I’d been really looking forward to watching The Dark Knight Rises since it came out a few weeks ago. I diligently avoided all spoilers and laughed when I heard one or two strange stories about the ending. I finally got to watch the movie last night in an almost empty theatre.
I hated it.
It’s not often that I’ll leave a theatre angry at the movie I’ve just watched but this happened last night. The movie was too long and destroyed the Batman mythology. The Batman story has always been flexible. Characters are changed about, sometimes the stories contradict each other but usually those stories are seen as separate to the main Batman story line. That might excuse some changes but this movie knocked huge gaping holes in it and threw a twist in at the end to make sure it was completely destroyed. *sigh*
I’ll leave you with this, The Dark Knight Rises: 20 Mistakes Nolan Should Have Avoided which is a pretty good overview of mistakes made in the movie. Do not read if you haven’t watched the movie.
Oh, and go read Batman: Knightfall. It’s the story this movie was based on but it’s so much better.
I feel that it was a rather good ending, if you accept that Nolan’s Batman was entirely separate from the version in the comics, which he has said from the beginning of the project.
When you realize that the Batman in the comics should be well over 90 years old, it makes sense that no one man can do what he does forever, so having a solid ending to the character is actually a welcome alternative.
Sure, it laughed in the face of established Batman mythology, but for good reason. This Batman had an ending, and that’s pretty awesome.
When I saw it was 3 hours long I I was worried it’d be another case of overextended plot, like King Kong, but I loved nearly every minute of it, thought it was a great flick. I’m not a comic book guy though, and I actually thought Jar Jar Binks was kinda funny, so I’m sure my opinion won’t be popular.
On another note, I tried posting from my android handset earlier and basically couldn’t, incredible lag on keystrokes, very very frustrating. HTC One X, up to date, standard browser.
I thought it was unusual to have so many impressive bits crammed together result in such a boring movie overall.
I understand why the hardcore Batman fans enjoy such a meatily detailed installment, but there was no emotional core for ordinary folks to hook into, no reason why we show care about these bizarre people running about onscreen.
I got the sense that Nolan was so desperate to cram in as many plot points as possible that he stripped them of any space in which we could sympathize – remember all those police and firemen, trapped underground for weeks, sort of a 9/11 situation? How did that feel for them? How did they maintain morale? No, sorry, no time to even spend a minute on that but, don’t worry, in about twenty minutes they’ll all be marching back up out of the ground.
It doesn’t help that Christian Bale is an essentially unlikeable lead but even actors I like, such as Gary Oldman, seemed to behave in a disjointed way. I remember greatly enjoying The Dark Knight, I now wonder if that was almost entirely down to the heart provided by Heath Ledger’s excellent performance.
To be honest, the only thing that genuinely held my interest was Anne Hathaway catwoman’s costume but, in my own personal life, I have a strict rule that once a girl betrays me and leaves me to be killed by a super villian, I stop chasing her, regardless of how much latex she is willing to wear.