Coastal View News
Batman (Christian Bale)—aka The Dark Knight, The Caped
Crusader, Protector of Gotham, etc.—had just finished saving Gotham and pretty
much the whole world. Again. He saved some lives, then thwarted the Joker, then
saved a bunch more lives, then stopped hero-turned-villain Harvey “Two-Face”
Dent, all in a day’s work. Basically, there should have been some
superhero-of-the-century award with Batman’s name on it.
Alas, it was not meant to be. Those fickle, needy Gothamites
had to have a public hero—a hero with a face—to admire and emulate. So instead of
taking credit for saving Gotham, Batman shouldered the blame for Dent’s crimes and
let everyone worship the madman as if he were a fallen hero.
It worked. When “The Dark Knight Rises” picks up, crime is
way down, and everyone is happy. Well, everyone except Bruce Wayne, who no
longer gets to dress up in a cape, swoop down on criminals, or ride around on that
remarkably cool motorcycle. What a shame. But if one billionaire superhero’s sacrifice
brings peace and happiness to the masses, then, well, that’s the breaks.
The thing is, that wouldn’t be a very good movie, would it?
Lucky for us—and quite unlucky for the citizens of Gotham—big trouble is a-brewin’.
A villain is rising. His name is Bane (Tom Hardy). Bane is a monster of a man
who wears a scary, industrial-skull looking mask—part Darth Vader, part Mortal
Kombat ninja—and has a creepy, condescending British accent. Like the Joker,
Bane foments chaos. Unlike the Joker, Bane has some sort of balance-the-universe
ideology that involves elevating the lowly by crushing those in charge
(especially the rich).
(Of course, the lowly—i.e., poor people—never really wanted
to crush anything, and they certainly didn’t want to turn Gotham City into an
anarchic wasteland. Decent healthcare or better vacation pay might have sufficed.
But try telling that to Bane.)
So Gotham needs its Dark Knight after all. Not that Gotham
knows this. For, remember, Batman took the fall—pretended like Harvey Dent’s
madness was his madness—so that Gotham’s hero could be some sort of
public-servant celebrity or something. The upshot is that the citizens of
Gotham still want Batman captured, dead or alive.
Hence, Batman is fighting an uphill battle. Fortunately, he
is up to the task. Or, at least, he is willing to try—whether he can actually succeed or win or restore order or
whatever counts as being up to the task is another matter. For Bane is a
formidable opponent. He is even tougher than he looks (which is hard to believe),
he knows how to gain unexpected advantages, and he is able to marshal support from
surprising places. Batman certainly has his hands full this time.
Whether or not Batman ultimately disappoints the citizens of
Gotham I will not say (you can probably guess). What I will say is that,
unfortunately—very, very unfortunately—“The Dark Knight Rises” is itself a
disappointment.
But here are some reasons why you might not feel disappointed by “The Dark Knight
Rises”. It is not boring. It is full of exciting, dramatic, explosive,
eye-catching, gut wrenching scenes. Also, this movie is chock full of talented,
attractive actors. Furthermore, “The Dark Knight Rises” has all sorts of fun
twists and turns. And did I mention the explosions?
You might not feel
disappointed by this movie because you are in my boat—you really, really wanted
the last part of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy to be really, really good.
This trilogy has been way better than any other series of Batman movies.
Really, it has been the gold standard for all superhero movies in at least the
last couple of decades.
But that is precisely why “The Dark Knight Rises” is disappointing. Its prequels were so
smart, so tight, so engaging, so interesting and deep—they were so good. And
this latest Batman movie is just not that good. It is clunky and noisy. It has
more bark than bite, more heat than light, more schoolyard brawls than
genuinely heroic moments.
There are other problems too. The acting is spotty, the plot
is full of holes, and the story strains our credulity too much. But that’s beside
my point. My point is: Given what Nolan has shown himself capable of, “The Dark
Knight Rises” could have been great—it should
have been great. Yet, it was not great. And that is disappointing.
