The Dark Knight Rises is an interesting movie. While there were many endearing moments, the movie ultimately fails to live up to the standards the first two Batman movies set. It's not hard to pinpoint what went wrong with the Dark Knight Rises, but what's troubling is that there are a lot of issues. Head Honcho Christopher Nolan certainly made a definitive Batman Trilogy for himself, but he sacrificed storytelling to do it.
Warning: This article contains many spoilers for The Dark Knight Rises, so be warned. If you haven't seen the movie, this will totally ruin it for you.
BANE'S JOKE
As a villain, Bane isn't bad choice. He's evil, he's physically strong, and he's got a plan. But look deeper at the character and you have some serious problems with him. He's intelligent. We get that. He pretended to be caught with a bag on his head so he can infiltrate his enemies. Cool. Wait, didn't the Joker do that in the second movie? Yes. Yes he did (albeit the Joker pretended to be dead). Bane did off-the-wall things that didn't make sense until after all the pieces came together. Again, he was exactly like the Joker. So rather than creating a unique character, Christopher Nolan simply created a clone of the Joker with less purple.
BANE'S STRENGTH
The Bane from the comic books is a powerful guy that uses drugs to enhance himself. Nolan's Bane had no such thing (as far as we could tell). Nope – Bane’s just a strong guy with an asthma problem (hence his Oxygen mask), yet for no reason he is able to take blow after blow from Batman (even though Batman has mechanically enhanced strength that allows him to kick through brick walls).
It just didn't make sense. Is Bane an intelligent villain or a super powered villain? Apparently he's both, but it doesn't fit into the Nolan trilogy at all. I understand the need to make a convincing Villain, but Bane doesn't fit in a trilogy that's featured a super intelligent Joker, smart mobster Falcone, psychotic-yet-sane Scarecrow, and master mind Ra’s Al Ghul.
Bane as a villain felt cartoon-y when compared to the other villains in the trilogy.
BANE'S VOICE
It must be mentioned that Bane's voice was a serious distraction from a serious movie. I'm aware that Tom Hardy re-recorded all of his voice-overs between the original trailer and the final movie (to make Bane easier to understand), but what the hell is up with the Sean Connery voice? The voice literally downgraded Bane from a "Batman Villain" to a rejected "James Bond Villain".
Seriously, close your eyes and think about Batman's voice and Bane's voice. Now image this dialog:
Christian-Bale-Batman: Do you expect me to talk?
Tom-Hardy-Bane: No, Mr. Wayne. I expect you to die!
BANE, THE HENCHMAN
I thought the final twist at the end, with the daughter of Ra’s Al Ghul, was great. It was fun twist that I didn't see coming at all. But the moment that happens, Bane went from villain #1 to a glorified henchmen. That's not a huge problem, as long as he's still threat. But he wasn't. He literally gets shot 2 minutes later by the Bat-Bike.
A major villain deserves a major conclusion, and we didn't get it here. It reminds of the lame wrap up of the Scarecrow in second movie, or how Count Dooku is unceremoniously killed in the first 10 minutes of Star Wars Episode 3. Even Samuel L. Jackson get a better send off in that shark movie.
Bane's ending came dangerously close to an off-screen death, and it's not what he deserved. I get that he's a glorified henchmen, but even they get better deaths in other movies -- a good example is Karl, the blond henchmen from Die Hard (he's killed twice, the first time by getting hung by the neck by McClane).
PRISON
There's a lot of time spent on the "Bruce Wayne in Prison"... a lot of wasted time. Ultimately it served three purposes.
(1) Allow Gotham City to be imprisoned for 3 months
(2) Allow the Dark Knight to "rise"
(3) Introduce "the child of Ra’s Al Ghul"
But all three points could have been served elsewhere. There was absolutely no need for the prison scene at all. It was a waste of time for very little payout. Consider this:
(1) The story would have been stronger if it unfolded in a matter of 3 days rather than 3 months.
(2) Batman's already been out-of-commission for 8 years and "rose" once already when he came out of retirement. Do we really need to see him "rise" again?
(3) The child of Ra’s Al Ghul was unneeded. We didn't need to know it. We didn't know the mystery of the Joker's origin, and that turned out to be a great movie, so why all the back story here?
Simply put, they should have cut out the entire prison scene and refocused on the story.
WHERE'S BATMAN?
Seriously, where is he? The first 1/3 of the movie is spent "catching us up" on the events of the past 8 years. There's a Dent act, Wayne Enterprises is in trouble, and the Batman hasn't been seen since Dent died. That's an awful lot to force on an audience that's been watching the story of Bruce Wayne unfold
in-real-time up to now. It's as if Nolan didn't know how to pick up where The Dark Knight left off, so he jumped into the future to tell his story. It may work for Mad Men, but it didn't work here (and Mad Men gets more than 3 hours to make it work).
