
It's not a compliment because after The Dark Knight, I expected it to be nothing less than stellar. To point out my reaction to TDK - the first time I watched it was at work (I know, I know). I was QAing two passes, doing the two research-heavy passes, and pausing every five seconds because of it. It took me more than 7 hours to finish, on a tiny screen, in a strongly-lit room, with loads of distractions and the fact I had to multitask and was on a deadline. Oh, and I haven't watched Batman Begins before. I ended up saying "WOW that was a good film!" (trust me: it's much harder to appreciate films when you've dissected them that way. Any film you finish watching like that and still can appreciate is a good film).
I still don't think though I had bloated expectations - what it did it did very well, it just went in a completely different direction than I thought it would... and I don't think that direction did the film a lot of favours.
One thing that was absolutely obvious: Christopher Nolan was too busy doing his epic ending for his talked-about, critics-darling, superlative-filled trilogy and not busy enough doing another Batman film. Because in the end, this is my biggest problem with the film - it doesn't feel like it continues the same line that guided the two previous films.
The Dark Knight explored Batman from two angles: the first that he was the one who created people like the Joker (who in turn created Two-face), and the second that Bruce Wayne has lost everything that made him a human being and was completely lost inside his Batman persona - unless I'm much mistaken, there isn't a single moment in the film in which Bruce Wayne does anything that is not related in some way to what Batman is doing.
In that regards, the opening point of TDKR is wonderful. The Batman hasn't been seen for eight years, and Bruce Wayne is a recluse billionaire. More than that - the first time you see him, he walks with a cane. At first I thought it was some act he's pulling (perhaps to excuse being a recluse) but then they make it obvious that it isn't - he might have been retired for eight years, but being Batman has taken its toll. He's pretty much ruined his body fighting criminals.
And then Bane shows up and he puts on the Batsuit again, and all of a sudden he wakes up back to life and it's exactly what TDK pointed out. Except that this time we already know what the price is so it's not "oooh cool Batman!" it's "Bruce you numpty!". Which is what Alfred is trying to tell him (Oh, Alfred ♥. The one thing I have no complaints about is Alfred! He was marvellous.)
Don't get me wrong, when he comes back as Batman it's definitely a gleeful moment - and very well written as such. You've got an old cop and a new cop, who's too young to have been in the force when Batman was around last time. So they're chasing Bane and his goons, and all of a sudden the lights in the tunnel are shut off and you sort of see something passes (the Batpod) and the old cop sort of sees it too, and then he's like "No way..." and when he sees it again it's all "You're in for a treat, kid."... A few minutes later and the young cop sort-of accidentally shoots at Batman, who just gives him a "Really?" look and the young cop goes all "Erm. Sorry." GLEE! Same with how the chase after Bane becomes then a chase after Batman.
Anyway. Things happen. Alfred and Bruce have a row and Alfred leaves :(. Bruce still doesn't wake up and goes to meet Bane to fight with him. Bane beats up him to a pulp, breaks his back, and throws him into a pit no one can escape from on the other side of the world, with a TV to show him how he destroys Gotham.
... and that's when the problems start. Because the solution for that is obvious. The pit is rigged as to be impossible to climb, but to appear as if it's not impossible, and so to give the prisoners false hope that they COULD escape. But there is a story! Of a child! Who managed to escape! And Bruce takes five months to recover his body! And he attempts to escape! And then he fails! And then things happen in Gotham! And Bruce is angry! And he attempts to escape! And then he fails! And then the Wise Old Man teaches his Life Lessons About Fear! And then Bruce tries to escape! And then he - succeeds (cue dramatic music. No, seriously. The music in this scene is brilliant - they combine the Batman theme with the Bane theme for that climb and it's a very gleeful moment when you watch it even though it's very obviously manipulative, but the music saves it.)
...And then he returns to Gotham, which has been under Bane's terror for five months and locked out from the rest of the world and there's a nuclear bomb about to go off (?!) and Jim Gordon is running an ineffective underground and they're all gonna die and there's one more day and then Batman comes to save them all! Another great image, that was. Honestly - Crane finally catches Jim Gordon and sentences his to execution, and then Batman of course comes to save him in the last minute, then there's one of those petrol trails that ends up with a huge burning Bat sign on a building and the Batman theme goes up a notch you go wheee whether you like to or not.
