R and I finally saw "The Dark Knight Rises" (in iMAX, no less!), and I honestly, deeply want this post to be about "The Dark Knight Rises", but I realize that a number of you may not have seen it yet, and I'm allergic to spoilers myself.
Consequently, I'm going to say here, clearly:
SPOILERS
If you'd like to continue reading, feel free. If not, I guess we'll see you tomorrow. :)
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THE GOOD
Anne Hathaway - Now, I know what you're thinking: this is just a subtle way of letting Miss Hathaway know how much I enjoyed her performance, in a not-too-subtle way of convincing her that we should, you know, hang out, and stuff, and that I totally dig her, and stuff. And stuff. But she actually played the Catwoman from the comics, and was the only character that was pitch-perfect the entire movie. I kept thinking, "Yep, that's what Catwoman would do there." Also, if Anne Hathaway HAPPENS to be reading this, wants to come over and snuggle, she's more than welcome to. And stuff. Ahem.
The Batmobile... I mean the Batbike (Batpod is a stupid name for that thing) and the Bat-Other-Thing, which is just called the Bat (which is also stupid) - Naming conventions aside, the vehicles were pretty much universally fun to watch, and featured in some of my favorite parts of the movie. I don't know why the Batbike turns like that, but it's cool as hell.
Gary Oldman - Once again, he's the strongest member of the cast, and does a great job of playing the unafraid, resourceful, dedicated everyman who is fighting the same fight as Batman, but armed only with being awesome. And it totally works, for the third movie in a row. I was convinced he could hang with Batman, which is the only way Gordon could possibly fit into these stories.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt - Leaving aside his character's story for a moment (we'll get to that below), he played his character well and truthfully in every scene.
THE BAD
EVERYTHING ELSE.
- Bane is a dumb character, in both the comics and the movie. Tom Hardy does his level best, but his mask gave him no way to communicate any nuance of the character to the audience, and it was just tortuous listening to him speak. He's big and strong and WAAAAY smarter than Batman. Well, that WILL be fun to watch, given that we've established Batman as the World's Greatest Detective in... oh, right, in his first appearance in Detective Comics
- Everyone on EARTH knows that Ra's Al Ghul's child is Talia. She's been a major character since all the way back when DC first did Who's Who in the DC Universe in the early 90s. She's part of the DCAU. The reveal of that was dumb, too, since we established in the last movie that the Bat Armor was specifically designed to resist knives and dogs and... Ugh.
- What happened to, you know, every freakin' cop from the previous two movies other than Gordon? Who are all these clowns?
- The editing was atrociously bad, and big huge chunks made no sense. How did Bane get Bruce Wayne out to that prison in Nowhere-istan, exactly? Did he teleport, or is that just the next city over from Gotham? How did Wayne get back? And how did he get back onto the island that was laboriously and painfully indicated to be a "no one in, no one out, at all, even little kids" situation? Sure, you could say, "Because he's Batman," but this is a MOVIE, and if you don't show it, then what are we doing here? When Catwoman rolled out of the window of the Wayne mansion, how did she not splat on the ground? Seriously, she rolls out of the window, and then we cut to her walking along the grounds. What happened between those two points?
- The ending, while absolving Alfred of his guilt, and showing Bruce and Selena to finally be at peace with the world, misses out on the most important part of the Batman mythos: GOTHAM WILL ALWAYS NEED HIM. Some might argue that that's what JG-L's character was there for, but come ON! The last shot HAS to be:
External - Night
Batman looks over his city. Below, sirens wail. He's heavy with responsibility, but he knows that Gotham needs him. Again. He's not happy, but he's not paid to be happy.
He's the Goddamned Batman.
Plus he's already rich.
- Oh! Oh! Making Batman poor is just stupid, especially if he never figures a way out of it, and more especially if he never suffers in any way for it. Which they do, and he doesn't, and he doesn't. He never lacks for toys, even after they "get him". Soooo... why is that part of the story, exactly?
- One more about the ending: why does Bruce straight-up LIE to Selena about the auto-pilot? He's not lying to her, as we see at the very, VERY end, he's ONLY lying to the AUDIENCE.
- I understand that Heath Ledger's passing made the Joker off-limits out of respect for his family (and I quietly think that's actually a pretty damned nice thing to do), but it did seem weird that no one noticed or referenced that Cillian Murphy was the Scarecrow. Good to see him again, for sure, but a bit lame to not see him Scarecrow-ing up the proceedings. If he's going to be there, man, BE THERE.
- The Batman needs a throat lozenge, and that's exactly as annoying as it has always been.
- Back to the editing again: it's three hours long, and exactly NONE of what Bane does is material to the story. Do the Catwoman stuff, then cut the next 120 minutes, then have the guy say "it's been 8 years", then do the last forty minutes.
I will say, in closing, that Nolan has given us almost 9 hours of really well-filmed Batman, and that some amateur editor out there is going to churn through the unnecessary chaff and create an absolutely BRILLIANT three hour edit of the trilogy.
