Review-Thingy for The Dark Knight Rises
Jul. 25th, 2012 07:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mark_asphodelAbout two-thirds of the way through TDKR, I was slumped in my seat, numbed from Hans Zimmer's overloud score, thinking, "This Gotham is not worth saving. Everyone in this film deserves to die. The heroes should die because they are fools and they failed. The villains should die because they are depraved. Everyone else has been reduced to the level of mad pack dogs running in the streets of Detroit."
Then the film pulled off an ending that wasn't "EVERYONE DIES" that felt good and right and satisfying. Nice trick, Mr. Nolan.
And it's very much a Christopher Nolan trick movie in places-- foreshadowing for the PLOT TWIST was skillful and subtle, throwing up just the right number of red and yellow flags without being obvious. The ending... well, it will evoke memories of the ending of Inception, I think. I don't want to say more than that. And of course key members of Nolan's cast-- Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Leavitt, and Michael Caine-- will all be familiar to anyone who's seen The Prestige, Inception, etc. Bale was in The Prestige, too, for that matter. This franchise has Nolan's brand identity all over it.
[He can do foreshadowing masterfully, but Holy Ayn Rand Exposition, Batman! The speechifying in the first third of the film...]
He also needs to dump Zimmer. No moment in the score was as terrible as the chorale when Bruce Wayne's parents die in Batman Begins, but it was... not good. Speaking of Batman Begins, that one was my favorite in this trilogy and I loved the way that TKDR reflected it to form a beautiful parabolic arc instead of shooting off on a tangent over a cliff. Well done!
Other thoughts:
1) Did not have high hopes for Bane as a villain. He worked far, far better than I expected.
2) Oh, sweet Jesus, Alfred, you broke my heart in every. Damn. Scene. That little fantasy sequence...
3) I don't think I've ever liked Anne Hathaway in anything but she was brilliant in this.
4) Joseph Gordon-Leavitt's character was clunky at first but worked extremely well once things picked up.
5) I miss Chicago-steampunk Gotham City. This was obviously New York City. Fuck New York City. Gotham is supposed to be something the viewer cares passionately about because the characters care so damn much, and I didn't because it was obviously just another "New York City is the center of the world" sort of thing. Well, I live in Flyover America, so fuck fantasy Manhattan and its superiority complexes.
6) Politically this did a superb job trolling both the Tea Party and the Occupy movement in one go. I was afraid that part would be too heavy-handed, but Nolan pulled it off.
7) SCARECROW!!!! My favorite Batman-movie antagonist makes a glorious and perfect return! <3
8) Bale is the best live-action Batman ever. No contest.
Even though I spent the climactic final rush of the film not on the edge of my seat but plastered against it by explosive percussion of the awful score and I was mentally chanting, "OK. Get on with the auto-da-fe," the ending was still perfect. The film wasn't perfect, but the ending was. Props to everyone involved except Hans Zimmer.
PS: Every character I dearly wanted to see shanked did indeed bite it, so GOOD. Albeit a little too neat.
Then the film pulled off an ending that wasn't "EVERYONE DIES" that felt good and right and satisfying. Nice trick, Mr. Nolan.
And it's very much a Christopher Nolan trick movie in places-- foreshadowing for the PLOT TWIST was skillful and subtle, throwing up just the right number of red and yellow flags without being obvious. The ending... well, it will evoke memories of the ending of Inception, I think. I don't want to say more than that. And of course key members of Nolan's cast-- Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Leavitt, and Michael Caine-- will all be familiar to anyone who's seen The Prestige, Inception, etc. Bale was in The Prestige, too, for that matter. This franchise has Nolan's brand identity all over it.
[He can do foreshadowing masterfully, but Holy Ayn Rand Exposition, Batman! The speechifying in the first third of the film...]
He also needs to dump Zimmer. No moment in the score was as terrible as the chorale when Bruce Wayne's parents die in Batman Begins, but it was... not good. Speaking of Batman Begins, that one was my favorite in this trilogy and I loved the way that TKDR reflected it to form a beautiful parabolic arc instead of shooting off on a tangent over a cliff. Well done!
Other thoughts:
1) Did not have high hopes for Bane as a villain. He worked far, far better than I expected.
2) Oh, sweet Jesus, Alfred, you broke my heart in every. Damn. Scene. That little fantasy sequence...
3) I don't think I've ever liked Anne Hathaway in anything but she was brilliant in this.
4) Joseph Gordon-Leavitt's character was clunky at first but worked extremely well once things picked up.
5) I miss Chicago-steampunk Gotham City. This was obviously New York City. Fuck New York City. Gotham is supposed to be something the viewer cares passionately about because the characters care so damn much, and I didn't because it was obviously just another "New York City is the center of the world" sort of thing. Well, I live in Flyover America, so fuck fantasy Manhattan and its superiority complexes.
6) Politically this did a superb job trolling both the Tea Party and the Occupy movement in one go. I was afraid that part would be too heavy-handed, but Nolan pulled it off.
7) SCARECROW!!!! My favorite Batman-movie antagonist makes a glorious and perfect return! <3
8) Bale is the best live-action Batman ever. No contest.
Even though I spent the climactic final rush of the film not on the edge of my seat but plastered against it by explosive percussion of the awful score and I was mentally chanting, "OK. Get on with the auto-da-fe," the ending was still perfect. The film wasn't perfect, but the ending was. Props to everyone involved except Hans Zimmer.
PS: Every character I dearly wanted to see shanked did indeed bite it, so GOOD. Albeit a little too neat.
