Review: The Dark Knight Rises (dir. Christopher Nolan)

Story: Eight years after the events of The Dark Knight billionaire Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) lives in recluse. Mentally and physically broken by his years as Batman he sees Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) clean up the streets of Gotham. However, the arrivals of the gymnastic burglar Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) and of the cruel mercenary Bane (Tom Hardy) force Batman out of retirement. The question is if he is able to rise up again and confront his present foes as well as the demons of his past.

If The Dark Knight Rises is quite a disappointment, then it is so because of the enormous expectations of fans, and the high bar set by its predecessors, Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight (2008). In fact, to call ‘TDKR’ a bad film is unjustified. It is a good summer blockbuster; by far the best of this summer. It grabs such fodder as The Avengers and The Amazing Spider-man in their necks and scoulingly sends them back to kindergarten. And yet it disappoints.

The biggest let down for me was that director Christopher Nolan does not chart new territories and themes in TDKR. Rather, he returns to the issues already covered in quite some extent in Batman Begins. And although Bruce Wayne / Batman does grow as a character, I miss the expansion to Batman’s universe and psychology that made The Dark Knight so very special. From a storytelling point of view it makes sense to make the circle complete, and Nolan does not hesitate to emphasize this, using quite a big number of flashbacks to Batman Begins. But I think he is mistaken to pressume that his audience is not already overly familiar with the previous films.

Valuable time is lost with these flashbacks, and although I do not think that The Dark Knight Rises is too long, I do think it could have spent some of its running time (a whopping 164 minutes) in a more effective manner. On many an occasion, especially in the climactic final hour, Nolan falls back on cheap short-cuts in his staging of the battle over Gotham’s fate. On first viewing these moments may be mistaken for plot holes, but on second viewing they appear to be the result of cramped storytelling and shoddy editing. Unnecessary mistakes that could easily have been solved had Nolan allowed himself more time to stage these scenes properly and less time reinvoking worn down, and this trilogy unworthy, generic stereotypes.

Nolan likes to work with the same people over and over again: Story writer David Goyer, producer Emma Thomas, writer Jonathan Nolan (yes, the brother), composer Hans Zimmer, editor Lee smith and cinematographer Wally Pfister. If I would recommend Nolan to look for another editor if he continues in action films, I must also praise Wally Pfister. Pfister was nominated for an Oscar for The Dark Knight, and he won one for Inception, and in The Dark Knight Rises he delivers again. The vistas of a Gotham under siege are stunning. In cooperation with the special effects team Pfister does something extraordinary: the stunts and effects that in other films seem weightless and immaterial digital constructions have heft and weight and, consequently, realism in TDKR.

Nolan also prefers to work with actors he already knows. Of course he brings back Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman (as Lucius Fox) and Michael Caine (Alfred Pennyworth), but he also calls in the services of his Inception veterans Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard (as business woman and love interest Miranda Tate) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (as Gotham city cop John Blake). And there are surprising cameos by some old characters as well. The only major new face is Anne Hathaway. And it must be said that, in such an enormous ensemble, it is Hathaway who stands out, next to Bale and Gorden-Levitt. The other actors suffer from the fact that their roles are perhaps slightly too marginal and underwritten. Tom Hardy is imposing, threatening and scary as Bane, but he can not rival Heath Ledger’s Joker. He should not want to either, and we should not expect it from him.

As an action spectacle, this film is stunning. Big set-pieces involve a chase scene with multiple motorcycles, a street battle between cops and thugs and, perhaps most memorable, a mid-air abduction in the opening sequence. We should not underestimate the contribution of composer Hans Zimmer to these scenes. The master of the genre almost overplays his hand with a thunderous score that drowns out bits of the dialogue, but the crucial word in this sentence is ‘almost’. Empire compared Zimmer’s soundtrack with an earthquake, and that is an appropriate metaphor. The music defies further description.

