The supporting characters in the Nolanverse are made to shoulder the burden of proving their universe's reality. The primary two in TDKR are Catwoman and John Blake.
I saw this Tuesday night and came out initially thinking of putting it on par with TDK, perhaps slightly better, and still far behind Begins.
Then I kept thinking about it, and got a bit angry....and angrier...and angrier...
I originally thought TDK was empty. Oooh boy was I wrong. The wider the scope, the worse these films get.
TDKR is nothing but a extremely too long collection of scenes and setpieces with only a hint of narrative focus. This focus is hard won with a slow first third or so, and then completely disregarded by the inane piling up of plot twist after plot twist after setpiece after revelation with each undoing the one that had just gone before in the final third of the film.
And then it is capped off by the most jaw droppingly silly been done before coincidental please everyone possible ending that is all wrapped up with a big bow on top. And it completely undoes what little shred of Batman's character is left. Pitiful.
And I'm still confused as to how I feel over the damn thing. I do feel it is worse than TDK overall, and most of you all know my huge problems with that film.
I saw one of the 15/70mm IMAX prints, and if at all interested-go see this. this is a one time deal for now of seeing a 70mm film print theatrically. Warning: this gets loud and you may need earplugs if sensitive to piercing sounds. The image wasn't all too impressive to be perfectly honest, with the design of IMAX not really being one for theatrical narrative films. I got the distinct impression of peering through a slightly dirtied round the edges porthole, and the standard Panavision looked flat but with much better color than what would have been the standard digital presentation.
Sound was overly loud in the opening, quieted down and was generally unimpressive. I was more excited by the projector hum in the quiet scenes.
DuracellEnergizer said:
I don't hate the series so much as I'm left cold by it.
I'm not much of a fan of Nolan's films in general to begin with. I do like two of his films - The Prestige and even Batman Begins - and initially enjoyed The Dark Knight well enough. As I saw more and more of his films, though, I was turned off by the convoluted and pretentious storylines he tends to favour. In retrospect, I grew to dislike TDK for the same reasons.
I liked Begins surprisingly. I didn't want another origin story and went in unaware of the project otherwise. It's a good film with narrative focus, design and character. Just think of how much better TDKR would have been if only Ra's had been allowed to just come back!! that said, there were problems and all of these were addressed in the tie-in novelization which is a really great read. Far better than the film in every way.
Then I saw a sneak preview of The Prestige and thought: "What the hell is going on?" I like magicians, historical films, mystery thrillers, films built around adversaries (ex: The Duellists) and could not have been more bored/confused even with the Bowman himself appearing. I thought, "well at least this wont ever get anywhere, it's awful."
Then I start hearing months later about how great this movie is. Did I miss something? TDK only took this to an insanely higher level.
I saw Memento, because it's one of those movies that everyone raves about in film school. Aside from the single story gag, there is nothing of any resonance. It is slow, dull, tepid and genuinely uninteresting like every other Nolan film that I have seen save for Begins which must have been a fluke or something and Inception which I still have not seen and thus must continue to be ignored...;)
And then there is Nolan's attempt to make Batman and his world realistic. I don't like that idea AT ALL. I like a gothic Gotham and a nightmarish Arkham Asylum, I like the impossible characters like Man-Bat and Mr. Freeze, I like the idea that Batman can team up with a superpowered alien from another world and fight supernatural threats like vampires and zombies. Nolan takes all that away in his films and, frankly, makes the Batman and his world as dull and boring as possible.
Not only was Batman's character mostly stripped away, but so was romanticism, adventure, escapism, and a great deal of emotion. Not saying that the over the top fantasy elements are always necessary, but Nolan makes Batman feel like a psychological probe into the society of a city instead of a tale of the winged avenger.
I also haven't been fond of most of the characterization in his films. Apart from Ledger's Joker, I'm indifferent to almost everyone in the films; Oldman's Gordon, Caine's Alfred, Eckhart's Harvey Dent/Two-Face, etc. - all blah as far as I'm concerned. And, frankly, I dislike Bale's Bruce/Batman. I hate the bulky Batsuit, the smoker's Batvoice, and the "Bruce Wayne is a selfish playboy dumbass" routine. Yeah, I know it comes from the comics, but I still hate it; it irks me as much as Christopher Reeve's Clark Kent.
There is no Wayne in the sequels, just a caricature. The problem is that the characters if looked at closely enough never seem to actually do much of anything other than serve the demands of the plot at their given times.
I always took the Reeve portrayal of Kent as a throwback to 30's screwball comedy, sort of the bumbling straight man who just couldn't be that dumb...or could he? (Think Ralph Bellamy)
Aside from the dream talk with Ra's, there was one moment in the film I genuinely adored. This is the scene of the mock court in a tattered hall where the police etc. are put before a joke trial in front of the new judge on high, Scarecrow. This could come straight from a comic book panel and is at once chilling and endearing. It is of course a throwaway moment, but my favorite.
More to come on this thing, but I'm still puzzled as to what I make of it all.