The End To Nolan's Batman, or The End To Batman?

[newbie]

With the release of "The Dark Knight Rises" in DVD and Blue-ray, I thought it would be appropriate if I revamped my review for your enjoyment! If you have not seen this film, what are you doing on the forums, and get your butt to watch this film (il)legally!
 

 
For nearly a three-hour long film, "The Dark Knight Rises" is a well deserved ending to Christopher Nolan's modern take on the famous night crusader Batman. The previous two films were excellent stand-alone cinematic masterpieces that tell the individual heroism the protagonist Bruce Wayne faces in his mission to fight crime in Gotham City, but the third film somewhat falls short in delivering the epic installment we all desperately wanted, arguably because of the huge bar both films have set so far.
 
Most of us here have read Batman comics or the famous animated series, so I'll you all with the theatricality of Batman's background. Especially since most of you here have seen the first two of the trilogy, I'll do away with describing what you could have possibly missed. 
 
The timing of the plot was a bit less satisfying for the audience. The movie is clearly divided into two equivalent parts, as one major scene in the movie gives birth to the new Bruce Wayne, the final form of the Batman that Gotham deserves and needs. Remember, this is not the truth, justice, and the American way superhero we all too familiar with in another realm of superhero movies. This dramatic and triumphant finale of Nolan's social criticism involves much thoughts on terrorism, class warfare, social service, and political revolution, definitely not the popcorn flick like Joss Whedon's "The Avengers" we were all excited for this year. The whole film is filled with narrative allegories touching the dark and personal challenges that Batman needs to overcome to truly transcend into the symbol of hope and light he created. Batman lost a spiritual and mental battle against Heath Ledger's Joker, and succumbed into his failure of individual will. 
 

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You trulycan not have a complete Nolan's Batman film without having a police chasing Batman scene!

 

From the start of the film, the audience is drawn out of their seat with impressively captivating and powerful scenes, but the beginning character development seems a bit slow compared to the rest of the film until Bruce Wayne's final metamorphosis halfway through the film. While the introduction of the movie serves to show Bruce Wayne's misplaced direction is understood, this character growth tails off to almost non-existence after the character's very brief climax. Another problem with the film is the introduction of other characters in the film. While Bane's plane-hijacking scene was executed beautifully to emphasize the Bane army's intimacy and loyalty, Miranda Tate and John Blake are ushered in without proper background telling and the masterful introduction that Nolan has created for all major characters so far.

John Blake's "detective" deduction of Batman's identity is probably the downfall of the film. The whole scene screams absurdity, only to be somewhat saved by Blake's little monologue towards the end. Oh, am I supposed to believe an orphan somehow looked at another orphan right into the eyes and go, "Ah-ha! You will be Batman one day because of the vengeance burning in your heart!"? Characters like Joseph Levitt-Gordan and Marion Cotillard are refreshing and confident stars added to the roster; are they really necessary elements to this odyssey, or are they bogging down a potential simplicity of this film?

Also, Bane's overly-complicated plan to takeover or destroy Gotham seems a little forced into the plot. Scenes after scenes, the viewers learn more about Bane's plane that do not explain how the previous scenes fit in Bane's overall plan. Batman's second fight with Bane is a little lacking; in addition, Bane's death is anticlimactic and pointless, but it is assumed that was needed to show Batman's weakness in not using guns and Batman's moral victory over Bane. This is not even counting the plot-twist of Miranda Tate that, although her secret identity was an orgasm for all those nerds out there, it really served no purpose to the whole integral plot. But of course, the film would not be the same franchise popularized by the superhero industry without Batman's over-dramatic and frequently distracting voice, the typical villain's explaining the whole plot to the hero while Batman lies there doing nothing, and of course Batman's super-healing factor that helps Batman recover from a spine injury and lack of cartilages in unnatural time.
 

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Bane's taking the city by a slowly building-up storm further enhances his menacing image as a ruthless and calculating villain.

Onward to the good parts of the film, the character of Bane was nicely scripted by Nolan, and superbly acted by Tom Hardy. Nolan managed to wow the viewers with both Bane's inhumanism of intense ruthlessness and Bane's humanism of intense love for Talia. His voice is a bit distracting at first, but the unique distortion grows on you and weirdly matches the mysterious nature of Bane. Finally, the addition of Bane as finally someone more than a physical match to Batman completes Batman's standard rogue gallery powerset. Most of the previous villains have been mental-, fear-, chaos-based, but now Batman has to relearn everything he was taught to overcome his bruite opponent. Bane isn't the chaotic and lawless champion seen in the Joker, but the dangerous freedom and uprising rhetoric that has not been introduced yet. Let's also not even forget the knee-to-back-breaking scene all the devoted comic book fans have been waiting for.

Anne Hathaway definitely outperformed the community's expectation of her role as the graceful but also cunning Catwoman. Nolan and Hathaway's take on Catwoman manages to maintain Michelle Pfeiffer's frustration and cleverness, but still creates an original antiheroine who seemingly organically blurs the line between villainy and heroism. Opposite of Aaron Eckhart's Two-Face as a hero turned wrong, Catwoman ends the series with a villain we finally need, one who finally frees herself of her evil, even through troubling expositions she experienced. Like the two previous films, Nolan wonderfully captured again a sense of duality of the villains in the film. 
 