By not offering us something fundamentally new, apart from some interesting characters, Nolan deprives his film from the depth and the political commentary that The Dark Knight had. Complaints that TDKR is politically reactionary or conservative miss the point that there is actually a shocking lack of politics in this film. If there is any, it only serves as a masquerade of or a detraction from the actual plot, which then is too light to justify the epic ambitions of the film.

But Nolan does deliver emotionally. The fans who have made his films the huge successes that they are have invested in this world and in these characters. And although this individual film may not be able to match the quality of its predecessors, it does succeed in satisfyingly finishing this particular story of Bruce Wayne. Actually, it might be its strongest point (and this is the only small spoiler! I put into this review) that it finishes the story of Bruce Wayne, but not necessarily that of Batman. A relief for the studio and for the fans.

Final verdict: The Dark Knight Rises is a fitting and satisfying conclusion to what we can now call the best superheroe franchise to date. However, it is also demonstrably the weakest link in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, and so it is with appropriate heartache that fans have to say goodbye to their holiday fling of three summers.

The (pre)history of The Dark Knight Rises

The first reviews, from professional outlets, of The Dark Knight Rises have been coming in these last couple of days. Generally positive reviews, although everyone seems to agree that The Dark Knight was the highlight in Christopher Nolan’s Bat-trilogy. I am seeing TDKR tomorrow evening, and will report back on Saturday. In the meantime, here are a few tidbits to wetten your appetite.

Batman was of course, incredibly camp, until he was reinvented, in the 1980s, by Tim Burton on-screen and by Frank Miller in the comics. The 1960s television series was Saturday morning kids fare. But alltogether quite enjoyable:

Tim Burton was not an obvious choice to direct Batman in the late 1980s. He had made a number of small, quirky but succesfull little fantasy movies, and had no experience in action films. But Warner Bros. choice worked out well. Burton built a Gothic Gotham, Danny Elfman delivered a fantastic musical score, Michael Keaton was a reliable Batman and Jack Nicholson stole the show (and a considerable part of the film’s box office take) as The Joker.

But after Burton came Joel Schumacher. And his Batman & Robin, featuring for the first time the villain Bane (seen in the clip below), is the reason why it does not matter if The Dark Knight Rises is a three or four or five star film. Christopher Nolan delivered us from evil. A small reminder of where we came from:

Christopher Nolan, much like Tim Burton, was a left-field choice for rebooting Batman. Nolan was known for small-scale puzzle films, like Memento and Insomnia. You’d think he is way too smart to direct a Batman film, which has to make two hundred million dollar world wide just to break even. But Nolan did. it. He ditched all the bagage of the Burton and Schumacher films and started over again, with Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One as an inspiration. Batman Begins came in under the radar but surprised everyone.

I was appalled when I heard that Heath Ledger would succeed Jack Nicholson as The Joker, in Nolan’s Bat-sequel The Dark Knight. But this was after I had seen Ledger in A Knight’s Tale, and before I saw Brokeback Mountain. Ledger locked himself into a hotel room, read The Killing Joke and came out of the room as the most maniacal movie-villain of the new century. The catalyser in a plot about terror and the costs of justice and freedom, Ledger turned The Dark Knight from a really good film into an unforgettable one.

In Nolan we trust. Bane and Catwoman as villains? That many new characters? A title that does not seem terribly inspired? We do not care. We’ve learned that we can trust Nolan. And if the trailers are anything close to the real deal, then The Dark Knight Rises will be one of the movie highlights of the year.

Five things we’ve learned from the Skyfall teaser…

Hello! Kaboom. The name is Fall, Skyfall. And this is the teaser trailer. Which is now officially considered abso-f*ing-lutely f*ing awesome. Awesome.

Some things we’ve learned. First of all: this one is quite tough and strikes home. London is one of the major settings of this film, and it appears we might see an attack on the Underground. With memories of 2005 relatively fresh and the Olympics with all their security fuss on the agenda, this is more than topical.