And even more egregious is the fact that The Dark Knight himself is pretty lame when he
is on screen. The smart detective with lots of rich gadgets was turned into a punching brute with brand new helicopter. Are we really to believe that a character like Batman will blindly follow Catwoman into a trap? The scene went something like this:
Batman: Take me to Bane.
Catwoman: Okey, just walk next to me.
Batman: Are you going to double cross me?
Catwoman: I was in the Devil Wears Prada.
Batman: Good enough for me. Let's go.
I suppose it's not all bad. Batman did carry some sort of EMP-rifle and really lame smoke bombs… and a Batplane. Let's not forget about the Batplane. It's just too bad that we spent more time watching the Batplane than Batman himself. The entire last 15-minute climax wasn’t about Batman – it was about the Batplane. And once you take focus off of the main character, you lose the audience.
COPYING ITSELF
I've already mentioned that Bane is essentially a copy of the Joker, but with Andre-The-Giant-Like super strength, yet that's not the only copying that Nolan did. There were many moments that just made me feel like I've seen this movie before.
•Gotham City exits cut off? Dark Knight did that.
•League of Shadows destroying city? Batman Begins did that.
•Weapon that can destroy the entire city? Batman Begins did that.
•BatPlane saves the day by carrying away the killing device? Tim Burton's Batman did that. And that version of the Batplane had scissors.
•Bane pretending to get captured? Dark Knight did that.
•Big motorcycle scene? Dark Knight did that.
•Kangaroo judge and jury court? Actually, the first episode of Star Trek the Next Generation did that.
There's nothing wrong with taking ideas from other sources -- it happens all the time. However, borrowing so heavily from oneself is simply a sign of “lack of creativity.”
SUSPENSION OF BELIEF, REALLY?
An overall problem with the Dark Knight Rises is the suspension of belief. There are lots of things that just didn't make much sense that harms the overall story. Let's take a look at some of the head scratching things.
1) Jim Gordon wants to "tell the truth" at the press conference but changes his mind and sticks the letter back into his pocket. With a dozen microphones and hundreds of people... no one noticed this? Kim Kardashian gets a gray hair and the even my grandmother notices, but NO ONE notices what Jim Gordon said or what he had in his hands? Really?
2) Half a dozen people die in the Stock exchange, and the motorcycle villains have hostages, but the police let them go to catch Batman? Really?
3) Bruce Wayne knows his fingerprints got stolen, and it didn't occur to him that it could be used to screw his company? Really? This is the super smart billionaire-detective? My cat saw that one coming, and her brain’s smaller than an 8-track tape (for you younger readers confused by my terminology, you
can go here.
4) Bane and company was able to find Batman's secret Armory, but couldn't find the power generator? Really?
5) Batman wants to clean up the streets so he disappears for 8 years? Really?
6) The master plan was to bankrupt Wayne Enterprises in hopes that the daughter of Ra’s Al Ghul is voted into power, in order to find the power generator that may or may not exist? Really? It's almost as lame as Quantum of Solace's plot (an evil organization overthrows a government in order to sell back its water to them, and only 007 can stop them!).
7) My leg gets broken and I'm in rehab for 5 months. Bruce Wayne's back gets snapped, and he has a full recovery in 3 months without a real doctor? Really?
8) Hundreds of police march in formation to the prison/court to confront the bad guys, seemingly unarmed. You couldn't even walk in single file to hide your numbers? Really? You're just going to line up like target practice against thousands of people with AK-47s? Really?
9) Defensive bad guys firing AK-47s at charging-unarmed-police... and only about 4 of them die before getting in close enough for hand-to-hand combat? Really?
10) After 3 months trapped underground, the police waltz out... in the cleanest uniforms I've ever seen. Really?
11) Three months cut off from the world and Gotham has almost no trash in the streets. Really?
12) Batman, with cybernetic exoskeleton, gets his ass kicked by Bane, but 3 months in prison (after his back was broken) suddenly makes him stronger than bane? Really?
CONCLUSION
Don't get me wrong, there’s much to like about The Dark Knight Rises. Catwoman was surprisingly good, the child of Ra’s Al Ghul was a surprise, and Blake (aka "Robin") was easily the star of the show. Even the very ending of the movie was a pleasant surprise, especially with the Bat-cave scene.
The Dark Knight rises had an appropriate send-off for the trilogy, but the journey to that ending was just a mess. While the individual parts of the movie were good, it didn't mesh well together as a whole -- it's as if it was written by dozens of writers without a proper project lead.
If you think about the progression of Batman Begins and the tight storyline of the Dark Knight, it's easy to see why the Dark Knight Rises fails to live up to the first two movies. Clearly Christopher Nolan was more interested in finishing his Trilogy rather than telling a single good story. When your idea becomes more important than the method used to make that idea a reality... well, you end up with this kind of mess.
Next time (if there is one), Nolan needs to step back and just refocus on a better story... because less would have been more.
The Le is freelance writer and owner of the HeroClix World Fansite. His motto: Live Long and Be Fabulous!