SPOILERS AHEAD
Full disclosure: I hedged my bet on The Dark Knight Rises review.
I gave it an A- based on my revised grading scale, which means it was worth going to see on opening weekend, and I stand by the grade. However, if you read the review, you'll find a far more tentative examination of Nolan's final Dark Knight Saga chapter, one which yearns for the unpredictable and far more entertaining ethos of The Dark Knight.
Of course, in light of the shootings at the Friday night screening of DKR in Aurora, CO, there has been a necessary call for a bit of a moratorium on the DKR discussion, out of respect for the victims of that senseless tragedy. In fact, I'd like to applaud the studios for holding back on releasing box office numbers for DKR over the weekend. Unfortunately, the combination of the Colorado shooting and the increasingly sober reflections on the film itself, DKR is likely to go down in the annals of film history as a disappointment.
Throughout my review, I constantly referenced how DKR paled in comparison to The Dark Knight, and I firmly believe that, left to his own devices, Nolan would have abandoned the series with Batman riding the Batpod into the darkness as a hunted vigilante. In truth, maybe we all should have left the story there as well. Slowly but surely, articles about DKR's skewed, neoconservative politics, slapdash plotting, and tone deaf character work have a popped up online, with more surely coming down the pike. In a sad way, the shootings somewhat opened the door for the responses, as prior to the shooting, critics were receiving death threats for calling Nolan's film to the carpet on some glaring flaws that practically crippled a surefire hit. Suffice to say, fans have calmed down, if only because many don't want to be compared to the madman who robbed so many innocent people of the right to escape terror and hardship in the darkness of a movie theater. It's just such a shame that, in some cases, it took a loss of that magnitude, rather than time and sober reflection, to make the populace calm down a bit and think before responding with violent fervor rather than measured fanaticism.
I myself don't mean to take advantage of the situation to kick DKR when it's down, and I apologize if it seems that way--that is not my intention--but rather to reflect, after seeing the film twice in a weekend, on the fact that this film could not have succeeded the way many hoped it would because you do not trap lightning in a bottle, you can only marvel--no pun...never mind, pun fully intended--at the moment that fire from the sky cracks the ground and shows you just how amazing a moment of perfect creation can be.
The Dark Knight was lightning cracking the ground. It was an exceptional, if also a bit flawed, work that turned on an amazing, unmatched performance by Heath Ledger as the purest Clown Prince of Chaos to grace the silver screen...ever. Nolan could have toiled for years, waited decades, and still he may not have been able to capture a fraction of the magic he poured into the Dark Knight. His efforts on DKR prove that.
Nolan is a director who truly, admirably aspires to give meaning to what many inaccurately classify as meaningless. Magic, superheroes, dreams. Nolan has worked with turned examinations of each of these subjects on their heads by revealing the not-so-hidden depth within these subjects. However, Nolan has always had an approach to his subjects that rarely treats characters as more than philosophies. Sure, sometimes he really delves into the humanity of his characters, as in his earlier works like Memento and The Prestige, but often, a few days distance from his work reveals that the characters in his more popular works barely exist as anything other than mouthpieces for esoteric philosophies and perceived dichotomies. Rarely do audiences remember his characters for who they are instead of what they represent. In something a movie like The Dark Knight, that approach is novel because the characters have philosophies that propel them into compelling action--also known as motivation--but in DKR, that approach is distracting because the philosophies led to action that is more head scratching than compelling.
In my initial review, I mentioned the disappointment of Bane, a character built up through every ounce of marketing to be the unstoppable force to Batman's immovable object. He's also framed as a revolutionary seeking to restore balance to economic inequality afflicting Gotham. By the end, he's nothing more than a lovesick henchman following orders and caring little for the plight of the average 99 percenter, finding them no different than Gotham's elite. This bait and switch is not surprising considering how Bane has been used as little more than a heavy in any media other than comics, an approach unaided by his goofy voice and weakly sardonic mannerisms. Even less surprising is the fact that the true mastermind behind Bane's plan is Bruce Wayne's new love interest Miranda Tate, who prefers her birth name, Talia Al Ghul.