Second: It looks gorgeous. But that’s to be expected when you pair director Sam Mendes with cinematographer Roger Deakins and costume designer Tom Ford (that’s his tuxedo that Bond is wearing in the Shanghai bit). A bit too gorgeous for Daniel Craig’s ‘roughed up’ version of Bond? Perhaps; we’ll have to see.

Third: The best villain introduction since ever, as Javier Bardem’s big baddie Silva walks away from an explosion, and we only see him in silhouette…

Fourth: the classic Aston Martin DB5 is back!

And finally: is this going to be a perfect double bill with Christopher Nolan’s Inception? I had strong ‘Nolanesque’ feelings with this teaser. It somehow reminded me quite a bit of The Dark Knight, with the terror striking close to home and a protagonist in psychological shambles… And Inception was, as Nolan proclaimed, his “Bond” film. Which does not mean I would not like to see the man doing a ‘real’ Bond flick.

But that’s fantasizing about the far future, while in the immediate one there is so much to look forward to. Not only Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, but also Sam Mendes’ Skyfall. Officially proclaimed awesome. What a year!

PS Probably a coincidence, but Bane, the villain in The Dark Knight Rises, made his first appearance in the comic book series Knightfall. Not only is this an alliteration of Skyfall, in this comic book Bane also broke Batman’s mind and his back. Is Bond awaiting a similar fate? This teaser surely leaves open the possibility….

Update: The Dark Knight Rises

Christopher Nolan has a legendary reputation for secrecy about his future films. Plot details, characters and themes are often not known to the press and the public until the last few, more extensive, trailers arrive. All the more spectacular than that Nolan and his stars Christian Bale (Batman/Bruce Wayne) and Tom Hardy (bad guy Bane) spoke to Empire about the new Batman flick – The Dark Knight Rises – last month. This is what we’ve learned that we did not know yet…

1)      The Dark Knight Rises will take place eight years after the events of The Dark Knight. That is quite a surprise, given the suspenseful state in which the latter film left Batman: his reputation shattered and hunted by the police.

2)      The new film will find Bruce Wayne in a very bad state. Nolan and Bale have spoken about the way in which grief and guilt are the central elements ofWayne’s existence, and how he can no longer live his life like that.

3)      Bane is a terror and a menace. If the Joker was a psychological adversary for Batman, testing him to his principal and ethical limits, Bane will be an enemy that can actually hurt Batman physically. Tom Hardy spoke of the cracking of skulls and the ripping out of spines. Wow. Nolan goes Conan apparently, but Warner Bros. will insist on PG 13 rating and therefore I expect the violence to be mostly suggested rather than lingered on.

The Dark Knight Rises will conclude Nolan’s Batman trilogy that started with Batman Begins in 2005. The film will hit Dutch screens on July 25^th next year. Keep that date free!

 

 

Preview: The Dark Knight Rises

Last week Warner Bros. released the teaser poster for Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, and yesterday they also put an HD version of the first teaser online. A shoddy low-quality version had already been leaked to the internet, but its quality was so bad that hardly anything could be seen or heard in it.

The new teaser still tells us little about the plot: there are some images from Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, and a voice-over by Liam Neeson that comes from the first film. Then: an image of Gary Oldman’s commissioner Gordon on a hospital bed: hurt, weak. He insists that Batman must come back, that they were “in this together”. An unseen Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) doubt whether Batman still exists. Then there are shots of someone climbing out of a hole and of Bane (Tom Hardy). One of his face and one of him approaching a stumbling Batman in an underground location.

And that is it. I am thrilled. I am very much looking forward to the film, yet I am afraid as well. Mostly because of the cast list. The Dark Knight Rises sees Bale returning as Bruce Wayne/Batman, and Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman (Lucius Fox) and Michael Caine (Alfred) return as well.

