This is my first review and all I want to do is spark discussion and debate. These are indeed my opinions, which I know some will disagree with and probably flame me over.
It’s finally over. Christopher Nolan has finished telling the Batman story he wanted to tell. Where do I start when it comes to critiquing what is arguably the best movie trilogy in the history of film?
I could start with Batman Begins, but I didn’t see BB while it was in theaters. Honestly, I didn’t watch the movie until my mom had gotten it on DVD. The reason for that is simply because I forgot it had come out, and didn’t hear anything about it afterwards. Granted I wasn’t surfing the interwebs as much as I do now and as such wasn’t frequenting forums or sites that spoke on the film.
I could start with The Dark Knight, which is arguably the best comic book movie made to date, but I have my own opinions on this film that I will not get to here and I don’t know if I ever will because while I think highly of the movie, I do not agree with everyone’s opinion on the film.
I read a lot of reviews and possible spoilers (some of which were true) about the film and my reason was because I wasn’t totally excited to see it as everyone else. Mainly because of the changes made to Bane. Watching the movie obviously persuaded my opinion a little more.
The pacing in the beginning of the movie is indeed fast. There’s a lot happening and Nolan decides to move the movie along quickly at first because later on the movie slows down tremendously to really explain and build the story that he quickly set up in the beginning. Anne Hathaway was indeed a scene-stealer as Selina Kyle. Most of her scenes left my jaw hanging open. From the scene in the bar where she takes out a bunch of goons as the police bust in only to fool them by screaming like a victim to her walk through the corridors of the cell ending in an inmate having a finger broken. There were also times where you can tell the sexiness was seeping from her pores (she looked hot walking through that corridor in that jumpsuit).
Tom Hardy plays an excellent Bane. The brutality was truly terrifying and there were times during some of his scenes where you almost beg him to stop because of how bad he was destroying batman. The cowl cracking punches left me in shock. When he broke Batman over his knee, the theater was silent…except for me. I clapped and cheered during the scene because that was the only thing I was looking forward to from the movie. Since there were so many changes made to Bane, I felt Nolan HAD to put the backbreaking scene in the movie to make up for it. If not, no matter what else had happened in the movie, this would be comparable to what Raimi did with Venom in Spiderman 3.
Speaking of Bane, the action sequences this time around were generally amazing. Nolan isn’t known for have good action sets in his films, but he outdid himself this time. There were a few parts that were just “meh” to me, but besides those I liked what I saw.
I do have some gripes with the movie. My biggest one is John Blake and the revelation that his name Robin (it sounded like it was his first name but from what I’ve read elsewhere it’s his middle name). I feel like this was somewhat cheap in that Nolan did NOT have to do this type of fan service. Gordon-Levitt obviously did a wonderful job in the role but once we saw whom he was playing we all KNEW that he would probably be taking over the mantle. They wouldn’t have cast an actor such as JGL for a role if it was minor or didn’t have importance to the story. I think his name should have just stayed John Blake and if he was going to do a fan service, he could have just named him Dick Grayson. I get everyone saying he was an amalgamation of all the Robins (though I didn’t see his “hotheadedness” that Foley kept mentioning) but he still could’ve named him one of the Robins and if not, just keep his name as John Blake with no funny business going on.
There wasn’t enough Batman in the movie but that didn’t bug me all that much. He also went through Batman Begins again in that he had to learn to wear the cape and cowl. This again didn’t bother me, but I see the gripes of other people. Banes death was cheap as well. I feel if Selina was going to kill him, she should have snuck up on him stabbed if anything. Bruce could also have just gone back to work on the mask and eventually pulled it off and letting him suffer. The movie is not perfect by any means to me, but I still loved it and was excited for the portrayal of Bane.
In closing we have to remember one thing; let the next director of the inevitable reboot a chance to tell the story he wants to tell. Everyone gave Nolan this chance so let’s give the next guy the same one. It all depends on where WB wants to take it and what they’ll allow (and we know how their reputation) but we can’t hold up the next Batman up to Nolans movies because they are going to be different films. Just like the stupid Avengers vs Batman thing. I won’t compare the two because they are different films.
9/10