The Dark Knight Rises (12A.)
Directed by Christopher Nolan.
Starring Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Marion Cotillard, Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Michael Caine. 165 mins
The conclusion of the Dark Knight trilogy sets our hero against Bane, a relentlessly evil creature who as a child emerged out of a deep, dark pit. The film thought heads in the opposite direction. This knight is now so immersed in darkness I am not sure I can see the point of him any more.
The year’s most anticipated movie is not the film anyone anticipated; possibly not the one most people wanted. For a start, most people would be expecting some kind of superhero movie but this really isn’t. (Lavish and spectacular yet ponderous and solemn, it’s more like a biblical epic.) The end of The Dark Knight had left everything in tatters. The expectation was that this film would gradually build it all back up again, but it never really does. The film opens with Wayne (Bale) as a recluse wandering around his big and empty mansion and that’s the status of everybody else in the film. All those wonderful characters from the previous films – Caine’s Alfred, Oldman’s Gordon and Morgan Freeman’s Fox – who came together so fantastically, are now all disconnected.
Nolan’s great talent is making long, talky, ideas films that somehow have the hurtling velocity of a summer blockbuster. The Dark Knight grabbed you with that opening bank heist and just kept hurtling on through its two and half hours. DKR starts at an amble and never really breaks sweats. It doesn’t help that just as it reaches its midpoint, and just as it seems to be hitting its stride, the plot pulls itself apart and it is as if we were starting all over again.
The slack pacing exposes flaws in the writing. The inherent problem with a “realistic” superhero movie is that the approach emphasises every plot hole and just-in-the-nick-of-time narrative contrivance. Though this is the darkest of the three film, it is also by far the silliest.
The lack of The Joker is another problem. Hathaway’s Catwoman helps a bit but she seems part of a different film and Bane is a very poor substitute. Hardy’s considerable talent is largely lost behind that mask. It doesn’t help that after complaints that nobody could hear what he was saying in the first trailers, he now sounds like Ian McKellern playing Darth Vader. (Even so, much of the film’s dialogue is inaudible.)
I suppose this isn't actually a bad film but it is crushing disappointment. I allowed myself to get excited about this, and I never allow myself to get excited about anything. The film must have merits but at the moment I can't make them out.
Directed by Christopher Nolan.
Starring Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Marion Cotillard, Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Michael Caine. 165 mins
The conclusion of the Dark Knight trilogy sets our hero against Bane, a relentlessly evil creature who as a child emerged out of a deep, dark pit. The film thought heads in the opposite direction. This knight is now so immersed in darkness I am not sure I can see the point of him any more.
The year’s most anticipated movie is not the film anyone anticipated; possibly not the one most people wanted. For a start, most people would be expecting some kind of superhero movie but this really isn’t. (Lavish and spectacular yet ponderous and solemn, it’s more like a biblical epic.) The end of The Dark Knight had left everything in tatters. The expectation was that this film would gradually build it all back up again, but it never really does. The film opens with Wayne (Bale) as a recluse wandering around his big and empty mansion and that’s the status of everybody else in the film. All those wonderful characters from the previous films – Caine’s Alfred, Oldman’s Gordon and Morgan Freeman’s Fox – who came together so fantastically, are now all disconnected.
Nolan’s great talent is making long, talky, ideas films that somehow have the hurtling velocity of a summer blockbuster. The Dark Knight grabbed you with that opening bank heist and just kept hurtling on through its two and half hours. DKR starts at an amble and never really breaks sweats. It doesn’t help that just as it reaches its midpoint, and just as it seems to be hitting its stride, the plot pulls itself apart and it is as if we were starting all over again.
The slack pacing exposes flaws in the writing. The inherent problem with a “realistic” superhero movie is that the approach emphasises every plot hole and just-in-the-nick-of-time narrative contrivance. Though this is the darkest of the three film, it is also by far the silliest.
The lack of The Joker is another problem. Hathaway’s Catwoman helps a bit but she seems part of a different film and Bane is a very poor substitute. Hardy’s considerable talent is largely lost behind that mask. It doesn’t help that after complaints that nobody could hear what he was saying in the first trailers, he now sounds like Ian McKellern playing Darth Vader. (Even so, much of the film’s dialogue is inaudible.)
I suppose this isn't actually a bad film but it is crushing disappointment. I allowed myself to get excited about this, and I never allow myself to get excited about anything. The film must have merits but at the moment I can't make them out.
