The Dark Knight Rises

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.