5 Reasons Why the Dark Knight Rises can surpass The Dark Knight

5 Reasons Why the Dark Knight Rises can surpass The Dark Knight

Since its release in 2008, The Dark Knight has been called many things- one of the best sequels of all time, one of the best modern crime dramas, a real leap for the comic book movie genre etc. With this much cache behind it and Rises soon hitting cinemas everywhere. A question looms over many movie goers’ minds as well as fans of this franchise. Can this really surpass the Dark Knight, a movie which set the bar so high? Well in this writer`s opinion I think that it indeed can and here are five reasons as to why.

1) Focus on Bruce Wayne- One of the common criticisms of the Dark Knight was that it did not focus on Bruce Wayne enough and that Batman was such a non entity. It is because of this that many if not all prefer Begins to its sequel. I partially agree with this, I saw Batman has the inciter of many things in Dark Knight if not the lead protagonist but I would argue the movie was mostly about the triad of Gordon, Dent and Wayne. With Rises, I do get the feeling that despite the introduction of new characters such as Selina Kylie, Miranda Tate and Bane- that there will be a huge focus on Bruce. I get the feeling that his character arc will encompass of a lot of ideas such as who he is without Batman, his hard edged determination as well as the bigger implications of his heroism and him being a symbol and what that ultimately means for Gotham. In addition, I can see Bruce being challenged here in a way he has never been before and this brings us to my next point.


2) Bane- One of the most acclaimed things about The Dark Knight was Heath Ledger`s performance as The Joker as well as his character and how he existed in Nolan`s Gotham. I am among those who agreed with this assessment. Despite this, I do think that Bane can be an equally good villain as Mr J if not better and here is why. Firstly if Nolan can do such an original and great take on a 70+ year old character such as The Joker then think of the possibilities he can do with a character that has been hardly utilised but yet is so young such as Bane. Secondly, I am really liking Nolan`s take on him thus far, from the visual point of view he looks absolutely terrifying and also he looks almost like a renegade who left the Red army and just from seeing the Prologue he commands an amazing presence and air of mystery to him. In addition Tom Hardy is a great actor and I think his performance despite the hindrance of a mask will be spectacular. My only worry is the Nolan brothers making him too one dimensional. I really hope they were reading some of the early Bane stuff as he has a great origin and an interesting dynamic with Batman, shown most clearly in the Vengeance of Bane one shot issues, particularly the second one.

3) Catwoman and female characters- I feel with this next point that Nolan may be answering his critics. Despite loving The Dark Knight, I feel that Rachel Dawes despite being well acted came across more as a symbol or ideal then a proper full fleshed out character, she represented an ideal life for Bruce Wayne and part of the reason why Harvey Dent fell from grace. With Rises, I am really looking forward to seeing Nolan tackle Catwoman. She is a character I have always thought would work in this universe whether as a response to Batman or working on her own to survive. In addition she is one of the most important characters in the mythos, she represents one of the ultimate temptations for Batman/Bruce Wayne and their chemistry together is always really fun to read, something I hope gets translated to screen come July 20th. This brings me into a larger point, with Marion Cotollard also being added to the cast, I think Rises will fix one of the major problems of the series thus far and that is the lack of female characters, between Hathaway and Cotollard I really reckon it’s not only the boys who will be stealing the show this time.


4) Nolan`s Direction- Upon hearing that Rises was announced, one of my major worries about the film in general was the direction that this was going to take. Many questions arose in my mind, the scale of The Dark Knight compared to that of Begins was massive, it was an all encompassing Crime Drama and thriller. How is Nolan really going to top that? Well my fears over this issue have all but nearly ceased in the recent months. While Nolan compared The Dark Knight to great crime dramas in particular his primarily influence being Micheal Mann`s Heat. With Rises he is comparing it to not only great Hollywood epics of old but also silent movies as well as other things that this small quote from him demonstrates- “It`s all about historical epics, in conception, It`s a war film. It`s a revolutionary epic”-This combined with over an hour of the movie being shot in IMAX, really makes me confident about Nolan`s direction in regards to the end of his take on Batman.


5) The Score- A Singular Vision Fulfilled?- One of the most unique things in the franchise thus far has been in its score. Batman Begins if you were judging from the score alone came across as something out of a horror movie punctuated with some poignant themes and rousing action music. With The Dark Knight this was elevated with the Joker theme that was composed by Hans Zimmer that fused so well with the soft touch from James Newton Howard most clearly seen in the theme he composed for Harvey Dent. Despite not really liking the absence of Newton Howard, I do feel in the long run it will actually make this movie better. Despite doing some great stuff on the score as I just briefly remarked on. I feel the score for the first two movies have been primarily Hans Zimmer`s brain child and from just listening to full score recently for Rises, I can tell he has wrapped up a lot of themes he has set up and I look forward to this partially singular vision regarding the score being fulfilled when I see Rises opening day.