An esteemed colleague of mine remarked that this film was bleak, brutal, gripping, even stunning. I was stunned by many aspects of the Dark Knight rises. Without a doubt what left me agape more than any other element of the film was the plot-holed, tried and tired superhero script that lay at the core of what presented itself, quite condescendingly in this third installment, as a purportedly revolutionary piece of cinematic social commentary.
In an unfortunate move for Nolan, the story in Rises centres much more around Bruce Wayne, putting even more pressure on the thus far struggling performance of lead actor Christian Bale to deliver, but more on that later. As the film opens we are treated to an almost Bond-like action sequence introducing us to Tom Hardy's mysterious, brutal character Bane. I use mysterious in a complimentary sense, as in Rises his is the performance that strikes me as being the purest, his talent in becoming the character removing any notions in viewers of Bane's story-line being contrived or perfunctory.
As the tale returns to Wayne Manor however, the script's flaws emerge. We see Bruce Wayne, eight years on from his heroic sacrifice in TDK in taking on the blame for deranged Harvey Dent's final, manic crimes. On the heels of this heroism, the crescendo of the previous film as narrated by James Gordon;
We find, to our immense disappointment, that contrary to the above The Batman or rather Bruce Wayne just could not take it, was not a silent guardian and did not remain Gotham's watchful protector at all in the interim period between the films. Indeed, he did not even hang up his Mask to continue the good fight in the shoes of Bruce Wayne, we are instead shown that Mr. Wayne had taken to a sullen, brooding seclusion, sequestering himself away from the world entirely. For eight years, emerging only to spend vast amounts of his fortune developing a revolutionary fusion reactor he was too afraid to make public. This weak, dejected, lovelorn figure utterly refutes the entire climax of the previous film, and does irrevocable damage to the character of Bruce Wayne as he approaches the climax of his personal story.
As an aside, another of the many inexplicable elements of the script that appear to have been thrown in at the last minute without rhyme or reason; Bruce Wayne briefly appears with a limp and walking stick (perhaps a patronizing attempt to give the audience a visual hook to go with his new recluse status), and according to a Doctor's report during the film appears to have somehow seriously damaged his leg. Despite this, he soon affixes some kind of Waynetec wonder gadget to his leg and is fine again, with no more said about it or made of it for the rest of the film. Good grief.
The build up to Bruce donning his Mask again is well underscored by incisive and sharp rebukes from Alfred Pennysworth, Michael Caine giving an utterly standout performance throughout the film as he tries to drive Wayne into taking hold of the reigns of his own life again. Regrettably Bale's part in these intimate personal clashes between the two history drenched characters lacks any of the necessary emotion, personal investment or delivery to adequately compliment Caine's tearful entreaties.
In the end, Alfred departs following Wayne's 'showboating' return as the Batman ending in a massive police chase through the city. Unfortunately there is no apparent emotional effect of this departure evident for the remainder of the film, at least not in Bale's performance, the only references to the Butler's absence are cheap, misplaced attempts at comic relief when Wayne tries to do something normally left to his heretofore indespensible friend and father figure.
The plot of the film continues to advance from this point as Bane makes his move, and old favourites Gordon and Fox get decent screen-time as they both bumble blindly into the elaborate trap set for them by Bane and the League of Shadows. We are treated to a litany of basic story-telling errors in this segment; Wayne Enterprises being bankrupted overnight following the theft of his fingerprints by the Catwoman, Selina Kyle.
If my credit card is stolen, I cancel it. Unfortunately, a similar sense of precaution eluded Bruce Wayne, despite the fact he was astute enough to realise the prints themselves had been stolen within an hour of their theft, long before they arrived in the hands of those who would go on to use them, showing a basic contradiction of his character's level of intelligence and insight ingrained in the main plot of the film.
Further, the wily, cunning character of James Gordon is dealt a blow as he unbelievably sends the entire police force into the same sewers he himself was just ambushed in and barely escaped with his life. Likewise, former whizzbang gadget man Lucius Fox has his character's integrity markedly diminished as he decides to hoard all of Wayne Enterprises' secret weapon's projects away where they won't fall into the wrong hands. I'll let you muse on the ramifications of that bright idea yourselves.
Thus the script's flaws aid all too noticeably in Bane's ultimate agenda; the take over of Gotham. The inevitable showdown between the villain and the Caped Crusader was one of the two biggest let downs of the films. Gone was the uncertainty, "this could go any way at all" feeling of the previous film and Heath Ledger's unpredictable brilliance. Everyone in the threatre was acutely aware; Batman will lose this fight. The story should have worked around this inevitibility, given us something else to think about, but instead the entire sequence was played out, throwing itself in our faces, like watching a repeat of that one episode of the Simpsons you've seen so many times; you sigh and watch it again anyway.
Bane's Gotham is excellently portrayed, the idea that people are living day to day under a maniac is elegantly depicted, from the authoritarian street patrols to the anarchic courtroom scenes it was a treat to watch, and a welcome relief from the other main element of this part of the film; Wayne's captivity in so called "hell on earth", in an undisclosed location. In truth conditions in the admittedly dank prison were good enough that Wayne managed to recover from a spinal injury to full health in record time, and his supposed captors (who were apparently instructed to keep him alive, but not stop him escaping) became helpful chums, aside from the occasional multilingual bout of social commentary "No...you were born too rich to make that jump".
In the end, Wayne inevitibly escapes, the police inevitable pop out from the sewers they were inexplicably left alive in (why Bane didn't let them starve is inexcusable), Batman inevitably kicks Bane's ass in round two and we abruptly find ourselves at the climax of the film. By this point the reveal at the end of the Batman/Bane rematch has been made (and it was refreshingly good story telling after the uninventive second fight between the two main characters), when Bane is abruptly blown up by Cat Woman in a rather anti-climactic demise just after his character's mystery was exchanged for real, palpable depth.
Now we find our heroes desperately trying to avert a nuclear disaster, as Marion Cotillard's character tries to outdrive the heroic persuit long enough for the core to level the entire city, which Batman and co. attempt to avert by shooting and firing missiles at the truck containing the volatile, ready to blow reactor. In the end, Fox and Wayne are outsmarted yet again thanks to the double act of Talia al-Ghul, and it seems like all hope is lost, until the Batman instead elects to fly off into the sunset with the bomb, sacrificing his life in a dramatic return to form for the character, once again and forever becoming Gotham's Dark Knight.
Except he survived. The Nolan brothers didn't have the balls between them to make the Dark Knight the tragic hero he could have been. They inserted the traditional, run of the mill superhero never dies clause, reducing this attempt at revolutionary story telling to trite, overdone rubbish. The truly emotionally captivating scene, with a broken-hearted Alfred at the graves in Wayne Manor should have simply faded to the unveiling of the statue of the Dark Knight, and then on to the credits. Then, for all its foibles, the Trilogy could have closed a success. Instead we were treated to a happily ever after so perfect and contrived that I was honestly stunned I was seeing it in a Christopher Nolan film.
That this film, indeed the entire Trilogy, is so often portrayed as 'dark' or 'gritty' with this final conclusion is a travesty and a lie. It amounts to little more than an action film series come fairy tale where Bruce Wayne triumphs over evil and lives happily ever after. The Batman is not meant to "win" in such a traditional sense, that is one crucial element underscoring the entire story and mythos of the character, something Nolan has departed from, to his lasting detriment.
0/5
This is actually a brilliant review! If anything, you were too lenient in your criticism.
ReplyDelete