The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Oh, the finality! The themes of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy began with origins (Batman Begins), and ratcheted up with escalation (The Dark Knight). The way the second installment ended, you would have thought that the final chapter would be about redemption and honor. Nah- Nolan cranks things up to 11 with a film rooted firmly in annihilation.

Eight years after the events of The Dark Knight, Bruce Wayne is still plagued by the physical after-effects of moonlighting as Batman. Despite his ailing body, a new evil draws the Caped Crusader from his self-imposed exile. Physically and intellectually gifted, the revolutionary and terrorist known as Bane pushes Batman and Gotham City to their limits. With the city held hostage (literally cut off from the rest of the world), Batman must find a way to defeat his opponent and save Gotham from nuclear holocaust.

As far as final chapters go, this one is a doozy. Just as I appreciated seeing Batman with bruises in Batman Begins, I liked that the filmmakers acknowledged that being Batman comes with irreversible wear and tear. Bruce Wayne is frailer this time around, forcing him to find strength in his mind and in his beliefs in what he fights for. Batman is no longer fighting for justice; now he truly fights for good against Bane’s evil.

Our antagonist, Bane, is a tough egg to crack. He comes across as equal parts bad guy caricature and plausible threat. His eloquent rants about liberation from class structure and the greed of Gotham’s elite smack of Occupy Wall Street and extremist liberal revolutionaries. He seems well-versed in the likes of Marx and Hitler, attracting the disenfranchised from the shadows like the pied piper. With Bane in charge, the have-nots and the mentally unstable take over.

Bane’s followers don’t seem to mind his almost Orwellian police state, nor do they seem bothered by his countdown to oblivion. Perhaps they don’t believe their hero would liberate them for a few months only to destroy them. Or perhaps they are too caught up with their revenge against the haves via kangaroo court to notice that the light at the end of their tunnel is actually an oncoming train. Either way, it all feels possible and that should scare the heck out of all of us.

The realism of post-revolution Gotham never fully sinks in because director Christopher Nolan knows he has to deliver some spectacle. With the stakes as high as they are, the action is grander, the gadgets are fiercer, and the drama strives to be epic in scope. Unfortunately, converging all of the plot lines for the grand finale requires too many doses of convenient timing and lucky coincidence for me to swallow. I can appreciate red herrings and slight-of-hand, but The Dark Knight Rises goes too far at times for me to suspend my disbelief.

Fanboys currently have The Dark Knight Rises at #50 on IMDB’s Top 250 movies list. I am not a fanboy. I enjoy this film on its own and as the final chapter in the recent Batman trilogy. I like the way the filmmakers incorporated Selina Kyle into the mix (though she is never actually called Catwoman). I even appreciate the character of Bane, difficult as he is to understand at times. But this is weakest of the three Nolan Batman films. The pace is uneven and its big ideas get crowded out in favor of action/comic book movie staples.

The Dark Knight Rises works, but we want to triumph with our heroes (especially comic book heroes). With this film, audiences achieve catharsis. Maybe we should just be glad that this film wasn’t a major letdown, as many sequels are. Maybe this is what the filmmakers wanted our mindsets to be heading into this movie. If you keep expectations low enough, you are never disappointed. I expected a quality product and that is more or less what I got. It probably wasn’t possible to top The Dark Knight but I was hoping for an equal to Batman Begins.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5

SECOND HELPINGS: The Dark Knight (2008)

Not much has changed since my original assessment of this film, though I don’t feel the need to be as wordy this time around. My original review for this film is probably one of the worst I’ve ever written because it rambled. This second go around will be much more terse and to the point.

What’s still good about this film? I like the move away from a comic-book accented Gotham City. Gotham looks like a real major city, making the carnage and terror unleashed by the Joker seem more palpable. I also still enjoy the theme of escalation and how Bruce Wayne is troubled by it. He has to reckon with the Joker’s rules of engagement without losing too much of himself. Heady stuff for a comic book flick.

And of course, Heath Ledger steals the show as the Joker. I cannot praise the decision enough to keep the character as an enigma. In this politically correct era of trying to understand bad guys, The Dark Knight’s Joker is a breath of fresh air. There can be no justification for his antisocial tendencies or his sociopathic nature, so none is given. Sometimes you have to accept evil as evil, and the late Heath Ledger goes all out to embody an almost perfect evil.

What still doesn’t work for this film? It is more than just a little unbelievable for the Joker to plan so far ahead for some of the things he does. Anything that he does not seem to have a contingency plan for goes perfectly for him out of sheer luck or coincidence. If you stop and think about it all after the credits roll, one or two strokes of luck the other way would have cut this film short in any number of places.

There is no denying the power of Heath Ledger's performance though. Christian Bale does some fine work as well but the success of Batman films are usually determined by the villain. Fortunately for everyone involved, this version of the Joker is the best Batman film villain to date. There is not enough ludicrousness in the Joker’s ability to plan to undermine The Dark Knight’s strengths. My original rating stands because you can pick this movie apart if you really want to get down to brass tacks.

Original Rating: 4 out of 5

New Rating: 4 out of 5

SECOND HELPINGS: Batman Begins (2005)

Like a fair number of people, I went nuts for this movie when it first came out. Here was a Batman that is at least somewhat plausible, unlike the Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher films of the 80s and 90s. The characters have depth and struggle with heavy-hitting themes without being paraded around as pure spectacle and an excuse for overacting supporting characters. I watched this film again before seeing The Dark Knight Rises and some of its flaws became more apparent.

Maybe it is a direct result of seeing its successors so soon after taking this film in, but Batman Begins feels the most out of place of Christopher Nolan’s trilogy. It feels the most like a comic book movie of the three and the layout, look, and feel of parts of Gotham City give off a slight comic book vibe. The other two do not. Gotham feels more like a real city. I don’t want to let a criticism of continuity for the whole trilogy affect my rating for this film, so I am hoping that my initial enthusiasm was a matter of me being dazzled by the breath of fresh air that was Batman Begins.

I am fine with the League of Shadows. In fact, it makes for a very worthy foe. Batman is forced to go head to head with the forces that trained him. Their motive for destroying Gotham is fascinating but their intended means of accomplishing their goal lacks some believability. The water-vaporizing weapon goes just a little far out there, considering how realistic much of the rest of the film is.

Batman Begins marked an exciting new direction for not only Batman but for superhero movies in general. It showed that you can tone down the flamboyant elements of the comic book genre and still create something exciting. To make it a powerful emotional and intellectual draw is an added bonus. The framework of these pros can easily be attributed to the X-Men franchise but Batman Begins benefits from a better balance of flair and fun, while also focusing on far fewer characters. For this, I still hold it to be an excellent film but I feel I have to drop it ever so slightly from the ranks ‘great’ films.

Original Rating: 4 out of 5 (Click here for the original review)

New Rating: 3.75 out of 5