I can't wait.
Consequently, I'm going to say here, clearly:
SPOILERS
If you'd like to continue reading, feel free. If not, I guess we'll see you tomorrow. :)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
THE GOOD
Anne Hathaway - Now, I know what you're thinking: this is just a subtle way of letting Miss Hathaway know how much I enjoyed her performance, in a not-too-subtle way of convincing her that we should, you know, hang out, and stuff, and that I totally dig her, and stuff. And stuff. But she actually played the Catwoman from the comics, and was the only character that was pitch-perfect the entire movie. I kept thinking, "Yep, that's what Catwoman would do there." Also, if Anne Hathaway HAPPENS to be reading this, wants to come over and snuggle, she's more than welcome to. And stuff. Ahem.
The Batmobile... I mean the Batbike (Batpod is a stupid name for that thing) and the Bat-Other-Thing, which is just called the Bat (which is also stupid) - Naming conventions aside, the vehicles were pretty much universally fun to watch, and featured in some of my favorite parts of the movie. I don't know why the Batbike turns like that, but it's cool as hell.
Gary Oldman - Once again, he's the strongest member of the cast, and does a great job of playing the unafraid, resourceful, dedicated everyman who is fighting the same fight as Batman, but armed only with being awesome. And it totally works, for the third movie in a row. I was convinced he could hang with Batman, which is the only way Gordon could possibly fit into these stories.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt - Leaving aside his character's story for a moment (we'll get to that below), he played his character well and truthfully in every scene.
THE BAD
EVERYTHING ELSE.
- Bane is a dumb character, in both the comics and the movie. Tom Hardy does his level best, but his mask gave him no way to communicate any nuance of the character to the audience, and it was just tortuous listening to him speak. He's big and strong and WAAAAY smarter than Batman. Well, that WILL be fun to watch, given that we've established Batman as the World's Greatest Detective in... oh, right, in his first appearance in Detective Comics
- Everyone on EARTH knows that Ra's Al Ghul's child is Talia. She's been a major character since all the way back when DC first did Who's Who in the DC Universe in the early 90s. She's part of the DCAU. The reveal of that was dumb, too, since we established in the last movie that the Bat Armor was specifically designed to resist knives and dogs and... Ugh.
- What happened to, you know, every freakin' cop from the previous two movies other than Gordon? Who are all these clowns?
- The editing was atrociously bad, and big huge chunks made no sense. How did Bane get Bruce Wayne out to that prison in Nowhere-istan, exactly? Did he teleport, or is that just the next city over from Gotham? How did Wayne get back? And how did he get back onto the island that was laboriously and painfully indicated to be a "no one in, no one out, at all, even little kids" situation? Sure, you could say, "Because he's Batman," but this is a MOVIE, and if you don't show it, then what are we doing here? When Catwoman rolled out of the window of the Wayne mansion, how did she not splat on the ground? Seriously, she rolls out of the window, and then we cut to her walking along the grounds. What happened between those two points?
- The ending, while absolving Alfred of his guilt, and showing Bruce and Selena to finally be at peace with the world, misses out on the most important part of the Batman mythos: GOTHAM WILL ALWAYS NEED HIM. Some might argue that that's what JG-L's character was there for, but come ON! The last shot HAS to be:
External - Night
Batman looks over his city. Below, sirens wail. He's heavy with responsibility, but he knows that Gotham needs him. Again. He's not happy, but he's not paid to be happy.
He's the Goddamned Batman.
Plus he's already rich.
- Oh! Oh! Making Batman poor is just stupid, especially if he never figures a way out of it, and more especially if he never suffers in any way for it. Which they do, and he doesn't, and he doesn't. He never lacks for toys, even after they "get him". Soooo... why is that part of the story, exactly?
- One more about the ending: why does Bruce straight-up LIE to Selena about the auto-pilot? He's not lying to her, as we see at the very, VERY end, he's ONLY lying to the AUDIENCE.
- I understand that Heath Ledger's passing made the Joker off-limits out of respect for his family (and I quietly think that's actually a pretty damned nice thing to do), but it did seem weird that no one noticed or referenced that Cillian Murphy was the Scarecrow. Good to see him again, for sure, but a bit lame to not see him Scarecrow-ing up the proceedings. If he's going to be there, man, BE THERE.
- The Batman needs a throat lozenge, and that's exactly as annoying as it has always been.
- Back to the editing again: it's three hours long, and exactly NONE of what Bane does is material to the story. Do the Catwoman stuff, then cut the next 120 minutes, then have the guy say "it's been 8 years", then do the last forty minutes.
I will say, in closing, that Nolan has given us almost 9 hours of really well-filmed Batman, and that some amateur editor out there is going to churn through the unnecessary chaff and create an absolutely BRILLIANT three hour edit of the trilogy.
I can't wait.
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