Hello Everyone :-)
No stupid pre-amble today. I love ‘Batman Begins’
and ‘The Dark Knight’ so let’s have a look at ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ (TDKR
from not on).
This blog contains SPOILERS about ‘The Dark Knight’
so if you want to read it, watch that first and come back to me.
Eight years after Batman took the blame for Harvey
Dent's insane killing spree and Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) facilitated
the cover-up, Gotham City has become an all-round safer place due to the ‘Dent
Act’ which helps incarcerate members of organised crime syndicates. During
those eight years Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) retired the Dark Knight and has
been living a life of isolation, mourning the loss of his childhood love Rachel
Dawes. His world is upturned by the arrival of Bane (Tom Hardy), a terrorist of
gargantuan proportions (literally and metaphorically) and cat burglar Selina
Kyle (Anne Hathaway), both of whom mean the Batman is forced back on to the
streets of Gotham to save its people.
It’s hard to overestimate just how anticipated this
film has been. I wouldn’t be able to choose between this and ‘The Avengers’ for
the ‘most hyped film of the year’ award.
What strikes you, when you first think about TDKR,
is how little Batman is actually in it. About three fight scenes and a chase
round Gotham; that’s your lot from the Caped Crusader. The focus is unashamedly
set on Brice Wayne and works well as a result. Wayne has to grapple with the
his own physical inabilities of which there are many; having come into this
actively avoiding any news or spoilers I was shocked by how infirm he is at the
start of the film.
There’s also a desperately sad plot strand that
hones in on, not just the physical sacrifices Wayne has had to make, but the
personal ones as well. As always it’s Alfred that verbalises this perfectly
when he says,
“I never wanted you to come back to Gotham. I
always knew there was nothing here for you, except pain and tragedy. And I
wanted something more for you than that. ”
It is utterly heartbreaking.
TDKR fits
like a straight brick in the Tetris game of this Trilogy. It feels like a
perfect fusion of ‘Batman Begins’ and ‘The Dark Knight’ but definitely has
its own identity. Imbuing a film with those seemingly opposite ideas (being simultaneously
new and familiar) and making it work is nothing short of extraordinary and when
you consider that Nolan never intended for this to be a trilogy it makes it all
the more remarkable. Nolan is a wonderful film-maker and if we get one of his intellectual,
emotive, spectacle-toting films once every two or three years I’ll be a happy
lady. Christopher Nolan I doff my
proverbial cap to you.
The cast are an embarrassment of riches. Each actor
brings their ‘A’ game and genuinely, 100%, there is not a bad turn in the
bunch. That is a rare and wonderful thing.
As I’ve mentioned, Alfred is the beating human
heart of the film, nay, the entire trilogy. Michael Caine is wonderful; when he
cries, you cry. Simple As.
Gary Oldman is superb as Commissioner Gordon. He
really nails that inner turmoil, living with the guilt of the Harvey Dent cover
up. I mean what more can I say? It’s Gary Oldman!
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is really shaping up to be
something special isn’t he??? Who’d have thunk it all those years ago watching
‘3rd Rock from the Sun’! In TDKR he plays John Blake, a selfless
Policeman who empathises with Bruce Wayne and draws a parallel with his
troubled beginnings. His plot strand takes as long to play out as Wayne’s and I
found it really enjoyable.
Christian Bale has more emotional meat to chew as
this film revolves around Bruce Wayne coming to terms with the life he has
chosen. I really liked his performance but then I’ve really liked all his performances over the trilogy.
Catwoman has been done to death (the mortal blow
was with Halle Berry’s shudder inducing ‘Catwoman’ spin off) but the always
excellent Anne Hathaway breathes new life into her. Never actually referred to
as ‘Catwoman’, Selina Kyle is a cat burglar with a moral compass that, more
often than not, doesn’t point north. Hathaway looks incredible, to my mind
she’s the physical female ideal which, as well as making her look like sex on
legs, is key to the character. She’s lean, strong and curvy; whether jumping
out of windows or seducing senators she uses it all to her advantage. Hathaway
completely immerses herself in the role and impressed me greatly.
