The Dark Knight Rises
It's been a REALLY long time since the last review, more than a year ago I think, but this post is warranted I promise.
Disclaimer: don't read it if you haven't watched it, I'm going to talk about the plot lines, ending, etc...Also, I'm going to say HONESTLY what I think about the movie and not just go with the masses and say "OMG IT'S SO GOOD! SO AMAZING! BLAH BLAH YAY LIFE! I LOVED EVERY SCENE WHEE!" I'm not that type of person to sell myself out if I don't think a movie is that fantastic. Not that I'm saying it's not fantastic or anything... so read on dear audience if you want to. But don't hate on me just because I'm telling you what my opinion is...Sorry!
Going to start pretty general first...The Batman trilogy by Christopher Nolan is probably THE best Batman remakes EVER. I love George Clooney, Uma Thurman, Jim Carrey, Michelle Pfeiffer (!!!!), Danny Devito and all them old (kitschy) remakes, but Nolan made this Batman darker, cooler, edgier and most importantly emotional. Not just a superhero with amazeballs gadgets, but a real person, with real feelings. I think that the way the Nolan assembled the Batman character was absolute perfection.
Okay, so bad news/good news time. I suck as a Batman fan, I watched all of the cartoons when I was little, including Batman Beyond (everyone remember that?) but I can't remember for the life of me much about it. So when I don't know something... I like having shit explained to me. So when the bad guys roll out I like to be like OOOH I REMEMBER SCARECROW! I REMEMBER THE BANE! Etc etc...But Christopher Nolan doesn't bother to really give us (me) the explanation of who these characters really are. Yeah, everyone knows Anne Hathaway is Catwoman but he never actually refers to her as Catwoman, did you guys catch that? But, duh, of course, I know who the eff she is, I'm not that dense. (And her googles/cat eats are so cute!) ANYWAYS: Here I am, watching the movie with my sister, someone who remembers every character in Batman and is like "OH DUH! Marion Cotillard is Talia! Ra's al Ghul (Liam Neeson in Batman Begins) never had a son...he had a daughter..." I'm just like who the f**k is this Talia person, and then my sister, proceeds to explain that her dad is Ra's al Ghul and the Lazarus Pit and all that jazz. All the background on Talia and her long-standing romantic relationship with Bruce in the comics. I'm just like...wtf? Why don't I know this? I seriously suck regarding anything Batman related, I know that. But one sex scene in the movie, a brief 1 minute childhood flashback, telling us her name in the end and how she's avenging her dad is NOT going to cut it as an explanation. Sorry.
Maybe I'm just dumb or something but there must be (at least I hope so!) people like me who don't know who the hell Talia is when she says her real name. Yeah, she's the bad guy blah blah but does anyone know about her background story? Besides the fact that she was born in the prison, saved by Bane, and escaped? I want to knowwwwwwwwwww everything at least SOMETHING, but I don't, Nolan doesn't develop her character, really explain who the hell she is. In fact, he doesn't develop anyone but Batman. Yeah, he's the main guy but still...come on, throw me a bone here, geez. And um, that Joseph Gordon-Levitt/Robin thing at the end...uh yeah...sorry to break it to you...but Robin was re-created many times in the comics as the character: Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown (yes, a girl)...NOT JGL's name in the movie: John Blake! Where the hell did Nolan get that name? And is he supposed to be the next "Robin"????? *puzzled*
ANYWAYSSSSSSSSSSSS. Let's get to the main character. Batman. Missing from like most of the movie...I kept forgetting where the hell he was, a hermit in his manor, stuck in the prison, being a mopey depressed little d-bag suffering from an identity crisis. Yeah, call me what you want but I just called out Batman and I don't regret it. (Sidenote: this reminds me of one of my favorite series, Harry Potter, and when Harry was being a bratty teenager in the 5th book (Order of the Phoenix), I was like WTF dude, grow some balls and stop being such a little asshole!) The whole time I was watching the movie I was like where's the Batman that I remember in the other two movies? He didn't ditch us for half the effing movie. Oh, and don't even get me started on Batman getting his ass handed to him by Bane down in the sewers. Seriously...I expected a real spar not just a couple of half-assed predictable crap punches...
So I sum up the characters as: Bane with a Sean Connery voice from his little mask thingy (uh, excuse me, why did we only see ONE shot of Tom Hardy's beautifully chiseled face?), a completely missing Batman, a not-developed Catwoman, this Miranda Tate/Talia character, and JGL's rise from a little orphan to a cop to a detective. (I love JGL but he's not the main character, I feel like I'm learning more about JGL and his qualms with the city than I am about anything.) All the characters are just ... whatevers. Not developed real people. PLEASE at least tell me more about Bane and Talia's back history!!! Still totally not over this Talia thing...
Okay, so after ALL that bitching, I'm going to get into the movie instead of my shitty little summary. The actions scenes = amazeballs. The cast = amazeballs (major girl crush on Marion! Caine and Freeman are always the best!) Storyline: amazeballs (sometimes) BUT followed by a yawn. I'm not going to lie but the movie had it's boring bits, yeah, Nolan tried to build up the fact that the city and it's people were hopeless but there was just too much of that, boring and unnecessary. I think that he could've gotten across the whole story if he just nixed some of those parts. Again, I love JGL with a passion but I'm like...please...get on with the movie...I don't care about you running around...I want to see Batman break shit and save the effing day. Not do sit-ups and watch the news helplessly...(Ok, yeah, he broke his spine so maybe I'm being rather harsh, but this is a movie damnit). AND THREE HOURS?!
The boring parts aside...some the movie's action sequences were really, really dazzling. The beginning with the plane all crazy and stuff, too cool, too cool. A little confusing with the blood and body-switching, totally did not get that til the end, but awesome. A+. The only thing wrong with it was that I didn't realize it was part of Batman. I think I was still in shock from seeing the Superman preview right before the movie (so excited!!!!!) that I was like, ooh, is this a scene from the new SM movie? Haha shit. I'm so dense but I'm being for real. And then when I realized, oh yeah, I'm watching Batman, I'm like damn that amazing. Fantastic. Favorite scene of the movie. :)
I loved the ending though! Perfect. Definitely a good ending to the trilogy, I'm going to miss the hype but it's a perfect goodbye.
Hm. After I got all of that off my chest...the rest of the movie. Pretty good. One of the Top 10 movies I'm seen this year (but seriously, 2012, where are your good movies???). Do I recommend watching it? Obviously. Did I like it? Duh. But did I have massive amounts of problems with it? Yes.
Overall grade: B/B+.
Don't hate me but I'm not going to be a little sheep and love the movie. I have my qualms and I'm going to stick to my guns.
P.S. How did NO ONE discover The Bat when they were out looting the city? It was in perfect condition when Batman & Fox found it later on the rooftop...
