This year marks the 10th anniversary of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises, a film best remembered as an uninspired follow-up to a truly masterful sequel than as a worthy entry in its own trilogy. It's hard to act as the next chapter in the story of the best superhero film in Hollywood history. The Dark Knight is the closest thing to a legendary that modern filmmakers have come up with. Is it possible that any film could beat it?
The Dark Knight Rises is a good film. Rises is a grand spectacle that lives up to the term summer blockbuster. The film feels lackluster in the context of Nolan's filmography and his two Batman films that came before it. Rises is fascinating because it had everything it needed to succeed, from great source material to talented actors who breathed new life into old characters It's all there to make a great movie, but it's disappointing and unmemorable. It took so long for everyone to accept that it is not as good as it could be.
Bruce Wayne has been disrespected in the past. The character has always taken the back seat to the Caped Crusader, but the new millennium took things to a whole new level. Nolan's Batman-is-the-face-and-Bruce-is-the-mask ideology led to Bruce being sideline until only Batman remained. The decline of Bruce Wayne began with almost every portrayal of Batman saying he was uninteresting and unnecessary.
That is a bunch of BS. Without Bruce, there is no Batman. The man is as important to the character as the Bat is. The Bruce-is-the-mask idea was not the first to be toyed with by Nolan.
The trilogy is an insult to Bruce Wayne in many ways. He is portrayed as a prop, nothing more than a real person, Batman, who stalks criminals at night. Christian Bale plays Bruce, a suit that somehow learned how to walk, in keeping with this approach. He plays Batman in order to inject the masked hero with real complexity and nuances. Bruce can choke for Nolan and Bale.
In The Dark Knight Rises, there is no better example of this. Nolan gets saddled with a character he doesn't find interesting with Batman out of the game. Bruce's scenes are very slow and uncomfortable to watch. The audience and Nolan don't like Bruce. We can tell he is counting the seconds until he can put it back on because every second Bale spends out of the cowl is torture.
The Dark Knight Rises features Bruce at his blandest, which isn't great for a film that's supposed to encourage its audience to root for Bruce, especially since he abandons Batman for good. How can he be happy when everyone is happy when the Caped Crusader is out and about?
It seems like the words "camp" and "Christopher Nolan" don't fit together. Nolan would consider camp an insult to his prestige and hyper realistic brand of film making. You can see the camp in The Dark Knight Rises. The camp in the film is notorious and occasionally a highlight of the story.
The closest thing we have to a modern-day camp master is Hathaway. Kyle is as ostentatious as a Nolan character will ever get because of her catsuit, heels, and goggles. Maybe she stopped herself after Nolan flashed her a chilling look like a White Walker.
Had Nolan not gotten in the way of the performance, there would have been remnants. I think it would be similar to the portrayal of the feline fatale in the comic and the one in Tim Burton's Batman Returns.
There are other actors close to camping it up in Rises. Tom Hardy has a lot of flair in his portrayal of the villain. I am not talking about the goofy mask, the cargo pants or the brutish nature of the film. The actor injects flashes of life and energy into the character.
During his first battle with Batman, the Caped Crusader is all confusion, rage, and frustration, while the Bane is almost walking around the space, like a peacock. The lines like "Do you feel in charge?" are delivered with delicious intent, twirling an imaginary mustache. His jacket seems to be a conscious choice to add some style to him.
The film's camp stakes are raised by Matthew Modine and Ben Mendelsohn as if their lives depended on it. Modine's character dies in a pose bound to make Christians feel something. Let's not talk about the death scene that has been ridiculed and widely seen by the public. This is as campy as a Nolan film can be.
The camp badges should be worn with pride. The Dark Knight Rises walks with its tail between its legs. It shouldn't because those flashes are the best parts of a movie that drags on whenever it's trying to be deeper. The car chases are great and the stakes are high. Can anyone say they followed the plan to financially ruin Bruce Wayne before breaking his back and throwing him into a prison in order to escape?
The Dark Knight Rises has a camp that shouldn't be left out. It would require admitting the storyline is exaggerated and taking away the prestige and self- seriousness that have become Nolan's bread and butter. We can't have that
Nolan's lack of interest is the most egregious mistake. While trying to inject some sense of his trademark ambition into the story, the famed auteur went through the motions. His unique elements include a plot that keeps going even when you think it is about to end, multiple male characters and only two women, but it lacks purpose, which makes its more serious themes seem unnecessary.
Fear and trauma were explored in Batman Begins. Nolan was able to combine both themes with the established Batman mythos and tell a comprehensive origin for the man that would become the Bat. Nolan managed a perfect marriage of inspiration and execution with the two Batman movies.
There is a movie called The Dark Knight Rises. The class struggle from a conservative point of view instantly comes to mind. Nolan is attempting to recreate the French Revolution in the streets of New York City. Nolan feels half-baked. There is nothing different about Rises from other films in its genre. It is frustratingly safe and by-the-numbers, two words that don't normally describe a risk taking director.
Nolan was an ambitious and genre-bending figure who reconciled directorial artistry with blockbuster film making. Nolan's star was at its peak after the two films, meaning his fans and critics were at their most demanding. The Dark Knight Rises wasn't enough to satisfy their desire for more Nolan. Nolan tried to deliver something safe that would make people happy in the film. It is not something that exists in Hollywood and coming from an auteur it is even more shocking.
Where does The Dark Knight Rises go? It is not too bad compared to other superhero entries. The current state of superhero cinema is more important than the quality of the movie. The Dark Knight Rises is the weakest link in the trilogy, and that is enough to make it look bad. It's disappointing because it's willing to be the bare minimum, unlike its two predecessors who wanted to be the best.
Maybe that is its true legacy. The Dark Knight Rises reaps the rewards that its predecessors worked hard to achieve without doing anything. It doesn't surprise us like Batman Begins or challenge us like The Dark Knight. Nolan doesn't want to redefine or push the genre's limits in Rises. He wants to be done with it and move on to Interstellar, so he asked Gordon-Levitt to turn off the lights.
Nolan allowed the Dark Knight trilogy to end. There is a legacy of a film that is more of a missed opportunity than a definitive statement.
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