I did a little bit of research into the comic book
sources of the various Bat-plots a few years ago and since then I have
maintained that the interpretation of Bane in ‘Batman and Robin’ is one of the
biggest disservices ever done to a character, ever. The character of Bane is
fantastic and he would be the ultimate superhero if he didn’t have such
sociopathic tendencies. Tom Hardy clearly ‘gets’ this. As we can all see he’s
got the size down pat, what he also nails is the intellect of Bane. He is not
only a physical but a psychological threat to our hero and for a large part of
this film you genuinely think ‘Batman might not win this time’; having that level
of jeopardy is a huge deal.
It’s a long film but it never feels like it. I mean
it’s LONG, 15 minutes short of three hours. The action sequences have you on
edge; the opening aeroplane scene gave me that feeling in my stomach when you
go upside down on a rollercoaster and you briefly feel weightless before being
jolted back to earth. The whole thing just feels so epic. I fail to see how
anyone (provided they’ve seen the previous two films) couldn’t get swept up in
the scope and scale of it all. I cheered, I cried, I gasped, I gripped the edge
of my seat in fear… what more could you ask for???
Concept
artist Tully Summers said of Nolan’s work “One of the things that makes his
Batman movies so compelling is their tone of plausibility” and, for me, that is
the key. There is the
physical reality and practicality of the gadgets and gismos such as ‘The Bat’ (Nolan’s
love of in camera effects is well documented), but there’s also the shades of
moral grey-ness that exist in Gotham’s inhabitants and gives them such realism. None of the characters are
wholly good or bad, they all have motivations and beliefs that make them seem
so much more than words on a script. On paper the idea of a realistic Superhero
film sounds rubbish but in practice it is that authentic gritty overtone and tangibility
that make this series so amazing.
Honestly I could sit here all day and waffle about
the merits of this film.
In a market that is full of never ending reboots
and sequels it feels strange that something is actually ending but fuck me, if
you’re going out, do it like this. There is the possibility we could return to
some of these characters in the future but only a fool would try and step into
Nolan’s gargantuan shoes.
I’m buying the inevitable Box set and making a
space next to my Toy Story Trilogy (and everything that implies) because this
is damn near as good as it gets.
TDKR made me the happiest girl in the world but if
you need to turn that frown upside down here are some…
Reasons to be cheerful
1. This is just one of those stories where you say
“aren’t humans bloody brilliant sometimes?!” Against the odds a one handed pianist has graduated from the Royal College of Music. Stuff like that just
makes me smile :-)
2. Any of you that follow me on Twitter will have
seen that over the past couple of weeks I’ve been borderline obsessed with the
Olympics. I’m in the midst of writing a post-Olympics thingy (because I’m sure
you haven’t read enough of those in the past fortnight) but for now here’s a
video of some of Britain’s wonderful Olympians miming along to ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’.
Just when I thought I couldn’t love Sir Chris any more…
3. The Paralympics starts on the 29th
August and the adverts for it are brilliant. Personally, I can’t wait to ‘Meet the Superhumans’ :-)
4. Finally… DOCTOR WHO PICTURES!!!! I can’t wait. I’ve
been watching series 5 and 6 box sets on a loop just to get a Who fix… I’m like
a Sci-Fi crackhead…
While you’re here, I’d just like to say… FUCK THE X
FACTOR. I watched the first episode on Saturday and it made me hate the world. I
don’t want to hate the world; I bloody love the world, so I’m not watching it
any more. I’ve had enough. I shall not mention it on Twitter, I won’t write
about it on here, none of my energy will be wasted on that circus that
masquerades as ‘reality television’.
After that little outburst, that’s all I’ve got for
today.
Goodbye till next time :-)
x x x x x x x x x x x x x
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