Marion Cotillard plays Talia, a role telegraphed since the first photos of her on set surfaced. As soon as it is made clear that Ra's Al Ghul's League of Shadows is involved in the plot to destroy Gotham and the child of Ra's Al Ghul is mentioned, anybody who caught the Batman: The Animated Series episodes based around Ra's Al Ghul knew where DKR was headed, despite Nolan's predilection to change the names of characters in the films to protect their doppelgängers in the comics. This predilection extends to Nolan's favorite character in the film, Robin John Blake, a puzzling name change that is actually hokier than naming the character Dick Grayson or Jason Todd or Tim Drake.
Now, I can't fault Nolan for his fairly dignified approach to including Robin in his ultra-serious Batman narrative, as it was one of the most consistent and well-conceived narrative threats within the film, albeit a bit contrived considering how quickly and effortlessly Blake ascends to a position in Batman's circle of trust. However, the same can be said for Selina "Don't Call Me Catwoman" Kyle, who also has a real character arc that leads her to a happily ever after with boyfriend/husband/traveling companion Bruce Wayne, after Batman "dies" in a nuclear explosion. Anne Hathaway does a good job with Ms. Kyle, especially in light of the fact that our last onscreen Catwoman was Halle Berry's Razzie winning performance as Patience Phillips. Sadly, as with Talia, Nolan cares more about the boys than the ladies, which means Selina gets an arc but not quite enough character development to make the audience believe that she and Bruce are destined to end up together. It's more of a case of populist appeasement: Fans like the Bat and Cat together so that's what they get for sitting through the 3-hour epic. Again, this can be traced to Nolan's favor of philosophy over character. Selina has a very character driven arc, one that is not bound to a significantly measurable or bombastic philosophy. As a result, her arc is truncated and she becomes more of a guest star than she should have been.
While the Catwoman and Robin development arcs are fairly solid, the failure of Bane overwhelms much of the proceedings, eclipsing the adequate work with Selina Kyle and John Blake. In particular, the Bane issue jabs at the audience's suspension of disbelief, especially our ability to believe that he wants to waste months dangling a nuclear device over Gotham simply to make Bruce Wayne feel like crap when blowing up the city immediately would have crushed Bruce Wayne far more effectively. Even more, Bane wants to show Bruce Wayne how his city is falling apart, but Nolan only shows a bunch of cops living underground with every other citizen locked inside their homes...not tearing the city apart. Based on what we are shown, Bane's plan failed before Batman even showed up.
What Bane's plan does is allow for a second act that is equivalent to the unseen moments that preceded the very beginning of Batman Begins. Essentially, Bruce Wayne is locked in a prison and, through sheer force of will, must rise to become a hero, just like he did in Batman Begins. And that's exactly where Dark Knight Rises exists, in the space around and behind Batman Begins. The Dark Knight is an afterthought in DKR. With the exception of a mention about the Harvey Dent act and Commissioner Gordon's guilt over the lie he told about Batman killing Harvey Dent, the events of The Dark knight are vapors that ignore the elements of what is to date the most popular entry in the franchise. This is to say nothing of the marginalization of great characters like Alfred, who is excused for most of the film, and Lucius Fox.
Despite the stack of flaws, DKR deserves to be seen in the theater if only to enjoy the spectacle, which it undoubtedly is, with an audience that will likely respond with shock and awe to the twists and the middling action--never Nolan's strong point. Just know that once you get some distance from this event of a movie and start pulling at the threads, this thing is gonna unravel faster than rayon. At that point, you'll probably end up right where I was after seeing DKR for the first time--wishing Heath Ledger was still with us so that we could watch the Joker challenge the Bat to dance with devil in the pale moonlight of Chicagotham.
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