Except... Bruce's health problems are all of a sudden gone, and all you need is Batman to save Gotham city after 5 months of being terrorised by Bane. HUH?! I don't really mind plotholes, esp. not in superheroes films. For those who remember my Avengers comments - there's a whole hour in the film where the plot MAKES NO SENSE and it didn't stop me from being gleeful and squeeish nonetheless. I don't care that Bruce managed to - somehow - get from Asia to Gotham City in like 2 hours. I don't care that he then knows the clock is ticking and still wastes his time making a huge burning bat on a building. I don't care that I'm expected to believe the US government would have allowed Bane to hold a whole city ransom for 5 months. I don't care about a number of other things that make no bloody sense whatsoever. I do care that because Gotham needs him, Bruce's body is no longer completely and utterly broken, and I do care there's a huge "oh! happy ending! Batman saved Gotham!" feel to it. It goes against the grain of the best of this series - that Batman tries to save Gotham but this isn't going to work (see: his presence has created people the Joker) and the price Bruce has to pay.
Because it's not enough that all of a sudden his back is fine and his legs are fine and he can just come whooping in and save them all. He also ends up faking his own death, getting a statue in Gotham city, and retiring with Catwoman. (How does that work, also? Bruce is broke and she never had any money! What are they doing as tourists in Florence?!). He gets it all, the ultimate happy ending. Which is... very clearly the ending of an epic trilogy (with a record amount of callbacks, seriously. Harry Potter 7.5 didn't have as many callbacks as this one!) and completely ignores what the two previous films have actually said. Nolan forgot that he also had a message in the previous films. And that was what made TDK such a great film - it was exactly these points about the price of being Batman, what they failed so much to do with the terrible Watchmen adaptation, and Nolan did right. And now he threw it all away.
Oh, yes. Bruce's fake death. He flies the atom bomb to the sea and pretends he doesn't have an autopilot so he has to sacrifice himself. Of course, he only fakes his death, he fixed the autopilot ages ago. It's better than an ending in which he WOULD have died sacrificing himself heroically for the city (because, I mean, really?) BUT... I still think a much truer ending for the character would have been for him to die alone, friendless, physically and mentally broken, in a hellish pit of doom, and watching his beloved city burn on television. Yes, I'm evil that way... but this is the direction Nolan had taken the character up until THAT point and I'm slightly annoyed he didn't follow it through. You may have noticed my slight annoyance. I am glad he ended up with Selina though. If we had to go with ending #2, at least he gets to be a rich tourist with a cool girl and actually live the pretence he's been acting as Bruce Wayne :)
Anyway. Other points. Anne Hathaway as Catwoman was great. Catwoman herself... not so much. It's another stereotypical "strong" female character instead of an actual strong female character (between her, Marion Cotillard's character and Rachel Dawes in the two previous films... Nolan really doesn't come off as someone who knows how to write women. Sigh.). I think we sort of reached the conclusion last night that we liked her so much because YUM ANNE HATHAWAY (honestly, the only one who couldn't get past the bad writing of the character was Liza, who's straight. And then we compared it to Joseph Gordon Levitt's character... and yeah, we were all more or less forced to admit it. :) It's the same with Natasha in the Avengers - Joss Whedon, as usual, falls into the "strong" female character trap, but on the other hand, Scarlett Johansson! Yes, I am shallow.). Anyway, it's the obvious and completely overdone criminal-woman-with-a-hard-life-and-a-heart-of-gold character, who gets her redemption because she sees Bruce's greatness and is then moved to Do The Right Thing. Y'know, at least Rachel Dawes dumped him.
Sigh. They do have so much chemistry together, though, Christian Bale and Anne Hathaway. It was worth it only for that.
Joseph Gordon Levitt... was the same. It's a ridiculously stereotyped orphan-becomes-cop-admires-Batman plot, but really, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. For those of you who haven't watched Brick, go watch it. NOW.
Marion Cotillard's character... that was the only spoiler I haven't managed to avoid :( I knew she was the badguy, and I don't know - anything she did confirmed it. I don't know if I would have seen it coming otherwise, but once I did know, it did feel obvious. Y'know hindsight and all that, so I don't know. She is lovely though.
Alfred, as I said, was... well, brilliant. So was Tom Hardy as Bane. Considering he was stuck with that stupid mask all the time (and even in the flashbacks they avoided showing you his whole face except for maybe 2 seconds), the amount of expressions the man can get out with a voice modulator and a mask is stunning. For all those who claim that people can't show expressions in their eyes - you're wrong and Tom Hardy has just proved you wrong! However... the voice modulator... not so much. Maybe not even the voice modulator but the lines they gave him. Maybe a combination - it felt like he was narrating half the film ffs. He was standing there looking all muscle-y and threatening, then speaks with this ridiculous posh accent and the voice modulator, and... the lines just weren't good. It was a combination of exposition and narration. It felt waaaaay overly theatrical. I know they went for theatrical but they overdid it.