The person who truly stole the show for me is without a doubt Alfred. Even with probably the shortest screen time, Michael Craine flawlessly displays Alfred''s affection through sacrifice and his remorse from his betrayal of Bruce Wayne, and audience were drawn into his convincing performance through his small but powerful scenes. Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman did wonderfully as well, and acted the same character standard they achieved in the previous two films. Scarecrow as the judge of the riches and Ra's' cameo are a nice touch, and the revelation of the Lazarus Pit and Batman's rising out of it rejuvenated are also great addition to the character development of Batman. 
 

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Her costume may not be that dead sexy, but wait till you see her arse as she rides the batpod!

 
Finally, though many of us thought Bruce Wayne should have physically died, there is no need to physically kill him especially after Batman's death and Bruce Wayne's death already having served as the symbols that Gotham needs and deserves. In the film, Bruce Wayne "dies" in the midst of the savagery of Gotham. The persona of a "billonaire, playboy, philanthropist," to borrow the line from Whedon, "dies" to show the now unnecessary need and the end of the Bruce Wayne identity. Nolan took us through a journey with the birth of the hero, the struggle of the hero, and the redemption of the hero. Batman is the symbol that was needed to get the corrupted cops and individuals out of the system and to inspire the cops and the citizens of Gotham and individuals like John Blake to stop turning against each other and stand up together against fear. Batman "dies" in the explosion after successfully giving all he could to the city, by finishing the donning of the cape that the city finally deserves and needs to inspire the rest of Gotham. The moral of the symbol to the city, especially to John Blake, is that anyone could rise up from the fear that clouded Gotham. John Blake's now new lack of fear walking across the bridge with threats of being shot and the cops' courageously charging the released criminals differentiate from the horrible grip of cowardice and fear on Gotham shown in the first two films before Batman's final symbolic death. However, Nolan's intent on keeping Bruce Wayne's physically alive is obvious as keeping Bruce Wayne alive is consistent with the logic and reasoning of the film in portraying that Batman owes the city no more after giving all he could with the death of his Bruce Wayne and Batman personas that together is not the life of his own, as advocated by Alfred and hoped by Wayne's parents. Thus, he completes the story of the struggle of Bruce Wayne and the heroism of Batman by living the life that he needs and that everyone else so has wanted for him. 
 
Fans and viewers alike will find the ending as expected. It's a superhero movie, not some mind-twisting dramatic film. Completing the trilogy, Nolan expertly touched the main plot line of any superhero movie but with a tremendously contemporary and gloomy take: returning from exile, coming back to to defeat villainary, only to be bested on a spiritual level, then returning to finally achieve the ultimate level of his or soul to be the superhero meant for the protagonist. With its impressive and hopefully award-winning cinematography, art direction, soundtrack, and visual effects  "The Dark Knight Rises" is thrilling, mythical, but absolutely enjoyable.

[Asulynn]

I just watched this for the first time a week or two ago. Though it was to be expected, I felt it was a bit of a letdown in comparison to the previous film. Even leaning towards being corny in some places, such as the orphan / John Blake part that you mentioned. All in all it was a rather fitting ending though, and the development towards the end left Nolan - or others - a way to continue the story. I'm rather excited to see where that goes, if anywhere.

[Johnnydillinger]

Good points about the stupid tidbits that are all around the movie. I was never that much of a fan of the Batman trilogy, let alone the Dark Knight (Batman Begins remains my favourite of the trilogy), though that's because I set the bar for them a bit too high, having watched Nolan's The Prestige first, which was fantastic. Still, these 3 movies were awesome, even if not my favourites.

[Solitaire]

Anne Hathaway is ridiculously sexy in that suit, on or off the batpod.

[Asulynn]

Anne Hathaway is ridiculously sexy in that suit, on or off the batpod.

I honestly didn't even know she was in the movie, let alone that catwoman was, before I started watching it. Yes, my rock is nice and comfortable. I like her as catwoman.. unlike Halle Berry.

[Zyphis]

I felt like posting this in reply...

for the lols.

[Theos Sairin]

Bane's voice = awesome.

[Sephy]

Is it just me, or is Bane's voice extremely difficult to understand? It sounds like he's talking through an empty cup.

 

Anyways, I personally didn't feel bothered about how they chose to end the series. All the actors gave a great performance, and yes, Anne Hathaway is quite sexy in that suit. Anyways, a great trio of movies.

[SuperHetero]

I used to work in a call center so it was easy to decipher Bane's voice.

 

Seriously after getting over 20 calls from Tennessee from dude's who sound like boomhauer from King of the Hill you get some mad skills at understanding anything. 

[DarkStrategy]

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/607810

 

I'll just leave this here.

 

Also, I thought the movie was pretty great. I think #2 beat it out just in pure nitty-gritty, but Heath Ledger was legendary in that.

 

The only part that really bugged me was the ending. What did they say, a 20 megaton bomb or something like that? They made up some ridiculous number, gave it a blast radius of like 15 miles (This would not include fallout), and then went 500 yards off coast and blew it with no adverse affects? That was silly.

[newbie]

I would rank the films in this order: The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, and the Dark Knight Rises. There's a rumor going around that Joseph Levitt-Gordan is going to take over the mantle in the Justice League movie. Nolan hasn't denied it yet. So...

 

" data-cid="62835" data-time="1355730323">The only part that really bugged me was the ending. What did they say, a 20 megaton bomb or something like that? They made up some ridiculous number, gave it a blast radius of like 15 miles (This would not include fallout), and then went 500 yards off coast and blew it with no adverse affects? That was silly.

 

Agreed. I felt like Nolan rushed the ending just a bit too fast. There wasn't much closure when one compares it to the entire film.