Let's start with a film that didn't impress us much at the time, the third and final chapter of Christopher Nolan's Batman saga, The Dark Knight Rises with Christian Bale (Bruce Wayne/Batman), Michael Caine (Alfred Pennyworth), Gary Oldman (Jim Gordon), Anne Hathaway (Selina Kyle), Joseph Gordon Lewitt (John Blake), Tom Hardy (Bane), Marion Cotillard (Miranda Tate/Talia al Ghul) and Morgan Freeman (Lucius Fox).
It didn't impress us much not because it's a bad film but because it's undoubtedly below par compared to the two previous films due to various forced elements, a villain not exactly up to par and perhaps an excessive duration, it's still almost three hours not exactly flowing. Film that at the time perhaps we judged too negatively not so much for what it really is but for a sort of relentlessness towards the self-styled fans who had to defend at all costs even the obvious defects present by climbing up the mirrors, an attitude that I can't stand. Given today's results let's have more bad films like this (and given that on the internet everything has to be explained I'm not seriously saying it's bad).
The plot in brief.
Eight years have passed since the events of The Dark Knight, crime in Gotham has now reduced and Batman has not been seen since then, the same goes for Bruce Wayne depressed after the death of Rachel who has locked himself in his own mansion. A theft suffered by Wayne himself by the thief Selina Kyle will trigger a series of events, including the wounding of Commissioner Gordon, which will bring both Bruce Wayne and Batman back into activity.
Batman will end up clashing with the terrorist Bane, a masked man linked to the Shadow Sect of Ra's al Ghul. The businessman John Dagget using Wayne's fingerprints (the real target of Selina Kyle) carries out a scam against Bruce to take over Wayne Enterprises while Bane attacks the stock exchange. Bruce entrusts control of the industries to Miranda Tate to prevent others from getting their hands on the reactor that Wayne is building.
Batman then reaches Bane's lair, who knows everything about him, but is defeated by suffering a serious wound to the spine. Taken to a prison located in a well abroad, he is forced to witness the fall of Gotham... well, I won't go any further or I'll tell you everything, in theory you've all seen it by now, but if there's still some unfortunate person who hasn't done so, I advise against continuing reading because I have to give some spoilers.
The Dark Knight Rises takes inspiration from several more or less famous Batman sagas. There's a bit of Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, a bit of Knightfall, and a bit of No Man's Land.
The Dark Knight Returns, almost more mentioned in the title than in the story itself, because of the time jump forward in time and for the retirement (and subsequent return) of Batman. And finally for the fake death of Batman.
Knightfall for the defeat of Batman by Bane, who appeared for the first time in that saga, and the damage to his back.
No Man's Land because of the isolation of Gotham from the rest of the country, with crime in command and a group of "rebels" trying to restore order. In the comic the city was separated because of a terrible earthquake.
Having built a plot around these three sagas is not exactly one of the film's strengths, too many things, too many references, perhaps they would have done better to concentrate on one or at most two stories rather than making this mess.
Bane is very different from the original version. In the comics he is a criminal with a great intellect who uses a formula called Venom to increase his physical strength to superhuman levels but as per tradition Nolan's films prefer a realistic context and so Bane simply becomes a terrorist, still with a great intellect, whose mask makes him constantly breathe a painkiller to soothe the chronic pain due to a botched operation to save his life.
Talia, on the other hand, doesn't seem to have ever adopted the identity of Miranda Tate.
Selina Kyle, never officially called Catwoman (at most she is referred to as The Cat), is perhaps one of the film's strong points, very faithful to the original character whose interpretation takes several cues from the graphic novel Roman Holiday by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale.
What doesn't work.
The lack of continuity from The Dark Knight. In the end of the previous film we left Batman running away from the police after taking the blame for the death of the prosecutor Harvey Dent. Personally I always thought that Gordon's last words meant that Batman would continue to do what he did without caring about the approval of the people or the police.
Finding out that he had retired for eight years made me turn up my nose a lot, not very in line with the character but that all in all we can also forgive because it is still a different interpretation in a totally different context. But in the end, precisely because of the words of the end of the previous chapter, I find it forced.
These eight years only serve to justify Batman's weakness towards Bane, unlike the comic, where Batman was defeated above all because he was exhausted by the many fights due to the attempt to bring back to prison all the criminals who had escaped thanks to Bane.
This is perhaps the biggest flaw of the film, the lack of continuity goes to undermine the meaning of the ending of The Dark Knight.
For the rest, the most obvious flaws are superficialities in the plot, such as the motorcycles that Bane uses to escape from the Stock Exchange (no seriously, but how did he get there?), John Blake who discovers Batman's identity in a way that is far too superficial, the police who survive for months underground and as soon as they are free they throw themselves into war fresh as a daisy, something that goes well beyond the suspension of disbelief, and a Bruce Wayne who manages to return to an isolated and ultra-surveilled Gotham far too easily, which translated means that we find him directly in Gotham without any explanation, I'm not asking for much, just a minimum.
And finally Bane, a flat villain and a bit of a boring fight. Personally I didn't find the silent fight between the two epic at all.
What works.
We were talking a little while ago about John Blake, the orphan policeman who discovers, or rather knows, Batman's identity, the explanation of how he understood Batman's identity is too simple, the meaning is beautiful, the metaphor of wearing a mask, but too simple, he tried and got it right.
But that said, the character is well done. Blake is none other than the Nolanverse version of Robin, which Robin is not specified in the film, but the fact that he is a policeman and an orphan makes one think of Dick Grayson (the first Robin), instead the fact that he discovers Batman's identity by himself makes one think more of Tim Drake (the third), and I find the passing of inheritance at the end of the film perfect, with Blake finding the Batcave.
And how do we know that John Blake is actually Robin? Simply because we are told at the end, in fact his full name is Robin John Blake. I would have avoided calling it that at all, this is a clear quote that screams “the general public would never understand this”, but Easter eggs are made specifically for those who already know a certain world, not for a general public.
I've already talked about Catwoman before, she's really great.
As beautiful as the relationship between Talia and Bane is, it works great in the context of the film. The plot twist that ties the two characters together is well-handled and very deep.
The idea of the Well is beautiful, which is none other than a realistic version of the Lazarus Well (or Pit), the well equipped with bathrooms with great regenerative capacity used in the comics by Ra's al Ghul to reinvigorate and rejuvenate himself so much as to make him practically immortal. In the realistic context of the film, rebirth is no longer a physical state, at least not only, but a strong metaphor on life and death.
Okay, to sum it up. Too long, too many stories mixed together, too many mistakes here and there. But the final part is undeniably beautiful and saves the whole thing.
You can't help but be moved when Batman makes Gordon understand his true identity, especially if you're a fan of the two characters and the friendship that binds them, and the "death" of Batman with the aforementioned legacy left to Blake and finally the happy ending with Alfred who discovers Bruce still alive in the company of Selina in Florence, in a scene that is linked to a nice dialogue between the two. All in all, it's still a good film, but it's undoubtedly the weak link in this trilogy.
Oh and Batman clearly says "no weapons, no deaths", no just to reconnect to the famous debate that started with Batman V Superman.
I would be hypocritical or false to say that no deaths occur because in fact towards the end in an attempt to stop the truck carrying the bomb the driver ends up killed and consequently also dies "the passenger" but come on, I have to admit that the context is totally different from that of a Batman who shoots wildly and gratuitously with the Batmobile.
Soon we will also see Batman Begins and the Dark Knight to actually verify the alleged victims of Batman, and obviously to continue this column but the next appointment will be dedicated to another cinecomics that at first sight had not convinced me completely: Guardians of the Galaxy.