And Gary Oldman. ♥ There really isn't anything to say except for ♥, cos, y'know, Gary Oldman. I love his Jim Gordon.
Oh, and then we get to the cameos/smaller roles. Is Nolan a Stargate fan? I wonder. They cast Chris Judge as one of the goons, then realised that Chris Judge is about a foot taller than Tom Hardy and much more muscle-y, and still kept him and gave him a 3-minute role beating up Joseph Gordon Levitt. And a line! :D (I'm way too fangirly about it. Considering the man was in three minutes of a 167-minute film, I still went overly wheeeeeee over this and kept on bringing it up. Because CHRIS JUDGE, OKAY?) Also, William Devane was the president. He appeared for a speech and I was like, "er, isn't this the guy who played the president in Lost City?!" - IMDB confirmed. HUH. I don't know if it's a coincidence but I'm choosing to believe Nolan is a SG fan. Then there was Aiden Gillan in some small role in the beginning...
... and Burn Gorman. He played a lowlife. A sneaky lowlife. A double-crossing cowardly lowlife. I adored him! because, y'know, Owen! And then they killed him. And I have expected zombie!Owen :D Really. They killed him by making him drown in freezing water, he could come back as Mr Freeze or something! Huh. He actually did get a descent part, which was great.
So anyway. 250% on the casting department, 150% on the score department, 100% on the "cool images" department, and... I don't know yet about the actual film. 'Slightly disappointing', probably. Definitely not as good as TDK, not quite sure about Batman Begins - it DOES have a long sequence of Ninja!Bruce which is just too ridiculous for words.
... which of course requires me now to leave you with a clip of Ninja!Bruce - which can be found here because, apparently, the embed isn't working. (OMG THEY ALREADY UPLOADED THE MOVIE SUMMARIES I WROTE! "Gotham City. A den of thieves, murderers, and evil psychiatrists." WITH THE VIDEO LINK ON 'EVIL PSYCHIATRISTS'! I didn't know it was already up on the air. Huh :D So, yes. I'm responsible to "thieves, murderers, and evil psychiatrists". Cillian Murphy, ♥).
(No, really. If you have any intention at all to watch this film and haven't yet, don't read).
It's not a compliment because after The Dark Knight, I expected it to be nothing less than stellar. To point out my reaction to TDK - the first time I watched it was at work (I know, I know). I was QAing two passes, doing the two research-heavy passes, and pausing every five seconds because of it. It took me more than 7 hours to finish, on a tiny screen, in a strongly-lit room, with loads of distractions and the fact I had to multitask and was on a deadline. Oh, and I haven't watched Batman Begins before. I ended up saying "WOW that was a good film!" (trust me: it's much harder to appreciate films when you've dissected them that way. Any film you finish watching like that and still can appreciate is a good film).
I still don't think though I had bloated expectations - what it did it did very well, it just went in a completely different direction than I thought it would... and I don't think that direction did the film a lot of favours.
One thing that was absolutely obvious: Christopher Nolan was too busy doing his epic ending for his talked-about, critics-darling, superlative-filled trilogy and not busy enough doing another Batman film. Because in the end, this is my biggest problem with the film - it doesn't feel like it continues the same line that guided the two previous films.
The Dark Knight explored Batman from two angles: the first that he was the one who created people like the Joker (who in turn created Two-face), and the second that Bruce Wayne has lost everything that made him a human being and was completely lost inside his Batman persona - unless I'm much mistaken, there isn't a single moment in the film in which Bruce Wayne does anything that is not related in some way to what Batman is doing.
In that regards, the opening point of TDKR is wonderful. The Batman hasn't been seen for eight years, and Bruce Wayne is a recluse billionaire. More than that - the first time you see him, he walks with a cane. At first I thought it was some act he's pulling (perhaps to excuse being a recluse) but then they make it obvious that it isn't - he might have been retired for eight years, but being Batman has taken its toll. He's pretty much ruined his body fighting criminals.
And then Bane shows up and he puts on the Batsuit again, and all of a sudden he wakes up back to life and it's exactly what TDK pointed out. Except that this time we already know what the price is so it's not "oooh cool Batman!" it's "Bruce you numpty!". Which is what Alfred is trying to tell him (Oh, Alfred ♥. The one thing I have no complaints about is Alfred! He was marvellous.)
