The Dark Knight Rises

Logline: Eight years on, a new terrorist leader, Bane, overwhelms Gotham's finest, and the Dark Knight resurfaces to protect a city that has branded him an enemy.

Cast: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Anne Hathaway, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Cillian Murphy

Directed By: Christopher Nolan

I waited 'till morning to do this because I needed to sleep on it - plus the movie ended at 3AM.

I've chosen to add a spoilers section which will be made pretty clear of before you read it.

So, what did I think of The Dark Knight Rises?

In a nutshell, this is how I saw the movie play out as a whole: Act 1- Cluttered, Act 2- some great action sequences filled with a great villain, & Act 3- Epic.

When people asked me if I liked it coming out of the theatre, my only response was "I'm not sure yet."

After a night of dwelling on it, this is what I have come up with:

Act 1 was an utter mess. There were numerous scenes of people talking about nothing. The story was jumping all over the place and at times it was hard to keep up with because it was unclear as to what conversations were important. It starts off right where The Dark Knight left off with Bruce Wayne beaten and retired while Gotham City views Batman as Public Enemy No. 1 for killing city hero Harvey Dent. The formula is there for this movie's story - the debate as to whether or not to come out of retirement, the rise to the call when the city is in serious danger, etc. But, with the introduction of new characters and the lack of Batman it becomes a bit of a bore.

However, I must add, Anne Hathaway made the first 40 minutes of the film watchable. When she was first cast, I was so disappointed, but she proved me wrong in every possible way. As Selina Kyle she plays innocent and sleek. As Catwoman she is deceiving, edgy, clever & self-centered. Her performance blew me away.

Then Act 2 was better, but still lacked the cleverness of the film's predecessor.

Enter Bane, a mercenary that was exiled from Ra's Al Ghul's League of Shadows. His goal in this movie was to fulfill Ghul's destiny and destroy Gotham so that the rich become poor. Tom Hardy killed this role. He mimicked the character of Bane to a "T". If it weren't for the times where his voice was so muffled that it was reaaaalllllyyy hard to understand, he would go down right behind the Joker as one of the best villains in movie history. He might even still be considered that. I hope he is, because he was everything I wanted him to be.

The third Act was epic - cannot say any more without spoiling it.

SPOILERS & Lessons Learned

Okay, let's get down to the nitty gritty.

Act 1 was unclear for the reasons mentioned above, but Act 2 took a moment to tell the audience everything that happened to clear up the confusion. There is a moment in the movie where Bruce Wayne says to Alfred - OK, we know that Bane is controlling the sewers, we know he broke into the stock exchange, we know he has my fingerprints, we need to find out what he is up to. He set up the first actual goal of the movie. I didn't have my stopwatch out, but this felt like forever to get to. This was the moment in the movie where things started to go up for me, but they didn't stay up.

Act 2 is filled with intense Bane action. His humour and violence combine to make him memorable. His sheer size and voice make him powerful and unique. His first scene in the stock exchange was just a preview, we see him dismantling guards within seconds.

Then the showdown. This was easily one of my favorite parts of the whole movie. Batman and Bane duel in the sewers in a fist fight. Batman throws everything he has at Bane to no avail and then Bane breaks his back, staying true to the comics.

Bane locks him up in a Middle Eastern prison known as "The Pit" where people are thrown in to die. Only one man has ever made the jump that allows one to escape it - BANE.

While Batman is locked up with a broken back, Bane overturns Gotham and makes it his own. Explosives go off everywhere, a football stadium, sewers, the bridges fall down, and no one can leave the city. He releases a statement that if the government's army attempts to enter Gotham he would pull the trigger to an Atom Bomb that would leave the city in ashes. This is all done REALLY well.

Then things start to go wrong again. Batman is in The Pit. He learns the story of Bane. Bane was born inside the prison - his father was Henri Ducard/Ra's Al Ghul from Batman Begins. One day after the prisoners take his mother, he runs up to the opening and starts climbing without a rope - because he has no fear, he makes the jump and is the only one to ever do so. Pretty cool, right?

So, Batman is there with a broken back and time is of the essence because every moment he lays there is a moment that Gotham is in complete havoc. I want to reiterate three things that happened in this prison that ticked me off.

1) the people giving him food & water worked for Bane, yet they were intent on helping Batman without any reasoning as to why. Bruce Wayne asks them to kill him and they say that the pleasure of watching him die isn't worth what Bane is paying them - then all of a sudden they're helping him get better.

2) they fix his back by literally punching one of his vertebrae back into place.

3) time is of the essence, but it is soooo unclear how much time actually passes from when Wayne is put in there until the time he makes the jump out. I believe there is a scene with Gordon saying he had been gone for 3 months or something, but it didn't seem that way. Confusing.

So, he escapes from a prison in the middle east with no money to his name and only the clothes on his back with no communication to the outside world - then all of a sudden he is back in Gotham and talking to Catwoman again - the same person who hand fed him to Bane. For a person that lives with so much anger, he was very forgiving, no? I found this to be way out of character. Then they start up a relationship? C'mon...

