The Dark Knight Rises: The Return of Bat Lazonne

My husband and I got to see The Dark Knight Rises on Saturday morning (I can’t remember the last time I hit an 11 am show, but it seemed like the only time we could get a ticket on opening weekend) when my brother was watching the kids, and I just HAD to write something on it. I was seeing all of these 4-star reviews and critical praise (with the exception of Entertainment Weekly, who gave it a mediocre B rating) and was intrigued. On the one hand, it’s a superhero movie. We go to those for the awesome, not for complicated storylines. On the other hand, it’s helmed by Christopher Nolan, who wrote one of our all-time favourite movies, Memento, and has become one of the most innovative auteurs in Hollywood. And those first two films were pretty fantastic, so the third should be pretty good, right?

No, it wasn’t. It was AMAZING. I’ve managed to see a lot of films this year, and it was easily my favourite. Oh sure, I’ve seen The Cabin in the Woods twice and have the DVD release date marked on my calendar so I can buy it and rewatch it repeatedly, but it was funny and fluffy and didn’t come close to matching the brilliance of this film. It had the action that a superhero movie should have, it was fast-paced, yet it had complex character development (character development! In a superhero film!), intertextual storylines that brought in the first two movies in subtle ways, and a plot that brought the entire trilogy full circle. WOW.

I’m not going to go into too much detail, and don’t want to spoil it for people who haven’t yet seen it, so I’ll just mention a few things I loved:

Tom Hardy. As Bane, he spends the entire movie in a mask that covers three quarters of his face. I kept thinking, “I must have misread things… that just can’t be Tom Hardy.” First of all, who casts the perfection that is Tom Hardy (best lips in the movie business) and then pops a mask on his face?? Secondly, I don’t remember him being that… huge. They took the smouldering Ricki from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

and turned him into Vic Mackie from The Shield.

But sure enough, it was him. Amazing. And despite the mask, Hardy is able to show a range of emotion, from pure, unbridled rage to real emotion.

The performances in this movie across the board were rather stunning, actually. Christian Bale is quite extraordinary, in that he maintains a quietness throughout the film, conveying the real pain of Bruce Wayne through his eyes and movements. Anne Hathaway did a great job (I actually quite like her, but I wasn’t expecting her to be that good), playing Catwoman in all her devious glory, from annoyed muttering to cooing insincerity. Joseph Gordon Levitt is someone who I always expect to be great (tell me you have all seen Brick, please) and who I think I’ve loved in every movie… okay, I’ll confess I loved him on 3rd Rock from the Sun, which I watched all the time when I was younger. And he doesn’t disappoint here, in a sad but earnest cop who needs someone to believe in. Michael Caine returns to the Cockney Alfred, and brought me to tears in one of his scenes. Wayne lives with the horror of having watched his parents die right in front of him, without realizing that he’s had a father figure his whole life who has continued to watch out for him in a way his parents never could have, even if they’d lived. And Marion Cotillard is understated but brilliant as Miranda Tate, a part that starts out small but she pulls off some great stuff by the end of the movie.

And Gary Oldman. What is really left to say about Oldman? One of the most underrated actors of his generation, easily one of the greatest (I had the biggest crush on him circa Immortal Beloved it was kind of embarrassing), and he is WONDERFUL. Oldman is so good he risks stealing every scene he’s in, and yes, he’s been in many a movie where he’s completely chewed every inch of the scenery around him, but in this movie he, like the rest, plays his part with a great deal of subtlety. Nolan clearly wanted his cast to be understated, and it works.

Usually in a movie that’s pushing three hours, my husband and I emerge from the theatre talking about what could have been edited out. But I can’t think of a single thing that I would have removed. No, it’s not note-perfect — there are a couple of things in there that had us scratching our heads (did he just go to Uzbekistan and back in under three hours?) and a few other things that seemed just a little too convenient, but those are minor nitpicks in an otherwise awesome film. The action sequences are edge-of-your-seat suspenseful. And for Lost fans, watch for a scene that’s reminiscent of the fuselage destruction scene, and also keep your eyes open for Lost folks throughout the movie.

I loved The Avengers, and I liked The Amazing Spider-Man, but The Dark Knight Rises just took the superhero genre to a new stratosphere.

It's hard to talk about this film without mentioning the tragedy in Colorado last week at the opening night midnight screening. I've written three different things, and keep coming back and changing it, and I've just decided there are no words to express the horror and sadness I feel about what's happened. So I'm deleting everything I wrote, and instead I just want to say my heart and prayers go out to those who have lost someone they love, to the families of the dead, and to the injured who are trying to come to terms with the horror they’ve witnessed and experienced. May you one day feel comfortable enough to walk back into a movie theatre without fear. And may the world one day be a place where we don’t have to wonder if we’re next.

For a well-thought-out discussion of the depiction of violence in popular culture and the questions we need to be asking about it, check out Henry Jenkins' response here. 

And just so I don’t have to end this post on that note, as many of you who follow me on Facebook know, my four-year-old son insisted that the bad guy in this movie was named “Bat Lazonne.” I told him it was Bane, and he said no, he’d seen a commercial and he was definitely named “Bat Lazonne.” This has become such a running joke in our house that when we first saw him on screen, I think my husband and I whispered to each other simultaneously, “It’s Bat Lazonne!” and then dissolved into giggles. At first I thought the commercial said someone battles on, but now I’m thinking there must be an ad out there with a voiceover that says, “The bat lives on.” That’s the only answer I have. But if you have a better one, please let me know! ;)