Don't get me wrong, when he comes back as Batman it's definitely a gleeful moment - and very well written as such. You've got an old cop and a new cop, who's too young to have been in the force when Batman was around last time. So they're chasing Bane and his goons, and all of a sudden the lights in the tunnel are shut off and you sort of see something passes (the Batpod) and the old cop sort of sees it too, and then he's like "No way..." and when he sees it again it's all "You're in for a treat, kid."... A few minutes later and the young cop sort-of accidentally shoots at Batman, who just gives him a "Really?" look and the young cop goes all "Erm. Sorry." GLEE! Same with how the chase after Bane becomes then a chase after Batman.
Anyway. Things happen. Alfred and Bruce have a row and Alfred leaves :(. Bruce still doesn't wake up and goes to meet Bane to fight with him. Bane beats up him to a pulp, breaks his back, and throws him into a pit no one can escape from on the other side of the world, with a TV to show him how he destroys Gotham.
... and that's when the problems start. Because the solution for that is obvious. The pit is rigged as to be impossible to climb, but to appear as if it's not impossible, and so to give the prisoners false hope that they COULD escape. But there is a story! Of a child! Who managed to escape! And Bruce takes five months to recover his body! And he attempts to escape! And then he fails! And then things happen in Gotham! And Bruce is angry! And he attempts to escape! And then he fails! And then the Wise Old Man teaches his Life Lessons About Fear! And then Bruce tries to escape! And then he - succeeds (cue dramatic music. No, seriously. The music in this scene is brilliant - they combine the Batman theme with the Bane theme for that climb and it's a very gleeful moment when you watch it even though it's very obviously manipulative, but the music saves it.)
...And then he returns to Gotham, which has been under Bane's terror for five months and locked out from the rest of the world and there's a nuclear bomb about to go off (?!) and Jim Gordon is running an ineffective underground and they're all gonna die and there's one more day and then Batman comes to save them all! Another great image, that was. Honestly - Crane finally catches Jim Gordon and sentences his to execution, and then Batman of course comes to save him in the last minute, then there's one of those petrol trails that ends up with a huge burning Bat sign on a building and the Batman theme goes up a notch you go wheee whether you like to or not.
Except... Bruce's health problems are all of a sudden gone, and all you need is Batman to save Gotham city after 5 months of being terrorised by Bane. HUH?! I don't really mind plotholes, esp. not in superheroes films. For those who remember my Avengers comments - there's a whole hour in the film where the plot MAKES NO SENSE and it didn't stop me from being gleeful and squeeish nonetheless. I don't care that Bruce managed to - somehow - get from Asia to Gotham City in like 2 hours. I don't care that he then knows the clock is ticking and still wastes his time making a huge burning bat on a building. I don't care that I'm expected to believe the US government would have allowed Bane to hold a whole city ransom for 5 months. I don't care about a number of other things that make no bloody sense whatsoever. I do care that because Gotham needs him, Bruce's body is no longer completely and utterly broken, and I do care there's a huge "oh! happy ending! Batman saved Gotham!" feel to it. It goes against the grain of the best of this series - that Batman tries to save Gotham but this isn't going to work (see: his presence has created people the Joker) and the price Bruce has to pay.
Because it's not enough that all of a sudden his back is fine and his legs are fine and he can just come whooping in and save them all. He also ends up faking his own death, getting a statue in Gotham city, and retiring with Catwoman. (How does that work, also? Bruce is broke and she never had any money! What are they doing as tourists in Florence?!). He gets it all, the ultimate happy ending. Which is... very clearly the ending of an epic trilogy (with a record amount of callbacks, seriously. Harry Potter 7.5 didn't have as many callbacks as this one!) and completely ignores what the two previous films have actually said. Nolan forgot that he also had a message in the previous films. And that was what made TDK such a great film - it was exactly these points about the price of being Batman, what they failed so much to do with the terrible Watchmen adaptation, and Nolan did right. And now he threw it all away.