However, Batman is back, even if it was sloppy execution in getting him back. This sets up Act 3.

Act 3 is worth every penny of your admission. Although the story is sloppy up until this point, the last 30-40 minutes cap off one of the best trilogies of all time.

It does not go without fault, though.

The day has come where Bane's deadline has arrived - the bomb will go off. Batman tracks him down as he is holding Miranda Tate hostage (a relatively minor character up to this point). Officer Gordon meanwhile searches the streets to find which truck is carrying the atom bomb as there are many decoys.

Batman finds Bane and this time, after conquering fear and building up his strength, he has Bane beaten and all he has to do is put the nail in his coffin.

And then, out of the blue, Miranda Tate stabs Batman in the side and reveals her true self. She was actually the child escaping from the prison, Bane was her protector on her way out, and she was Ra's Al Ghul's daughter. Ticked off with The Pit, she comes back and slaughters its inmates - finding Bane almost beaten to death - hence the mask he wears.

OK. Hold on a minute there. I was sooooo mad when this happened. Sure, it explained how Bane knew where a lot of essential components to his plan were and it explained how easily he took over, but all of that awesome backstory...is now Miranda's? WHY? I had no attachment to her character for the entire film and as far as I was concerned Marion Catillard was cast just because Nolan loved her work in Inception and wanted to get her name out there more. So Bane just... does her dirty work for her?

Apparently if you follow the comics then it would have been obvious the whole time because Ghul has a daughter and not a son. I, myself, do not, so I was taken aback a little. I wasn't as surprised as I was disappointed though.

Then Catwoman comes back, changing from her old selfish ways, and saves Batman by blasting Bane with a cannon. This is the last we see of Bane and it is never truly told if he died from the hit.

The bomb is triggered - Gotham has 11 minutes to live. But, not if Batman has anything to do with it. He locates the bomb with the help of Gordon and straps it on a cable to his aircraft and flies off with it over the ocean away from the city. Everyone survives. It is done in EPIC fashion. My words cannot describe how satisfying this scene was.

I missed so much, but that kind of adds to my conclusion that this movie was cluttered. John Blake was totally left out of this summary/critique - he was a big character in getting Batman back (which is another bone I could pick, but chose not to) and at the end it is revealed that he is actually named Robin.

I missed the emotional conversations between Bruce and Alfred which lead to a revealing scene that Bruce Wayne is in fact alive at the end and in a relationship with Selina Kyle.

2hrs and 45 minutes, I'm bound to miss out on some things. I think I got most of the major plot points though.

Consensus

The Dark Knight Rises is an epic conclusion to a classic trilogy - but it suffers from a cluttered plot and too many characters. It does however, provide a satisfying ending and a cast that delivers great performances.

8/10

Throwback Thursday- Batman Begins

Logline: Bruce Wayne loses his philanthropic parents to a senseless crime, and years later becomes the Batman to save the crime-ridden Gotham City on the verge of destruction by an ancient order.

Cast: Christian Bale, Liam Neeson, Cillian Murphy, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Katie Holmes

Directed By: Christopher Nolan 

So, I decided to write my critique for this movie because of 2 separate reasons.

1) Being that The Dark Knight Rises is being released for midnight screenings tonight to cap this trilogy off

and

2) This is the Batman that, in my opinion, is most forgotten about by the general public.

Why?

Why would such a great movie get forgotten about?

Well, lets dive in.

The film begins with a young Bruce Wayne exploring the grounds surrounding his parents mansion. He is specifically interested when he discovers a well dug into the ground. Shortly after, he falls somewhat inside and a colony of bats flies out at him while he hangs on for dear life. The story continues and reveals that his parents own a corporate juggernaut by the name of Wayne Enterprises.

On a night where his two parents take him to see a play, he gets chills from watching, remembering the incident with the bats. He asks them to leave and they leave through a back door which leads them to a back alley. If you follow Batman, or have watched this movie, you know what happens next - his parents are shot and killed by a thug looking to score some cash.

Skip forward about 20-30 years and bam, Batman is now Christian Bale beating up criminals in prison because he put himself in there for that sole purpose. Bad Ass. 

Wayne is met by Liam Neeson's character, Henri Ducard, who has been watching him for some time, observing. He is released from prison and asked to journey up to the mountain tops to find what he has been searching for. What does he find? A group called The League of Shadows. He learns all of his skills and techniques from them and refines his abilities. He later finds out they plan to ruin Gotham and he destroys most of their members and their leader, saving Ducard. 

After this event Bruce Wayne attempts to become an icon of justice. He figures as just a mere human being this feat would would be impossible, so he creates a superhero. BATMAN.

He plays the game and visits high end parties to fish out what's going wrong with Gotham.

 

So, enough of reiterating plot, because most of you know what happens, and the ones that don't, GO WATCH. I'm not going to ruin it.

Lets take a look at what we can take from Batman Begins. Why is it so epic & why is it so forgotten? This Batman addition is critically acclaimed and has scored ridiculously high numbers on top websites.

