← Back to Reviews
in
The Dark Knight Rises
The conclusion to batman saga in the dark knight trilogy.
This movie is like a monster with flu that crosses the finish line. By the point this movie is released I am a dark knight trilogy fan and also I have heard that my friends watched Inception on IMAX and that it was awesome. So the formation of intense worldwide Nolan fan base is in full swing.Moreover I became a fan of christian bale by pure coincidence. I was obsessed with the first half of batman begins when I first watched it but for some reason during Inception and 2011 Oscar win by Bale made me want to look up more about Bale. Then I stumbled upon his filmography and anyone who does that with christian bale will be highly intrigued and is bound to be fan. So the movie starts with an introduction to bane. Nolan is too smart of a director for your average critic or even director. Never in this movie did he try and beat specific elements of the dark knight. He went in a totally different direction. He is trying to top the dark knight without competing with it in the same race. Kind of like Oscars. No two nominees are the same but none the less they compete for the same prize. Nolan chose to make the movie a mythology and a fairy tale. Obviously fans of the trilogy wanted a hyper realistic take on the character. But he knew that he can never top the dark knight by making another crime saga.He had to make it work as a sequel that is going to establish the legend of the character. No legend is satisfactory without some mysticism and surreal quality to it.You can't develop a legend if everyone knows his life in and out as a book, there has to be some divine intervention.
Even though this movie is great there is one specific story-line that kind of bummed me out. The moment bane captures the city, his plan is a real bummer. Both the weight of the plan and the directorial choices to inter cut the reveal of Gordon's intentions in bane's speech with occupy wall street montage sort of fell apart.Nonetheless this movie is more about intentions rather than the practicality of it. The time it takes for Bruce Wayne to get fixed or to comeback to Gotham are part of legend. It not about how he did but about the fact that he came back.The scope and scale of this movie is the biggest of the trilogy. Chris Nolan was able to maintain the tone of the movie through out. Dark movies are easy targets for critics if not done right. Because you are not entertaining the audience by making them laugh. You are evoking their other senses and that means their focuses turns to quality of the movie than the fact that it makes you laugh.
This movie can be used to explore an interesting concept apart from the review. That's called Tom Hardy phenomenon. I will try and cover all aspects of it.So Tom Hardy was a little known actor before Inception outside UK or may be even inside. UK film community has a soft spot for born and bred British actors starting out in the industry and then branching out to US with their roots still in British cinema. This can be seen in the kind of projects those actors make.Are they giving opportunities to British filmmakers ? are they acting in British TV series all while making movies in Hollywood. Because they treat them as one of their own. They consider them as proud representatives of British talent abroad. Youth in UK also want to think that way. This is similar to the over whelming popularity of conor mcgregor in Ireland. If a video of conor mcgregor is posted ,more than half of those views are from Ireland and rest are from wannabe tough guys. Same thing with Tom Hardy. His online popularity is from his UK fans or wannabe tough guys because he is bane and mad max. In case of Tom Hardy he is more internet famous than anything. He can't put butts in the theater. But his videos will get clicks. His fans are from superhero genre. They are not going to follow him into his other movies. This UK respect is shown by fellow actors as well. Its all tribal. UK actors in Hollywood need to stick up for each other. Aussies with Aussies. The problem is patriotism gets in the way of being objective. Tom Hardy is not versatile. His troubled childhood and youth transformed him into this troubled individual and that looks good on screen for the roles he portrays. That's his baseline.From then on he acts like he is happy. He acts like he is charming. But all those are fronts to his disturbed core. You look at his online profile and he has huge presence. But, look at his movie's box office performance and they perform horribly when he is front and center. This disconnect is because his fans want fast and furious type movies because thats the demographics he appeal to and he is making movies like the drop. It doesn't work that way. He has to make movies with Quentin Tarantino or someone like that with multiplex audience appeal. Then he is walking the fine line between commercial appeal and critical appeal. But that's DiCaprio's turf. People don't seem to understand that it can be incredibly frustrating for No.2 actor on producers list of actors in demand because they always get the rejected material by No. 1. Currently the top stars are Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, George Clooney, christian bale, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Matthew Mcconaughey , Michael Fassbender, Tom hardy, Bradley Cooper and Jake Gyllenhaal. These are the cream of the crop in Hollywood. They are talented and most popular male stars. But they all come only second to DiCaprio. So this weird hype that Tom Hardy is enjoying will not last longer. Because eventually he has to succumb to the Hollywood system. His movies will not meet expectations because he is not working with masters of filmmaking for every movie. Thats the only way to create event movie level hype for everyone of your movies. Of course the movies has to meet the hype.
This movie is very cloudy. Rarely if ever do you see sunlight. I think I used this statement before but mad max fury road and the dark knight trilogy are the only movies that doesn't star DiCaprio since 1997 but feel like dramas with epic scale and incredible ambitiousness with huge financial risk and actually worked out in the end for both financiers and critics. Both those movie have a sense of studios dumping lot of money into movies just based on the vision of a single person and realizing each and every scene with extreme precision and to its fullest potential. You want a scene in a ball room ? lets get a huge ball room and take our time to shoot it. You want streets full of snow ? lets cover streets with fake snow and get expensive permits to block streets for multiple days of shoot. You want to explode a football stadium ? lets do it. All these are very unique to this movie. I have only one non-Nolan and non-DiCaprio movie do it since this movie and that would be Logan. That movie had the balls to spend 90 million on a movie that actually looks like distopian wasteland. But anyways thats a huge benefit this movie. Batman doesn't show up half way through the movie and has around 10-15 minutes screen time in a close to 170 minute movie. The extensive set piece for the heist in the air carrier and Wall Street. The whole pit for bruce Wayne to come out are all very impressive. I remember being obsessed with the teaser. And the final shot of batman backing away when bane walks towards him. Its an imposing shot of a man having met his match. The first encounter between batman and bane is the best part of the movie. Its a fist fight , a very simple first fight with no global scale explosions. Its just a hand to hand combat in a sewer. I always thought that the fight could have been more badass if it took place in Arkham prison with all the prisoners cheering it on. Somehow all the cops are out and the whole prison is unguarded. And cat woman lures batman into prison and alas he is in front of bane. But then again its hard to find a prison with such huge free space in between. Nolan wanted each punch to feel like it matters and not be overtaken by the background sound. Even visual point of view it does feel like having more people staring at them kinda distracts audience away from the fight. The pit is the give away for Nolan treating this movie as a mythology. Because the legend of the pit is established super vaguely. Its almost like "once upon a time far far away" kinda story. All this is Nolan giving us hints that it is a conclusion. The ticking bomb is a used trope but by that point a lot is happening and Nolan is juggling 100 things at a time that the bomb can be given a pass. He made Bruce Wayne survive for commercial reasons. The taking over of mantle is something Nolan wanted to use as a satisfying conclusion to bruce Wayne saga because audience know what it takes for a man to don that cape and fight crime. We have seen bruce Wayne literally go through the ringer at every step of the way.
The conclusion to batman saga in the dark knight trilogy.
This movie is like a monster with flu that crosses the finish line. By the point this movie is released I am a dark knight trilogy fan and also I have heard that my friends watched Inception on IMAX and that it was awesome. So the formation of intense worldwide Nolan fan base is in full swing.Moreover I became a fan of christian bale by pure coincidence. I was obsessed with the first half of batman begins when I first watched it but for some reason during Inception and 2011 Oscar win by Bale made me want to look up more about Bale. Then I stumbled upon his filmography and anyone who does that with christian bale will be highly intrigued and is bound to be fan. So the movie starts with an introduction to bane. Nolan is too smart of a director for your average critic or even director. Never in this movie did he try and beat specific elements of the dark knight. He went in a totally different direction. He is trying to top the dark knight without competing with it in the same race. Kind of like Oscars. No two nominees are the same but none the less they compete for the same prize. Nolan chose to make the movie a mythology and a fairy tale. Obviously fans of the trilogy wanted a hyper realistic take on the character. But he knew that he can never top the dark knight by making another crime saga.He had to make it work as a sequel that is going to establish the legend of the character. No legend is satisfactory without some mysticism and surreal quality to it.You can't develop a legend if everyone knows his life in and out as a book, there has to be some divine intervention.
Even though this movie is great there is one specific story-line that kind of bummed me out. The moment bane captures the city, his plan is a real bummer. Both the weight of the plan and the directorial choices to inter cut the reveal of Gordon's intentions in bane's speech with occupy wall street montage sort of fell apart.Nonetheless this movie is more about intentions rather than the practicality of it. The time it takes for Bruce Wayne to get fixed or to comeback to Gotham are part of legend. It not about how he did but about the fact that he came back.The scope and scale of this movie is the biggest of the trilogy. Chris Nolan was able to maintain the tone of the movie through out. Dark movies are easy targets for critics if not done right. Because you are not entertaining the audience by making them laugh. You are evoking their other senses and that means their focuses turns to quality of the movie than the fact that it makes you laugh.
This movie can be used to explore an interesting concept apart from the review. That's called Tom Hardy phenomenon. I will try and cover all aspects of it.So Tom Hardy was a little known actor before Inception outside UK or may be even inside. UK film community has a soft spot for born and bred British actors starting out in the industry and then branching out to US with their roots still in British cinema. This can be seen in the kind of projects those actors make.Are they giving opportunities to British filmmakers ? are they acting in British TV series all while making movies in Hollywood. Because they treat them as one of their own. They consider them as proud representatives of British talent abroad. Youth in UK also want to think that way. This is similar to the over whelming popularity of conor mcgregor in Ireland. If a video of conor mcgregor is posted ,more than half of those views are from Ireland and rest are from wannabe tough guys. Same thing with Tom Hardy. His online popularity is from his UK fans or wannabe tough guys because he is bane and mad max. In case of Tom Hardy he is more internet famous than anything. He can't put butts in the theater. But his videos will get clicks. His fans are from superhero genre. They are not going to follow him into his other movies. This UK respect is shown by fellow actors as well. Its all tribal. UK actors in Hollywood need to stick up for each other. Aussies with Aussies. The problem is patriotism gets in the way of being objective. Tom Hardy is not versatile. His troubled childhood and youth transformed him into this troubled individual and that looks good on screen for the roles he portrays. That's his baseline.From then on he acts like he is happy. He acts like he is charming. But all those are fronts to his disturbed core. You look at his online profile and he has huge presence. But, look at his movie's box office performance and they perform horribly when he is front and center. This disconnect is because his fans want fast and furious type movies because thats the demographics he appeal to and he is making movies like the drop. It doesn't work that way. He has to make movies with Quentin Tarantino or someone like that with multiplex audience appeal. Then he is walking the fine line between commercial appeal and critical appeal. But that's DiCaprio's turf. People don't seem to understand that it can be incredibly frustrating for No.2 actor on producers list of actors in demand because they always get the rejected material by No. 1. Currently the top stars are Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, George Clooney, christian bale, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Matthew Mcconaughey , Michael Fassbender, Tom hardy, Bradley Cooper and Jake Gyllenhaal. These are the cream of the crop in Hollywood. They are talented and most popular male stars. But they all come only second to DiCaprio. So this weird hype that Tom Hardy is enjoying will not last longer. Because eventually he has to succumb to the Hollywood system. His movies will not meet expectations because he is not working with masters of filmmaking for every movie. Thats the only way to create event movie level hype for everyone of your movies. Of course the movies has to meet the hype.
This movie is very cloudy. Rarely if ever do you see sunlight. I think I used this statement before but mad max fury road and the dark knight trilogy are the only movies that doesn't star DiCaprio since 1997 but feel like dramas with epic scale and incredible ambitiousness with huge financial risk and actually worked out in the end for both financiers and critics. Both those movie have a sense of studios dumping lot of money into movies just based on the vision of a single person and realizing each and every scene with extreme precision and to its fullest potential. You want a scene in a ball room ? lets get a huge ball room and take our time to shoot it. You want streets full of snow ? lets cover streets with fake snow and get expensive permits to block streets for multiple days of shoot. You want to explode a football stadium ? lets do it. All these are very unique to this movie. I have only one non-Nolan and non-DiCaprio movie do it since this movie and that would be Logan. That movie had the balls to spend 90 million on a movie that actually looks like distopian wasteland. But anyways thats a huge benefit this movie. Batman doesn't show up half way through the movie and has around 10-15 minutes screen time in a close to 170 minute movie. The extensive set piece for the heist in the air carrier and Wall Street. The whole pit for bruce Wayne to come out are all very impressive. I remember being obsessed with the teaser. And the final shot of batman backing away when bane walks towards him. Its an imposing shot of a man having met his match. The first encounter between batman and bane is the best part of the movie. Its a fist fight , a very simple first fight with no global scale explosions. Its just a hand to hand combat in a sewer. I always thought that the fight could have been more badass if it took place in Arkham prison with all the prisoners cheering it on. Somehow all the cops are out and the whole prison is unguarded. And cat woman lures batman into prison and alas he is in front of bane. But then again its hard to find a prison with such huge free space in between. Nolan wanted each punch to feel like it matters and not be overtaken by the background sound. Even visual point of view it does feel like having more people staring at them kinda distracts audience away from the fight. The pit is the give away for Nolan treating this movie as a mythology. Because the legend of the pit is established super vaguely. Its almost like "once upon a time far far away" kinda story. All this is Nolan giving us hints that it is a conclusion. The ticking bomb is a used trope but by that point a lot is happening and Nolan is juggling 100 things at a time that the bomb can be given a pass. He made Bruce Wayne survive for commercial reasons. The taking over of mantle is something Nolan wanted to use as a satisfying conclusion to bruce Wayne saga because audience know what it takes for a man to don that cape and fight crime. We have seen bruce Wayne literally go through the ringer at every step of the way.