Before I begin, peace be upon those poor people who got shot at a midnight showing in Aurora, CO. May they find the clearing at the end of the path.
And, more cynically, I’d like to point out if more people carried weapons 12 people wouldn’t be dead. The asshole who started shooting up the theater would have been aced and we’d be reading about the idiot stupid enough to pull a gun on a crowd of Americans. Maybe that seems counter intuitive, but people should be more afraid of other people. Guns will help.
Anyway, I’ve seen Dark Knight Rises and you haven’t. If you’re a sequential art (comic book) aficionado, DKR is a combination of Knightfall and Frank Miller’s classic Dark Knight Returns. The former is a storyline launched in 94 when DC realized it had been putting out just terrible work for years and decided to kill off its major characters to shake things up. This resulted in Superman getting to fight Doomsday and Batman being introduced to Bane. In the comic, Bane is a South American terrorist who was born and raised inside a prison. He wears a luchador mask and pumps himself up on a potent and extremely fast acting steroid called venom. If that sounds retarded, it’s because it is. Knightfall was a fucktarded story. Dark Knight Returns is a much more awesome story set after Batman has long retired, in his 50’s. And he ends up getting so angry at how shitty the city has become that he dusts off the old cape. How does a near senior citizen fight criminals hand to hand? Well, he’s not as nice as he used to be. He uses weapons, filthy tricks, and extreme violence. