I can describe my impression of "The Dark Knight
Rises" with one word; messy.
The film opens eight years after the events detailed in
"The Dark Knight" which have driven Batman into hiding and
simultaneously brought peace to Gotham by portraying Harvey Dent as a martyr.
Naturally a new threat has arisen, and Batman must once again don his cape et
al and fight, even if he has lost his public approval ratings. Director
Christopher Nolan wisely follows this logical path, and the story arc itself is
well crafted. The Batman character (or Bruce Wayne, more interchangeable here
than before) is presented with a suitable adversary, one who challenges him to
his physical and mental limit.
Unfortunately there are too many unnecessary
side-characters, and an over-reaching scale. What I mean by scale is that
previously Gotham has been depicted as a self-contained city, perhaps meant to
symbolize the moral decline which has accompanied urban expansion. Yet in
"The Dark Knight Rises" there are cuts to a remote command center
(out of Gotham) where Air Force analysts worry about the device which threatens
Gotham. Jets are scrambled from offsite and fly over Gotham. Military
approaches Gotham over a bridge, meeting citizen half-way. All this shatters
the illusion which defines Gotham, and I found myself thinking more of
"24" episodes than Batman. Nolan also made the misstep of introducing
at least six or seven new supporting characters in this film when only three of
them are in any way integral to the plot. The new police chief, members of
Wayne Enterprise’s board, and Catwoman all waste valuable screen time. The choreography of the mob fight sequences is
also awkward, which may have been somewhat intentional to create a chaotic
atmosphere, but I found it distracting.
In the midst of a messily assembled movie I found myself
really enjoying the two most important elements; Batman/Bruce Wayne’s journey and Bane’s (the
antagonist) thread. Starting with Bane,
here is a character who is a man of action.
Backstory and motivation are not as important in understanding Bane, as
is observing the path of destruction he leaves.
His physical prowess makes him an imposing figure, which Nolan conveys
wonderfully through editing, dialogue and the primary fight sequence between
Batman and Bane. This fight scene was
one of the two most important scenes of the movie. This was the breaking of Batman, literally
and metaphorically. Bane’s breaking of
Batman is intertwined with Bruce Wayne’s struggle throughout the film to understand
what he should do, and who he should be.
The second most important scene is Wayne’s climb from the inescapable
(?) pit prison. Once again this ascent
is meant to be taken at face value and for its symbolic parallels to Wayne’s internal
struggle. Christian Bale is the perfect
actor to play Batman, because the audience can sincerely root for him as Gotham’s
salvation and despise him for the wretch he is, both at the same time. At the center of Nolan’s failed attempt to make an
epic finale to his Batman trilogy, is a much humbler but truly powerful
cautionary tale.
While there is so much more I could discuss, it’s best that
I close by briefly commenting on the ending of “The Dark Knight Rises”. So often I criticize great films for their
unsatisfactory endings; with this film I find that observation turned on its
head. The last five minutes of this film
almost made me forgive Nolan for the previous 2 ½ hours. While the ending may not have been fitting
for the movie itself, it was a stand-alone good ending, one which will bring smiles
to faces of Batman fans everywhere. I had
a smile on my face as the credits started rolling.
