The Dark Knight Rises

[dANdeLION]

Yeah, I agree with Luci, except I don't think Anne's too skinny.

[Zarathustra]

Deeply flawed, but epic. Too long, unbelievable in parts, and a weak (well, not literally) villain. Bane was the main problem with this movie. He wasn't a character, but a plot device. And matching his ridiculous, inaudible voice with Batman's ridiculous, inaudible voice made for a painful listening experience. When they threw that French guy with the thick accent into the mix (prison pit), I was starting to suspect they were just f*cking with us. Even when Bruce wasn't Batman, he had scenes where he just mumbled his lines. I had to watch the movie with the remote constantly in hand, turning it up to hear snatches of dialog, then turning it back down before the explosions etc.

The Occupy Wall Street 1% vs 99% soundbites in virtually every damn scene started to get real old, real fast. Hearing rich actors/actresses berate other rich actors/actresses for being rich just reminds me that these rich people do the same thing in real life, and it brings me right out of the movie. I'm no longer watching a superhero fantasy, but a trite regurgitation of last year's political movement, trying to piggy back a plot onto a "populist" movement ... a strategy that's only possible with the condescending assumption that 99% of the audience actually hates rich people so much that we can forget that we're making these people billions of dollars while we lap up their anti-rich diatribes in a movie about a billionaire vigilante.

I do appreciate that the guy trying to motivate the "populist" movement was actually a villain and terrorist who inspired the worst in people, so at least they got the lawlessness and disingenuous nature of these movements right. But I don't understand ruining a mythic story of universal archetypes with a "ripped from the headlines" contemporary theme. Would anyone want to see a Batman movie where the bad guy was a Tea Party leader? Or--heaven forbid--the hero? The battle between the governed and governors is at least as historic as the battle between the rich and the poor, but we never get superhero movies where the villains are big-spending, high-taxing bureaucrats who (allegedly) want to help the poor. That would actually make an interesting, believable villain, but I suppose it would hit too close to home for Hollywood. And, more importantly, it would be too obviously an allegory of modern politics, which is not why I go to see Batman movies.

[danlo]

Great post Z, agree thoroughly...I'm a MAJOR Bale fan and Batman's my second fav comic-book hero after Daredevil...this movie fell absolutely on it's face for me.

[Hashi Lebwohl]

In all honesty, comic book villains--or movie villains, for that matter--are generally stupid even if they are supposed to be highly intelligent. If you have a nuclear bomb ready to go then you don't threaten to blow up the city; instead, you actually blow it up. *click* *boom* Done. Drawing things out so you can punish someone (or a city, in this case) is cheap melodrama, wastes time, and increases the likelihood that your evil plot will be undone.

Besides...let's be realistic from a comic book point of view. If someone says "I have a nuclear bomb and I will blow up the city" then Superman shows up, locates the bomb in about 15 minutes, flies it into orbit, and throws it into the Sun. Problem solved. At least, this would work if movie directors remembered what universe they are in because the audience certainly does.

*shrug* I knew it would be a flawed movie when I recently got it but I bought it and watched it anyway just for enjoyment's sake. I know it can sometimes be difficult but we as movie-watchers have to remember to suspend our disbelief during the movie then critique it afterwards.