Reviews Film / The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight gets tricked and so do we.

Nolan must be laughing.

That is the constant image that I get after watching this film because he has successfully duped millions of people into throwing money at a movie that he just didn't care about.

This can be the only explanation as to why a director who made one of the greatest comic book movies of all time would create such a banal movie.

The movie dispenses with originality and cleverness only to replace them with lazy retreading, dumb decisions and absurdities. We already saw Bruce Wayne become Batman but we were forced to see him train all over again, just to fight the same villainous group who employ practices from previous villains.

Why must we see Bruce Wayne train all over again? The answer is due to the widespread stupidity of the cast at large, with few exceptions. Batman/Bruce Wayne is so utterly fooled, decieved and hoodwinked by the baddies that he has to start all over again. Within the fist half hour, he is tricked despite holding an armed crossbow against an unharmed opponent.

Moving on to the absurdities; despite many characters showing less than average sense they end up achieving ridiculous feats. For instance, a penniless Bruce manages to make his away across countries and into a quaranteed city. All of this is offscreen which all but shows that the film is wildly inconsistent in the capabilities of its characters. On top of this comes the over the top "symbolic" practices that the characters seen to love. Whether its creating a huge burning bat symbol with a trail starting near thin ice or having the police charge headfirst into bad guys with armed tanks. Now this was supposed to be THE most realistic Batman films and yet these feats are far more ludicrous than having a bat credit card; which is at least somewhat practical.

The action isn't great; just some explosions and flailing of fists here and there. Lengthwise, the movie is one of the longest comic book movies ever, which just means having to suffer through more of the films failings. If there are any positives it might be that at least the actors tried. Tom Hardy's Lord Humongous is not as prolfic as Ledger's Joker but his variety from jovial commentary to cold brutality is enjoyable. But that's it.

The Dark Knight Rises is long, dumb and boring. I look forward to a reboot which actually bares resemblance to the titular character that we love.