Yet another movie that I waited to watch. Ever since The Dark Knight, I've had high hopes for this movie, which, I suppose, was part of its downfall. But I won't focus entirely on what is wrong with the movie--I will also focus on the Cinema Sins video, "Everything Wrong with The Dark Knight Rises in 3 Minutes or Less."The main problem I had with the movie was the pacing. Things happened very fast, and especially when Bane takes over the city: those 5 months fly past, with no good indication of how much time has passed between jumps other than the snippets of what people say. But time jumps like that, while one of my pet peeves, are not what I'm really concerned about. I'm mostly talking about the fact that none of the scenes feels set up right. Every time we get a new scene, there's automatically someone talking, someone doing something, etc. There is no pause for atmosphere, or for the viewer to get his bearings. Rather, it's just a headlong plunge into the scene.
Sure, they had the movie at 2 hours and 45 minutes, well into the range where most moviegoers don't like their movies to go. I hate this attitude, but I'll focus on that in another post. Here, the issue I have with this is that they could've made it 3 hours, and taken the time to set scenes correctly. It was a really long movie, but to me it felt shorter because it went so fast. And I don't like that, especially with a movie like this.
As for the plot, I thought it was a good idea. I'm kind of tired of the whole nuclear-bomb-must-be-stopped plot device by now, since it's used so often, but other than that it was fairly clever. People were stupid, though. Send all the police below ground? All of them? What tactical sense does that make? Worse yet, the people of Gotham actually believe Bane when he says one of them has the trigger. That's just silly. Sure, maybe they're just scared for their lives and don't dare consider that it's a lie meant to fulfill Bane's weird idea of a scheme, so I won't take it as a real point against the movie, but still...
Next...the Catwoman cartwheel is one of the dumbest moments in this movie. Why does it happen? And when Bruce is in the pit, he breaks the TV. Um, Batman...now you don't know what's going on in Gotham... Two people in fight scenes fall down without being hit. Blake doesn't count to five before throwing...though that's a good thing, since the bomb goes off before it would've reached five.
The worst part, though, is the ending. I liked the twist about Bane not being the real villain behind it all, but then Batman goes off with the bomb, as we all knew he would, and then it blows up over the water, a safe distance from Gotham. Of course, there's the problem of radiation, but that can be overlooked because the bomb was originally an energy source that wouldn't cause radiation. Perhaps there is none because of how Bruce designed it. Other than that, one big issue is that, with Batman and Bruce Wayne dead, no one is surprised to see him at a diner, where Alfred sees him with Catwoman. This could be explained by the fact that Gothamites thought his disappearance was part of the routing of rich people during Bane's rule. This is why they don't automatically say, "Hey, both of them died at the same time! Bruce Wayne is Batman!" Seeing him at the diner, they realize that he has not actually died, and was probably just in hiding. This makes his funeral scene look really cruel, though. He couldn't just tell Alfred he was alive right away?
But that's not all! The part I hate the most is the fact that Batman doesn't die. Granted, dying by nuclear bomb would be a dumb way for him to go; I'd rather he died fighting Bane, either taking him down with him or weakening him for Blake to finish the job. The whole movie was centered around the idea that Batman would eventually die. And that would have been the most epic ending possible. Instead, they decided to screw all the build-up and save the hero. This kind of ending has been happening an awful lot lately, and frankly, I'm tired of it. We get it--heroes are great, and should be rewarded for their sacrifice. But resurrecting them every time really just ends up ruining the effect. We always know now that the guy who gives his life is going to survive somehow. What's the point of death anymore? As long you're a good guy and don't die early on, you're guaranteed to survive the movie. Gosh...
Cinema Sins points out a lot of the above problems, and then some. Since I didn't like most of these things, I enjoyed watching their video and felt good bashing the movie. But there were a few things I felt they didn't think about, and which they rarely do in their review process. They point out small things, like how many fans were at the football game, and how poorly Batman fights when he first loses to Bane, both of which are easily defended against (it's a freaking football game, who cares? And Batman has been out of action for a long time). But the one that got to me was the point about Alfred giving away the ending to the movie very early on.
Alfred says to Bruce that he always went to a certain diner, hoping one day to see Bruce there with some lady, knowing that things were going well and all that. The monologue about this is a bit awkward, but in the end it's just him taking his frustrations out on Bruce for the way he is living his life, and expressing what he wishes for his charge's future. This is a very common device in stories: foreshadowing. The kind that brings everything back around, giving a sense of closure. Now, sure, he gives away the ending. But that isn't a problem. Why? Because he was talking to Bruce about it! Meaning Bruce, once he decides he wants to show up in the world again, can remember this, and choose to do exactly what Alfred wanted. He wanted to do this as a sort of message to Alfred that all would be well after all.
I didn't agree with Cinema Sins on some other movies (especially on The Avengers, where they pointed out a lot of things for no good reason). They can point out some good things, but usually they just pump their videos full of small details so that at the end they can give some big number of "sins" and label every movie as "Hell." While sometimes they are correct in this categorization (as with Looper), they usually aren't, and miss the point entirely. Just enjoy the movie, guys.
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