by Julien
Faddoul
** 2 stars
d – Christopher Nolan
w – Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan, David S. Goyer (Based on the Comic Book by Bob Kane)
ph – Wally Pfister
** 2 stars
d – Christopher Nolan
w – Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan, David S. Goyer (Based on the Comic Book by Bob Kane)
ph – Wally Pfister
pd – Nathan
Crowley, Kevin Kavanaugh
m – Hans Zimmer
ed – Lee Smith
cos – Lindy Hemming
p – Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas, Charles Roven
Cast: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, Marion Cotillard, Morgan Freeman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Matthew Modine, Cillian Murphy, Juno Temple, Ben Mendelsohn, Burn Gorman
m – Hans Zimmer
ed – Lee Smith
cos – Lindy Hemming
p – Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas, Charles Roven
Cast: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, Marion Cotillard, Morgan Freeman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Matthew Modine, Cillian Murphy, Juno Temple, Ben Mendelsohn, Burn Gorman
Filmmakers
from all walks of life have found aesthetic comfort in The Trilogy. And I say
“aesthetic” because it has never necessarily been through storyline, whether
its Bergman or Antonioni or Cocteau (whose Orphic
trilogy did follow the same characters). Recently, separating a story into
three different films has become just as much a marketing ploy as a directing
choice. It has just been teased of late that Peter Jackson might be making
three Hobbit movies, a thought that made
me feel faint. To constantly follow and keep track of movies this way is more
like studying for an exam than an evening of artistic insight. But there have
been great works of art in this form of late, including Mr Jackson’s own The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Pixar’s
Toy Story films. The Dark Knight Rises, the final film in Christopher Nolan’s Batman
trilogy, is a satisfying and honourable finale with some affecting moments, but
all those moments come from the mindset of seeing the trilogy as a whole. The film
itself is a bit of a mess. Batman Begins
was an intelligent breath of fresh air, The
Dark Knight was a haunting and exhilarating rollercoaster, this new film,
at 165 minutes, is a fat and heavy cake that may feel pleasant but probably isn’t
good for you.
The
film opens with an excellently executed plane sequence (shot in IMAX) that does not factor
into the narrative in any significant or substantial way. This, to me, is the
perfect correspondence for how this entire picture feels when one is following
it. We enter the story eight years after the previous film ended in which
Gotham City is experiencing an incredibly low crime rate and Batman (Christian
Bale) has disappeared. Both of these happenings are a result of Harvey Dent’s
death in various ways that I won’t get into. That is, until a terrorist
muscle-man with a face muzzle named Bane (Tom Hardy) – who is a character who
only speaks in long, inspirational speeches – comes along to “set Gotham free”
from its aristocratic way of life. He, in a sense, is here to complete the dream
of Ra’s Al Ghul and the League of Shadows in the first film.
What
follows is a serious, heavy laundry list of action set-pieces and frenzied
plot-threads, most of which begin before the previous one has even ended. The amount
of characters we are required to follow is daunting: Mr Oldman, Mr Freeman, Mr
Caine and even Cillian Murphy all reprise their roles from the previous films.
Anne Hathaway plays Selina Kyle, a cat burglar who wants to start a new life
for herself (she is never referred to as Catwoman). Marion Cotillard plays
Miranda Tate, a philanthropist who is very interested in what Wayne enterprises
is up to, of which she is a board member. Ben Mendelsohn plays John Daggett,
Bruce Wayne’s business rival. Matthew Modine plays Gotham’s Deputy Commissioner
with loyalty issues. And lastly, Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays John Blake, an
intelligent young cop whose connections to the story I found laughable. I
understand the idea of the quantity of characters because this picture is
striving for grand themes on a grand scale. In fact, a better title for this
film would have been The People of Gotham,
especially since Bruce Wayne is somewhat sidelined in the middle act. The
Gotham of the previous film was a visual parallel to Chicago, in this film its
New York City (although it was apparently shot in Pittsburgh).
The
picture is trying to be about everything under the sun: terrorism, fascism,
rich vs. poor, government stability, physical stability, child abuse, anarchy, patriotism
and yet never feels deep, an issue the first two pictures never had. Mr Nolan from
the beginning has always been interested in complex narratives, but this one is
arbitrarily complex. It’s plotted to within an inch of its life.
My
main problem with the movie, and this is very pivotal to Mr Nolan’s approach as
a filmmaker, is that it is a very symphonic one. His films operate in movements
rather than pieces, huddling all over the place, galvanized by Hans Zimmer’s
score. But here, everything is so normalised that many of the significant set-pieces
or passages – which include the blowing up of Heinz Field, a motorcycle chase
through the streets of Gotham, the destruction of a city bridge, a sewer
rescue, a prison escape, and a big final confrontation between Batman and Bane –
have no greater emotional or narrative weight than anything else in the movie. Having
the audience keep track of all these characters in all these schemes in such a
scattered manner, somehow, both complements and undermines Mr Nolan’s central endeavour.
Of
the three films, this one is the most about
the Batman mythology even though Batman himself is not as prevalent. The Dark Knight was much more about
Batman as a figure, while The Dark Knight
Rises is more about Bruce Wayne as a person. Mr Nolan’s Bruce Wayne is
about this: individual responsibility and agency and assuming your own obligations
require doing the good that is within your power to do. The film’s richest
character financially is the one who has to ultimately “rise” to the occasion
and do the greatest and most glaring moral good, which is obviously an observation
on the state of America currently. I feel this works; it’s rare that an allegory
so serious is tackled within the limits of the superhero genre. Even though this
character totem probably would not work as well without Mr Nolan’s scattered
vision.
By
far the best scene takes place down in a sewer, where Batman and Bane first
meet, that is an exercise in brilliant brutality. And the reason that scene
works so well is because we are seeing it through the point-of-view of a third
character; a character who has just done something very wrong. Therefore, by
weaving in and out of these tense moments – all of which are serious and none
of which can be sacrificed – the picture is walking on a tightrope of quality
that I feel has nothing to do with expectations but rather the film itself.
I
wish the other characters worked better. For me, Selina Kyle’s account in the
film was the most silly and mishandled. I love the idea that Selina’s interest
is as rooted in identity and starting afresh as Bruce Wayne’s introspective,
but the whole device that demonstrates her wiping her slate clean is very
silly. Mr Gordon-Levitt is a fine
performer but in this movie he is wasted. He knows the identity of Batman for
downright stupid reasons, he’s promoted from lackey cop to head detective for
stupid reasons, and moreover, he is never seen doing actual police work; he
just always happens to be in the right place at the right time. He’s only value
as a character is to service the last five minutes. And as for Bane, his
motivation is never easy to pinpoint. It is revealed grandly near the end of
the film what his emotional motivation is, but his actual plan makes very
little sense. The Joker’s dream of destruction and chaos was much clearer.
I
have always given Mr Nolan credit; he is one of the few directors who
mainstream people are familiar with and he has earned that status not through showboating,
but sheer talent and expertise. But in trying to make his best film he has ultimately
made his least interesting. Once again, The
Dark Knight Rises is an honourable film because it completes the trilogy
satisfactorily without denigrating the first two, both of which are exceptional
in my eyes. But for me (and I never thought I’d say this) the best superhero
blockbuster of 2012 is Marvel’s The Avengers.