I had the chance to watch The Dark Knight Rises again on Blu-Ray this past week. As many of you who read this blog know, I had saw the film for the first time at a marathon screening of all three Nolan Batman films the night of July 19th. My reactions to the film then were quite strong to say the least. If you are so brave, my original review can be found here..
Given time and certainly a second look, I will say that my opinions on some things have changed and others have not. I am going to just take the opportunity to tell you some of my feelings on the film now having seen it two times and also after having some time to gain distance from my own anticipation and expectations at the time of the film's release.
Let's start with some things that I have changed my thoughts on and then some that I haven't:
Bruce's swift return to hero work: In my initial review of the film I had issues with the way in which Bruce returned to Batman, specifically the way he overcame the bad condition his body was in. I hated Bruce relying on Lucius' magic box of technology to fix his ailments and restore him to some semblance of his former self, and thought more should have been made about just how bad off he was after years of seclusion.
While after the second viewing I am ready to drop some of those complaints. I think there is an effort to establish how bad of shape Bruce is in before becoming Batman again and more importantly what a colossally bad idea it is for him to fight Bane. The doctor's office visit does a good job of showing the damage to Bruce's body. It establishes what his time as Batman has cost him physically. Would I have liked a bit more here other than reference to loss of cartilage in his knees? Yes, of course. But overall the scene does give us an idea that Bruce's time as Batman and his years of not training have taken their toll.
Alfred does try and plead with Bruce to not go back out there. Discussions are had regarding Bruce helping Gotham as Bruce Wayne and not Batman by using his knowledge and resources, not his body, to help the city. Alfred does make mention of Bane's strength and speed, his viciousness, and how foolish it is for Bruce to think he can beat him. So yes there were things that diminished my complaints against the film on this point.
However, I still hate the use of technology to heal Bruce. It is a cheat, but one that Alfred does make reference of both at the time Bruce first uses it and after Bruce's first encounter with the police as Batman. Alfred says something along the lines of Bruce leading a merry chase of a bloated police force using toys provided by Fox A true statement and one that underlines how dangerous it is for Bruce to lean on technology in order to become Batman again. The escape from the police during this section of the movie does not prove that Bruce is fit to return to hero work. In fact it shows just how unprepared he is. That is most likely the point here that Nolan is making. Bruce can't truly return to Batman until his mind and body are both in high order. He cheats with Lucius' toys and he ultimately pays the price when Bane defeats him so viciously in the sewers. So the fact that it is a cheat is addressed. However, I would have preferred no super knee brace. All Bruce under the suit, banged up and all.
The endings: I had a great deal of anger and disappointment over the endings to this film at the time. I still do about a few aspects of these endings. But one of the larger ones I am more accepting of is the idea of Bruce still being alive. I have come to peace with the whole Bruce fakes his death thing. While the darker side of myself would have preferred Bruce to sacrifice himself literally for the city, the rest of me has accepted it. Do I love it? No, not at all. But it isn't nearly as awful nor as much of a betrayal to fans as I thought it was back in July.
What angered me at that time had alot to do with comments made by those involved with the production prior to me seeing the film. There was much made about how this film was going to definitively end the series. Now some might read comments like this as the creative team simply saying that the end to the film will tie up loose ends and feel fitting to the overall story that was being told. I took those comments as meaning really one thing: Bruce was going to sacrifice himself for the city of Gotham.
Now the comments made by the production team were not the only thing I used to draw this conclusion. There were strong rumors at the time, from trusted sources, that Warner Brothers was upset with the ending to The Dark Knight Rises. The reason they were upset is that it did not leave them any option other than rebooting the property all over again. Ok, so you say they would have had to anyway. This is true. But when you take this rumor and couple it with Nolan and company saying they are going to do something that has never been done before in comic book films, one can only really conclude that either they will unmask Batman, they will kill him, or both.
I think we can agree that my assumptions were logical based on the facts given at the time. But then I let my emotions get involved. I became excited by the possibility that I might see a film where Bruce reveals himself to be The Batman to all of Gotham. A film where the Batman sacrifices himself for the city and in turn solidifies ,in a very emotional and more importantly noble way, his legendary status with the people of Gotham. These are truly exciting ideas for a Batman fan, or at the very least they were exciting to this Batman fan. I went into the July 19th screening with an ending already played out, one which I had grown to love quite a bit. Then the real ending played before my eyes.
My disappointment overtook any real objective look at the ending Nolan actually used and how it fits in with his vision for the series overall. All I knew is that it was not the ending I had hoped for, the ending I had wanted.
With this second viewing I went into it knowing what the film was and more importantly knowing the films that came before. By not having the expectations this time of a film build in my imagination, I was better able to judge the ending on its own merit. I was better able to judge it for what it was and not what it wasn't or what it could have been.
As a result I liked the ending more. I still don't love it. I never will love it. It is not my ending. But it is a decent ending to this series. One which closes Bruce's time as Batman while leaving things open enough for a return, should it be warranted.
