LoveFilm? I just watched Beverly Hills Cop for the first time last night. That Murphy kid is gonna be a
star. I’ve got Carnage sitting on my
desk, which I’m looking forward to. Love me some Polanksi.
Spotify? ‘Wires’ by Athlete.
Admittedly, not my favourite song of all time, but that’s the beauty of
Shuffle. That, or I’m a lazy dick who can’t skip it. Maybe both.
Amazon? I’ve just started reading Anna Of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery. I have literally
no expectation from it, which is a good thing, I’d say.
***
I was a little surprised a couple of weeks ago
when I realised Batman Begins, the
first of the Nolan trilogy, was released in 2005. Seven bloody years ago. To
think that this series has been floating around for so many years – it’s pretty
crazy. But seven years and three movies later, it’s over. With definitely much
more of a bang than a whimper, it is actually over.
The Dark
Knight Rises begins eight years after the second film. Harvey Dent is dead.
Gotham is free of organised crime. Having lost a lot of his money through
questionable business deals, Bruce Wayne has become a recluse. Oh, and that
mysterious guy in the black suit is gone. All is well enough, until a mercenary
by the name of Bane arrives. As Bane starts to wreak havoc on the streets of
Gotham with the aid of a nuclear bomb, the need for Batman grows. We know the
answer to whether Batman returns. Of course he does. The answer to whether
Batman is still good enough to save the day? Well, you’ll just have to find
that out for yourself.
It took a while to get this last one out (it’s
been four years since The Dark Knight),
and there was a ridiculous amount of hype and expectation. How do you possibly
top the grandeur of The Dark Knight?
How do you develop a villain as fantastic as Heath Ledger’s Joker? And, more
importantly, how do you satisfyingly end this Batman mythology? Bravely and
very successfully, Christopher Nolan not only tackles these questions, he makes
them a focal point of the actual story. Rises
isn’t just about a superhero trying to overcome a supervillain; this is about Bruce
Wayne coming to terms with his own mortality, and that of his masked alter-ego.
I think Christian Bale gave the second film’s
worst performance; here, though, he’s one of the best. He isn’t the best
Batman, but he is definitely the best Bruce Wayne. Bale is at his best in the
movie when expressing the insecurities Bruce, particularly in pivotal scenes
with Michael Caine and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. That annoying gravelly voice has
been improved on too, making Batman much more fun to see as well. As his
opposite number, Tom Hardy is incredible. Yes, the mask and stupidly bulky body
are immense; what resonated with me more, though, was how Hardy was able to
emote so much with just his eyes. A great performance.
The supporting cast do their bit too. It’s
probably a disservice to call Anne Hathaway supporting cast, because she’s not
really. And she is scene-stealingly good as Selina Kyle (Catwoman, though she’s
never called that). Michael Caine, Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman are typically
brilliant – in fact, I’d say Caine gives the best performance in the movie.
Joseph Levitt is strong as the valiant young police officer. The weak link for
me was Marion Cotillard. I love her as an actor, I really do, but her accent
really pissed me off. All her dialogue felt forced and unnatural, which annoyed
me. I get that she has become part of the Nolan family, but other actresses
could have done a better job.
It’s hard to talk about the movie without
giving away spoilers. And there is so much happening in the two-and-a-half-hour
movie, that I’d need to reveal spoilers to have things make sense. Know this
though; the scale of this movie is far greater than the last two. The Dark Knight Rises is an epic film.
Whether you’re drawn to the thrilling action and spectacular set-pieces, or the
interaction between lots of brilliant actors at their best, you’ll find it all
here. You could argue that the ending is a bit too Hollywood, but then you
could say Batman as a character is a bit too Hollywood.
I made the claim just before watching Rises that Nolan’s Batman trilogy might
be the greatest trilogy of all time. Having now watched the film three times
(don’t judge me), I stand by my claim. From beginning to end, in nearly ten
hours of cinema, Christopher Nolan has produced a Batman series that will never
ever be matched. I feel sorry for the poor guy who tries.