Tom Hardy will be Bane, who in the comics is a genetically engineered super-soldier or villain. Anne Hathaway is cast as Selina Kyle, and may transform into Catwoman. Hathaway is new to Nolan, but Marion Cotillard and Joseph Gorden-Levitt are not: they worked with him on Inception. Gorden-Levitt will be police officer John Blake, and Cotillard will play Miranda Tate, in the comics also known as Talia Al Ghul, the estranged daughter of Ra’s Al Ghul, Batman’s enemy from Begins. Josh Pence is cast as a young Ra’s, and Liam Neeson is rumoured to return as the old version of the character.

Such long cast lists lead to problems; see last years Iron Man 2. All these well-known actors and characters can hardly all be given the screen time they need to develop their characters properly and play a major role in what still should be the story of Batman. At worst, we could get a mess of a film. However, considering Nolan’s disciplined style of filmmaking that is not likely. More likely is that the film will show an extreme version of the template of The Dark Knight and Inception, in which supporting characters’ emotional or personal development are sidelined in order for them to schematically inhabit the various political, moral or mythological points Nolan wants make.

Something else I fear is that Nolan might move away from the realistic tone of his previous Batman films, and indulge in the more metaphysical themes and plotlines some of the comics (for instance Frank Millar’s “The Dark Knight Returns”) offer. That is something I would not be fond of.

But I had similar fears back in 2007, when I first learned that Heath Ledger, whom I, at the time, only remembered as the teenage heart-throb from 10 Things I Hate About You and A Knight’s Tale, would play The Joker, a role made iconic by Jack Nicholson. And I had my doubts about the pitch for Inception as well: A thriller set within the architecture of the mind? And in both cases my doubts and fears were met by great films. Let’s hope Nolan can do it again.

The Advantage of not Being a Pixar Film – the Kung Fu Panda 2 review

There is a great deal of enjoyment to be had with Kung Fu Panda 2. The sequel to Dreamworks 2008 hit animation film combines interesting characters with good action sequences, a decent number of big laughs and breathtaking animation. Actually, with Pixar’s Cars 2 appearing to have had a somewhat lukewarm reception with the American critics, this years Academy Award for best animated feature may well turn out to be a real contest.

Kung Fu Panda 2 benefits a great deal from not being a Pixar film. The ‘masters’ of the genre have the problem of the expectation of the public, of the high standards they have set themselves with the golden three-piece of Wall-E, Up and Toy Story 3. Films that were not just animated films, or children’s movies, but proper adult dramas at the same time. Wall-E (together with The Dark Knight) was responsible for the Academy’s decision to raise the number of Best Film nominees to ten, and promptly Up and Toy Story 3 ended up on the list of nominees for that prize in their respiective years. If Pixar, as it now appears, take it a little easier this year with ‘just-a-kids-flick’ Cars 2, then the film need not actually be bad in order to disappoint.

Dreamworks Animation have none of these problems. They have already squeezed their most profitable and adult-minded franchise, the Shrek films, for the last drop of money that was in it with the shameless cash-in of Shrek Forever After. They have dispersed with the image of a ‘rogue group of artists’ and can now be seen for what they really are: a movie studio. A commercial venture in the entertainment industry, that sometimes makes good (How to Train Your Dragon), and sometimes makes less good (Madagascar) or even bad films (Megamind). Part of the job.

Kung Fu Panda 2 is one of the good ones. The story sees panda Po, now a trained Kung Fu warrior, cross fists with Lord Shen, a peacock bent on destroying Kung Fu and conquering China with the use of gunpowder. Po is joined by his friends Tigress, Monkey, Mantis, Crane and Viper. Meanwhile Po himself has some daddy-issues to work out: he comes to the conclusion that the goose that raised him cannot possibly be his father.

As I said: the animation is gorgeous: there is a beautifully drawn opening sequence, and the computer animation is of a detail I had not seen before. I said the same thing about Rango previously, and it appears that the technology and the craft in using it are still progressing with giant leaps.

The voice work is very good. Jack Black convinces as Po – a great example of succesfull typecasting in animation. He is surrounded by big stars: Gary Oldman as Lord Shen, and (amongst others!) Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen and Lucy Liu as his friends. One actually wonders, considering how much aspecially Monkey (Chan), Viper (Liu) and Mantis (Rogen) get sidelined, what the point is in bringing all these expensive voices to the studio for this film.

