Five Ways The Dark Knight Rises Stumbled
While movie trilogies are fairly common its rare that all three movies are epic hits. In fact some might argue that there have only been 2 epic trilogies - the original Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings. More common is when either the first or the first two movies are epic and the third falls flat. In my life there have been three movie trilogies that I was really excited to see the end to. And when I say "excited" I mean stand in line for hours, pre-buy tickets excited.
- The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
- The Lord of the Rings Return of the King (2003)
- The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
I absolutely hated the Matrix Revolutions and was severely disappointed - mainly because I wasn't smart enough to get the trilogy while Return of the King exceeded my expectations and is the gold standard when it comes to ending out a trilogy in my opinon.
As of now I feel like The Dark Knight Rises falls somewhere in the middle. All said I did really like the movie and it was very entertaining but it doesn't come close to being better than its predecessor The Dark Knight.
This could change as I've only seen it once and these are only my initial thoughts but here are five things that I think The Dark Knight Rises swung and missed on.
1. The pacing in the first act was glacial.
We're treated to a Bond like sequence out of the gate that blows away any action sequence in the previous two Batman movies but are left after that to suffer through was seemed like five or six Michael Caine monologues (and I really like Michael Caine monologues - it was one of the best moments in The Dark Knight).
2. I never connected emotionally with the city under siege.
We weren't really invested in the plight of the cops and we're never really shown how terrible the conditions must have been for ordinary folks. The resistance can for the most part walk around the street and observe the bomb truck unmolested. Really the only horror of the siege that was show was when the rich dude (who probably deserved to die anyway) was exiled onto the ice. And even that wasn't built up very much. And come on did nobody tell these guys how you walk on thin ice? You crawl and spread out your weight...
I guess if you really think about how much of a effect it would have on the world in general to have a city the size of New York under a nuclear siege - to try and convey exactly what that would mean is almost too big an undertaking. I thought this area of the plot fell flat.
3. I didn't understand why the regular people of the city were so fed up with the elite.
This is never explained and we were never able to emotionally invest in the plight (if there was one) of the common person being held under the boot of the elite. Selina Kyle has this great line that says "you're all gonna wonder how you ever thought you could live so large and leave so little for the rest of us." When did this happen?
4. The death of Bane was cliched and really weak.
What do you do when your hero is about to die, you've already had an epic fight scene and you need a reason to get Catwomen back into the city? You have her come bursting in at the last movement guns a blazing and save the day by killing Bane just as he's about to kill our hero.
I really liked Bane as a bad guy. Tom Hardy brought so much presence even without seeing his mouth that he was believable as a terrorist. I even came around on his voice by the end of the movie. But a great villain deserves a great death and being shot by a gun by Selina Kyle just doesn't cut it.
5. The fake death of Batman.
If Batman dies my opinion of this movie skyrockets and moves this trilogy very close to the Lord of Rings. If Batman dies I don't write a mostly negative review. If Batman dies I don't care about nitpicks one through four. But he doesn't.
For all of Christopher Nolans talk about doing things different, and making this a darker grittier version of the Batman genre, and closing out the trilogy I really expected Batman to die.
One of the greatest lines in the movie is when Batman exclaims in his funny gruff voice that he hasn't given Gotham everything yet... implying his life. At the very least I wish Nolan would have let the movie goer decide and debate about whether or not he was dead.
You could have left in the part about the auto-pilot being fixed and you could have even had Alfred lifting up his head after he takes a drink in that little cafe but roll the credits there. Don't show Bruce Wayne's face. Let us debate. Keep it dark.
It also would have seemed to fit better with Christian Bale's portrayal of Bruce Wayne throughout the movie. He was tortured and upset that Batman had to take the fall for Two-Face and he seemed like he had so little to live for anyway. His redemption was the giving of his life - the ultimate sacrifice that would be remembered. It seemed cheap and too easy to give us a "happy" ending.
All that said I still really liked the movie. It was very entertaining, had great action, some really good lines, a good villain and for the most part a good story. Could it have been better? Yes. Will I buy it? No.
I give it four out of five stars.
The Help
A couple weeks ago I had the privilege to go with my wife on a date and see the movie The Help. I didn’t think it would be a privilege at the time and in my mind this would be one of those “take one for the team” movies.
I couldn’t have been more wrong though. Now, I’ll admit I’m somewhat emotional when it comes to two things - movies done well and my kids. This was a very well done movie that had me laughing, tearing up (no gushing...) and angry.
While the movie is based on a fictional work, the subject matter is historical and based in fact. The story follows a Southern white women who finds injustice being done to black maids who work for white families and being an author she decides to write about their plight to try and help the situation.
I think the reason this movie stirred my emotions so much is because I am a lover of justice and when total injustice is done to any human being the natural reaction is that something needs to be done. The other reason it resonated so much with me is that these things didn’t happen 100 years ago in some foreign country but rather less then 50 years ago and only a few states away.
While I can’t imagine ever participating in something like that I was challenged that racism is a product of our pride which is rooted down deep in our hearts and manifests itself in various ways.
Its so important to realize that every person is made in the image of God, loved by God, and therefore has infinite value in His eyes. Knowing that I want to work to stamp out racism in all facets of life and to call others out when I see it or hear it.
This movie gets a 5 Star rating and is an "Own It" movie.
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Why it gets 5 stars. Its very entertaining and moved me more emotionally that any movie I can remember in recent history and its a movie I want my kids to see for the historical context.
If you’re not familiar with my ratings they are as follows:
1 Star ⋆- Horrible - don’t see it, don’t speak of it, try not to even think about it. Movies with one star make me throw up in my mouth a little. Examples include: The Talented Mr Ripley
2 Stars ⋆ ⋆ - Blah. Skip it. There is no reason why you should see this movie unless the only thing left to do is watch paint dry. On second thought, that would probably be more interesting.
3 Stars ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ - Decent. Rent it or stream it.
4 Stars ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ - Very Good. See it in the theater if possible. Tell your friends about it. Post about it on Facebook. Gush a little.
5 Stars ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ - Excellent, Incredible, Three thumbs up. Own it. In todays world, I like most people don’t buy many movies any more. Its a rare occasion for me and only those movies that move me in a major way or are incredibly cool make the cut.