The answers as to why? An awesome screenplay.

I wrote about the first portion of the film in my review because it is important to prove my case. BACKSTORY. Backstory, Backstory, Backstory. Yes, we're dealing with one of the best characters ever created in superhero history. Yes, people are going to show up to theatres to watch him defeat memorable villains no matter what. But, this time, they got the right director/writers to do it. Not only is Batman, Batman, he is also Bruce Wayne, the lost soul who lost his parents at a young age and still holds anger higher than guilt years and years later. We, the audience, are more connected to this rendition of Batman more than ever before because for the first time in cinematic history, we are taken on the ride of his journey from the beginning and we know what he is all about & where his abilities come from.

The film sits at 140 mins (2h 20mins) which, in 2005 was considered relatively longer than most. This is understandable considering Christopher Nolan decided to cover the backstory necessary for an epic trilogy. However, the story never feels over saturated.  This is also due to having an amazing screenplay. Not only do we have character development, we constantly have plot and conflict. We get to see the creation of Batman, we get to see Batman publicly humiliate one of Gotham's biggest crime lords, we get a glimpse into Bruce Wayne's troubled love life, we are introduced to a new villain, and then - we are introduced to one of the most successful tools of screenwriting.

There is a device stolen from Wayne Enterprises that will vaporize the city's toxin-ridden water supply which will turn Gotham into a chaotic mess. Ducard returns to make sure this happens. They implement a ticking time bomb - not only are the stakes raised, there is a sense of urgency that moves the plot forward. Exciting! 

Batman Begins ends with an epic train ride which is a fantastic spectacle you cannot miss.

However, don't forget about my second point...

Notice how I didn't mention Scarecrow once?

This Batman lacked a memorable villain.

Sure, the Scarecrow is scary and he has two decent scenes, but his character is not nearly developed enough to keep the audience fully interested in him. Nolan relied immensely on the eccentricity of his mask to keep interest. Not to mention, I believe Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes) is the one to defeat him near the end, although he is never brought to justice. Not a very strong villain if I say so myself.

I believe the main villain(s) of this story were Ducard & the League - but I believe that adds to the fact that the villains were not memorable. Don't get me wrong, Ducard is tough as nails, but in a superhero movie... he's just too plain.

So there is that,

And then there is The Dark Knight which is one of, if not the best sequel of all time that completely shadows this brilliant film. We already have Batman's backstory, we're given a new villain which Nolan can create more time developing, and you know the rest. Batman Begins is one of the most epic and forgotten about movies of all time. The film brilliantly develops a true hero in Bruce Wayne/Batman and paces itself perfectly without having a dull moment in its 140 mins of runtime. A true and compelling start to what could be the best trilogy of all time.

For that, I give this movie:

9/10

Take This Waltz

Logline: A happily married woman falls for the artist who lives across the street.

Cast: Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, Luke Kirby

Directed by: Sarah Polley

This movie starts off with a happily married woman, Margot (Michelle Williams) who coincidentally shares chemistry on a plane ride back from Cape Breton with Daniel (Luke Kirby) who happens to live on the very same street as her in Little Portugal, Toronto. This becomes an awkward situation when Daniel finds out that Margot is married to a man named Lou (Seth Rogen). This coincidence leads to plenty of conflict straight from the get go.

Lou’s relationship with Margot is filmed with great chemistry between the two actors. Their lives together are filled with pranks, crude jokes, insecurities, and playfulness. They’re so comfortable that it becomes the main conflict of the story. Margot is too comfortable. So comfortable in fact that she begins to purposely run into neighbour Daniel in the mornings while he begins his daily rickshaw driving job. 

Daniel is completely different from Lou. Daniel is a romantic artist who has the body type of any person who would run for a living. Lou is your average looking guy who uses his playful charm to make up for not having every girl’s dreamy attractiveness. Daniel is sexual, Lou is awkward and bland. Daniel is new and exciting, Lou is melancholy. 

I’m going to choose not to spoil this one, but instead reiterate the film’s message. To me this whole experience deals with the saying “the grass is greener on the other side”…or is it? During this whole movie Margot deals with temptation. She is succumbed to the sexual aura of Daniel, then she stops and rethinks.

The best quote I’ve heard in awhile was when her friend tells her that “life has a gap in it, it just does; you don’t go trying to fill it like some lunatic.” And I think that’s the tone of the film. Once you make a decision, you can’t expect to get back what you cut out, so it better be the right one.

That being said, Seth Rogen really impressed me.

He’s usually the funny goofball that people love to laugh at. In this film, he does have his usual playful trademarks, but his character is forced to go through so many different emotions. There is a montage of him showing many different emotions, emotions I had never seen from him before, and he does them believably. 

Take This Waltz subtracts the glimmer that Hollywood applies to appeal to a mass audience and adds raw realism in its place. I enjoyed this one as a nice sentimental reminder to appreciate everything that I’ve got.

7.7/10