Oh, yes. Bruce's fake death. He flies the atom bomb to the sea and pretends he doesn't have an autopilot so he has to sacrifice himself. Of course, he only fakes his death, he fixed the autopilot ages ago. It's better than an ending in which he WOULD have died sacrificing himself heroically for the city (because, I mean, really?) BUT... I still think a much truer ending for the character would have been for him to die alone, friendless, physically and mentally broken, in a hellish pit of doom, and watching his beloved city burn on television. Yes, I'm evil that way... but this is the direction Nolan had taken the character up until THAT point and I'm slightly annoyed he didn't follow it through. You may have noticed my slight annoyance. I am glad he ended up with Selina though. If we had to go with ending #2, at least he gets to be a rich tourist with a cool girl and actually live the pretence he's been acting as Bruce Wayne :)
Anyway. Other points. Anne Hathaway as Catwoman was great. Catwoman herself... not so much. It's another stereotypical "strong" female character instead of an actual strong female character (between her, Marion Cotillard's character and Rachel Dawes in the two previous films... Nolan really doesn't come off as someone who knows how to write women. Sigh.). I think we sort of reached the conclusion last night that we liked her so much because YUM ANNE HATHAWAY (honestly, the only one who couldn't get past the bad writing of the character was Liza, who's straight. And then we compared it to Joseph Gordon Levitt's character... and yeah, we were all more or less forced to admit it. :) It's the same with Natasha in the Avengers - Joss Whedon, as usual, falls into the "strong" female character trap, but on the other hand, Scarlett Johansson! Yes, I am shallow.). Anyway, it's the obvious and completely overdone criminal-woman-with-a-hard-life-and-a-heart-of-gold character, who gets her redemption because she sees Bruce's greatness and is then moved to Do The Right Thing. Y'know, at least Rachel Dawes dumped him.
Sigh. They do have so much chemistry together, though, Christian Bale and Anne Hathaway. It was worth it only for that.
Joseph Gordon Levitt... was the same. It's a ridiculously stereotyped orphan-becomes-cop-admires-Batman plot, but really, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. For those of you who haven't watched Brick, go watch it. NOW.
Marion Cotillard's character... that was the only spoiler I haven't managed to avoid :( I knew she was the badguy, and I don't know - anything she did confirmed it. I don't know if I would have seen it coming otherwise, but once I did know, it did feel obvious. Y'know hindsight and all that, so I don't know. She is lovely though.
Alfred, as I said, was... well, brilliant. So was Tom Hardy as Bane. Considering he was stuck with that stupid mask all the time (and even in the flashbacks they avoided showing you his whole face except for maybe 2 seconds), the amount of expressions the man can get out with a voice modulator and a mask is stunning. For all those who claim that people can't show expressions in their eyes - you're wrong and Tom Hardy has just proved you wrong! However... the voice modulator... not so much. Maybe not even the voice modulator but the lines they gave him. Maybe a combination - it felt like he was narrating half the film ffs. He was standing there looking all muscle-y and threatening, then speaks with this ridiculous posh accent and the voice modulator, and... the lines just weren't good. It was a combination of exposition and narration. It felt waaaaay overly theatrical. I know they went for theatrical but they overdid it.
And Gary Oldman. ♥ There really isn't anything to say except for ♥, cos, y'know, Gary Oldman. I love his Jim Gordon.
Oh, and then we get to the cameos/smaller roles. Is Nolan a Stargate fan? I wonder. They cast Chris Judge as one of the goons, then realised that Chris Judge is about a foot taller than Tom Hardy and much more muscle-y, and still kept him and gave him a 3-minute role beating up Joseph Gordon Levitt. And a line! :D (I'm way too fangirly about it. Considering the man was in three minutes of a 167-minute film, I still went overly wheeeeeee over this and kept on bringing it up. Because CHRIS JUDGE, OKAY?) Also, William Devane was the president. He appeared for a speech and I was like, "er, isn't this the guy who played the president in Lost City?!" - IMDB confirmed. HUH. I don't know if it's a coincidence but I'm choosing to believe Nolan is a SG fan. Then there was Aiden Gillan in some small role in the beginning...
... and Burn Gorman. He played a lowlife. A sneaky lowlife. A double-crossing cowardly lowlife. I adored him! because, y'know, Owen! And then they killed him. And I have expected zombie!Owen :D Really. They killed him by making him drown in freezing water, he could come back as Mr Freeze or something! Huh. He actually did get a descent part, which was great.
So anyway. 250% on the casting department, 150% on the score department, 100% on the "cool images" department, and... I don't know yet about the actual film. 'Slightly disappointing', probably. Definitely not as good as TDK, not quite sure about Batman Begins - it DOES have a long sequence of Ninja!Bruce which is just too ridiculous for words.
... which of course requires me now to leave you with a clip of Ninja!Bruce - which can be found here because, apparently, the embed isn't working. (OMG THEY ALREADY UPLOADED THE MOVIE SUMMARIES I WROTE! "Gotham City. A den of thieves, murderers, and evil psychiatrists." WITH THE VIDEO LINK ON 'EVIL PSYCHIATRISTS'! I didn't know it was already up on the air. Huh :D So, yes. I'm responsible to "thieves, murderers, and evil psychiatrists". Cillian Murphy, ♥).