Wednesday 22 August 2012

Rising Action: The Dark Knight's Superb Denouement

The Dark Knight Rises concludes one of the greatest film trilogies of all-time in superb fashion. While there are some minor pacing issues and logical leaps, Christopher Nolan brings his Batman series to an artistically-logical conclusion on his own, spectacular terms.

The inevitable comparisons between Rises and The Dark Knight are sure to make the rounds, but in truth, that’s not a fair argument to make. The Dark Knight is the Mona Lisa. Everything from the direction to the pacing to the acting itself combined in a once-in-a-lifetime, perfect storm of cinematic awesomeness. You likely won’t be surprised to hear that TDK is one of my favourite movies of all-time. And even though Da Vinci did some incredible things, none of them were ever quite as great as the Mona Lisa. The same could be said here – Nolan’s crafted a subtly-brilliant, timely, intelligent action film with a good story and great acting … but it still disappoints when you compare it to the unabashed brilliance of the second film. Judged on its own merits, however, the light can shine much more brightly.

The film opens with a breathtaking piece involving two airplanes and succeeds in introducing us to the film’s central villain, Bane (who is played by an Englishman, even though he should be from the Caribbean and has this weird metal mask that should be a Lucha-libre style mask… /pushes up glasses – but I digress). The scene itself is awe-inspiring in its own right, but when you take into consideration the fact that Nolan and his team were shooting *in the air* - not in front of a green screen – it really is enough to make your jaw drop. This opening sequence succeeds in establishing Bane as a suitable villain – and as the film goes on, Nolan continues to work to convince you that he’s more than a match for the Batman. In many ways, Bane comes across less a villain than someone who legitimately believes he’s doing bad things for all the right reasons – you half expect the film’s subtitle to be ‘Occupy Gotham’. If there’s another #occupy protest later this year, expect many protestors to be wearing Bane masks.

The film calls numerous Batman storylines / graphic novels – including (but not limited to), Knightfall and The Dark Knight Returns – and brings them together into one three-hour oeuvre that at once manages to feel final, yet immensely satisfying all the same. It succeeds where many 3rd-films in trilogies (*cough cough* Godfather 3 *cough cough*) fail in that it can stand well enough on its own, but it still manages to bring the over-arching story into a full, cohesive plot. In other words, it’s not the 5th season of Lost where they just decided to go back in time for some reason (and I *loved* Lost – so this isn’t something I say lightly).

The performances across the board border on spectacular. Christian Bale, as always, provides the most humanized Batman – even frailer now, as a Batman whose body has broken down owing to the years of physical abuse. Michael Caine is outstanding in pretty much every film he’s in and his presence is always felt in any scene he appears in. Tom Hardy’s Bane is suitably menacing – a hulking physical specimen that you honestly believe could do serious damage to the Batman – but his accent seems a little out-of-place at times - never quite to the point of distraction, however. The real revelation might just be Anne Hathaway’s Catwom.. err ‘Selina Kyle’. I had wondered how she would fit in to Nolan’s Bat-trilogy, as she always struck me as too ‘comic-book’ (from the hundreds of cats in her loft, to the constant feline puns). To Hathaway’s credit, though, she sculpts a sultry foil to Bale’s Bat that manages to stay grounded, yet sympathetic. She really holds her own here against some real heavyweights and I wouldn’t be shocked to hear her name announced as a Best Supporting Actress contender later in the year. As for the direction – well, it’s a Christopher Nolan film, so you know it’s bound to be superb (seriously – has the guy made a single bad movie? I challenge you to name one. Anyone!) and this film certainly doesn’t disappoint. Indeed, it’s a film that rewards repeat viewings. Personally, there were several things I picked up the second time that I either completely missed or was completely oblivious to the first time around. Nolan takes the theme of ‘rising’ from the ashes to heart – his shots are always framed so that things seem to move upwards from the bottom of the screen. It’s subtle nuances like this that serve to ‘raise’ (see what I did there?) this film above a simple action-heavy, popcorn-flick. The film moves along briskly, despite its 2:45 run-time (though one point prior to the climax, you’ll find yourself wishing for a little more exposition as there’s a serious logical leap for your mind to hurdle) and it never feels overlong in spite of its epic scope.

Now don’t get me wrong – this film is not perfect. There is that odd pacing hiccup to get over and both JGL’s Officer Blake and Morgan Freeman’s Lucius Fox seem somewhat under-utilized (a golden rule I use to grade most films – more JGL & Morgan Freeman = good. Less = bad). In addition, Batman’s new toy, ‘The Bat’ (“Yes, Mr. Wayne, it *does* come in black…” – awesome. See? More Morgan Freeman = good) doesn’t quite have that same ‘wow’ factor that you got the first time the new Batmobile or the Bat-cycle were deployed. These are minor quibbles, though, in what is otherwise a superb effort.

With The Dark Knight Rises, Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy comes full circle. He constantly reminds us about the series’ beginnings, while at the same time staking out a daring, dark – by far the darkest of the three films - vision for the World’s Greatest Detective. It all comes together in a positively thrilling climax and immensely satisfying conclusion. Taken as a snapshot, The Dark Knight Rises is a great film – but viewed with a wider-angle lens, the trilogy together represents nothing short of a modern cinematic achievement. Comic book films will never be seen the same way again.

Geek Score:

9 out of 10 Bacon Strips



What I'm Reading: Night of the Living Trekkies by Kevin David Anderson

What I'm Playing: Bioshock 2, Diablo III