That also hints at the one major problem with Kung Fu Panda 2: the over abundance of characters. There are just too many different fluffy and not so fluffy animals doing Kung Fu. Quite a number of them have no real prupose or function in the story, other then to model for toys to be sold or given away with Happy Meals. The marketing department here takes control of the storytelling – which is always a disappointing moment.

But to the kids it won’t matter: They’ll enjoy themselves a lot and will find great affection for Po. Luckily for them, and for Dreamworks, there is a short epilogue that leaves open enough space in character development for a third installment. And as an adult I would not mind seeing that one as well.

Nolanography

No comment ont his gorgeous little work of love.

Hathaway as Catwoman, Hardy as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises

A surprising confirmation yesterday from Warner Brothers concerning the notoriously secretive The Dark Knight Rises project, Christopher Nolan’s third and, probably, last Batman film.

Warner Borthers stated in a press release that Tom Hardy, whose involvement in the film was confirmed earlier (he worked with Nolan on Inception as well) will star as the character Bane, a hyper-intelligent and super-muscular drug addict/villain (in the comic books). Meanwhile Anne Hathaway, of former The Princess Diaries and The Devil Wears Prada fame,  will take on the role of Selina Kyle, Bruce Wayne’s troubled love interest. Catwoman is not mentioned in the release, but there seems to be little point in bringing in Seline Kyle if she won’t turn into Catwoman as well.

These choices are surprising. The wise-cracking Hardy was in my opinion a shoe-in for The Riddler, whereas Hathaway has too much of a girl-next-door image to see her strip into a latex cat suit. On the other hand: Nolan’s bad guy choices were contested but ultimately successful previously: Scarecrow and Ra’s Al Ghul were risky baddies for Batman Begins, as they were not as well known as for instance The Joker. Also, the first announcement that Heath Ledger would be The Joker in The Dark Knight was controversial. And we all know how that turned out.

So let’s for now have trust in Nolan’s judgment, and look forward to The Dark Knight Rises, which is due to hit cinema screens (classic and Imax, no 3D thank God) summer 2012. Its cast was already known to star Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne / Batman, Michael Caine as Alfred, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox and Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon.

Action Franchises: Resurrected!

Three film franchises have been “officially rebooted” this week. To quite some enthusiasm on my behalf I must say.

Christopher Nolan officially admitted that he will direct his third Batman film (after Batman Begins and The Dark Knight). The fact that he is very pleased with the material and the script (which he penned down with his brother Jonathan) suggests that the screenplay is nearly done. Nolan refuses to go into details, although his commitment to the project makes it likely that Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman and possibly Morgan Freeman will return for the third film.

Meanwhile, Warner Brothers have a second super hero franchise to boast about: Superman. Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns (2006) was a tad of a disappointment, so for the reboot they have now hired Zack Snyder as a director. Snyder already made Dawn of the Dead, 300 and Watchmen for Warners. His Legends of Guardians premiered this week and his forthcoming Sucker Punch is highly anticipated. He is regarded a visionary director on the level of the visuals, but his films are sometimes criticized for lacking in content. However, with a story written by David Goyer (Batman Begins) and Christopher Nolan (him again), and with Nolan as a producer overlooking the project, the quality of the project’s content seems safeguarded.

A third franchise rebooted this week (and let’s just say it is saved from the graveyard) is the Jason Bourne series. After Paul Greengrass quitted the series due to financial disputes with studio Universal, lead actor Matt Damon pulled out to. Now that Universal have signed Tony Gilroy to direct The Bourne Legacy, they hope to persuade Damon to come back. Gilroy did writing work on the previous Bourne films, and directed such thrillers as Michael Clayton and Duplicity. Gilroy allegedly wasn’t happy about the way the former three Bourne films worked out, so this time he’ll have the chance to do things his way (as he also wrote the script for Legacy). I’m not as thrilled by the news as I was about the other two franchises. I remain one of the few people who consider Matt Damon completely unconvincing as an action hero, and I thought the third film (The Bourne Supremacy) was uninspired, with the car chase being a complete copy of the Moscow set chase from the second film. However, if Damon decides not to return, Gilroy and producer Frank Marshall will be forced to find a new original take on the material that may even please me (considering that I really liked Robert Ludlum’s novels).