With that said, I still hate Talia's death. Hate it. She reveals herself and is dead within 5 minutes of screen time. Wrong move Team Nolan. I still have issues with the conceit that Bruce could have ejected from The Bat in enough time to avoid any effects of the explosion from the THERMONUCLEAR BOMB. Did I write that big enough? I mean to try and logically puzzle that one out with make your brain hurt. Seriously. And yes, he is Batman. I get it. But even being Batman does not explain this one away. It just doesn't work to me.
Neither does the idea that Bruce had time to plan all of his last will and testament before going to fight Bane one last time. When Bruce returns to Gotham it is literally days before the bomb is set to go off. I doubt he had time to meet with his lawyer, who umm yeah probably was already sentenced to exile, before suiting up again. In addition, you have to then assume Bruce was going into this final battle with the full belief he was going to either die or fake his death.
But then that begs the question as to what he would have done should they have got the reactor back to the reactor chamber and were able to stabilize it? Would he have found another way to fake his death? You see when you begin to pick at it the whole ending kind of falls apart.
I guess you could say in short that the ending to this film was fitting but in order to be enjoyable would need to be taken with a large suspension of disbelief.
Alfred Leaves: Time has not done any favors for this scene in the movie. If anything it has made it feel more out of place and rushed. As those who have read my original review know, I did not believe for one second that Alfred would leave Bruce ever. Particularly at a time of great need for Bruce. I also disliked greatly the way this decision by Alfred was played out in the film.
Watching it the second time, I felt exactly the same as I did the first. The scene is rushed, never given the time and weight it really needed. This was the scene where Alfred tells Bruce off, this is the scene where he says enough is enough. This is the scene where Alfred drops the bomb, no pun intended, about Rachel's true feeling for Bruce and a certain note that was written 8 years prior. This scene mattered, plain and simple.
But in the film it does not matter enough. God bless Michael Caine as he works his tail off to make the scene work. But in the end it is too short, feels too rushed, and does not allow these two to engage in an argument on the level one would expect when things like this are said between family members. If only Nolan had given this scene 5 more minutes of screen time, I think it could have been one of the most crucial and heartfelt scenes in the film. As it stands now it is a necessary scene, but not a particularly great one.
Robin John Blake: Yes, this is still fan service. Yes, it is still the stuff of a fan film production. I feel the same on those two points and that will not likely change no matter how many times I see this film. But it is not, nor ever has been, a deal breaker for me. It is one of those things that kind of bugs you as a fan, but not enough to cause you to scream and shout. It is a minor annoyance, nothing more.
What is, and always has been, more interesting to me is why Nolan chose to do this. He hates the character of Robin and never wanted to include him in his Batman trilogy. But then he uses the character's name for this creation of his, Officer John Blake. My guess is that his brother Jonathan, an avid Batman fan, twisted his arm to include this detail for the fans. Otherwise, it seems like Nolan can't make up his mind, which I sincerely doubt is a problem he often has.
Gotham in Terror: I do like very much the idea of Bane being a revolutionary and using existing class divides as a means to create social and civil unrest in Gotham, all while planning to destroy the city in the end. This is a good use of the character and sets him apart from Ra's Al Ghul. However, the way it is actually executed in the film did not work for me the first time I saw it and really does not work the second time either.
Again, as I argued last time, the people of Gotham go MIA after the big football stadium scene. Again this decision by Nolan really undermines any peril he wants the audience to feel for Gotham as it slips into unrest. Sure we see people marching on the hotels and the homes of the wealthy. But it doesn't do enough, in my opinion, to establish both how persuasive Bane is and how much peril the people of Gotham are in.
One or two scenes showing families in their homes huddled together and scared would have done so much to make the audience feel the ticking clock and in turn hope for Bruce's return from exile. By making the scenes of Gotham stronger, with more glimpses into the suffering of the people, Nolan in turn makes the scenes with Bruce in the prison actually compelling. It makes the audience actually cheer for Bruce to make it up the well, even though they know it will be the case. I argue that even if an audience knows the outcome of a plot thread, they still will become emotionally invested in said thread if you build it up and make it feel important. Nolan could have done that if he only had decided to include the people of Gotham a bit more.
This just still is a gripe of mine and one so easily fixed. The second viewing did little to make this gripe any less important to me. It is such a missed opportunity by Nolan.
In Conclusion: I will admit that I enjoyed this film much more the second time than I had the first. With that said, I still feel it is the weakest of the three Nolan Batman films. It lacks the true excitement of the first film and powerhouse acting of the second. If it were a standalone movie, it would be a pretty good one. But as a conclusion to a series, especially one as popular and critically acclaimed as this one, it is a letdown. It just is.
I own this film, of course, along with the other two on Blu-Ray. They sit proudly in my Blu-Ray movie shelf among the five other films I have in that format. Owning it I am sure I will watch it several times more. It ultimately is a pretty good Batman film and I am a Batman lover. I guess at the end of the day this film could have been worse. There I things I will never like about the film, but they are not going to change. I have come to accept the film on its own terms and am forever thankful to Mr. Christopher Nolan for making Batman interesting again.
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