Together with the recent confirmation that the as of yet untitled ‘Bond 23′, directed by Sam Mendes and starring Daniel Craig, is back online after the financial misadventures of studio MGM, these news flashes confirm that very little will really change in action film land. Thankfully.

Blockbuster Season 2010: The Round-up

Okay. So that’s it. It is the first of September, and although some big loud action movies are still to premiere on Dutch screens, I call it a day for the blockbuster season of 2010. September is the month in which we’ll get to see Machete and Piranha 3D, but it is also the month of the Venice Film Festival and, interesting for the locals here, The dutch Film Festival in Utrecht.

And what a weird blockbuster season it has been. Whereas other years were actually good (2008 saw The Dark Knight, Iron Man and only had The Incredible Hulk to cry about) or very bad (2009, if only for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and GI: Joe) 2010’s summer saw its major titles sink, but saw other, unexpected, films deliver.

Tent pole pictures such as Green Zone, Iron Man 2, Clash of the Titans, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and The Expendables all disappointed, some to the degree of outright awfulness. Robin Hood was okay, as were Predators, Knight and Day and From Paris With Love. And these four films actually belonged to the B-list to be honest.

Of course, Inception was great. If my review seemed critical, it was only because I set the bar higher for that film. Three other films that I really enjoyed were Centurion, Kick-Ass and Salt. Big pictures of course, but not the movie events that dominated the summer. The A-Team was a delightful guilty pleasure, but it disappointed at the (U.S.) box office, so unfortunately there will probably not be  a sequel.

So, apart from Inception, what was the blockbuster season of 2010 about? Well, to be honest, it was not really about big loud action movies. Of course Inception was big and loud, and an action film, but it does not belong to the same league as Armageddon or Transformers. The other films that drew large crowds this summer were, well, kids movies.

Toy Story 3 was amazing; the only film in 3D that was worth the extra bucks so far. It deserved to be as successful as it was. Shrek Forever After (also in 3D) was a disgrace, but it was a popular success. Let’s just hope that Dreamworks will leave Shrek alone now, and in time I may forgive them. Finally, there was the remake of The Karate Kid, which was far from faultless, but was carried by great performances and had a sincere heart.

The big debates now will focus on two questions: is 2010 an exception, or are family films the future of the blockbuster season? Harry Potter will of course finish with two big bangs, but what’s next? The other question: what to think of 3D? Is it the future of the business? The savior of cinema? Some studies suggest otherwise. I think it will only work as an added attraction for films that were from the first moment thought of as 3D pictures. Avatar for instance, or Toy Story 3. Turning ‘normal’ 2D films into 3D, sometimes with the help of inadequate conversion processes, only helps to kill of the hype and the audience willingness to pay extra.

So this was it: the blockbuster season. One film I’ve yet to mention is Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, which has had its American and UK release, but will only hit Dutch screens this autumn. I don’t expect too much of it. It seems immature fatiguing nonsense, with an unlikable hero who thinks the L-word refers to lesbians. Geek stuff I guess. Must be, with Michael Cera doing that Michael Cera thing that some people seem to like.

 

(This trailer is so annoying that I want to see and then hate this film)

So, let’s ease into the autumn, towards the Holiday season films and the first contenders for awards season 2011. Just a few titles you may already want to look up: The American, 127 hours, Four Lions, Tamara Drew and Terence Malick’s The Tree of Life. Terence Malick? Yes. Terence Malick. Also, there is the ‘new Slumdog Millionaire’ with Africa United. I’m looking forward already.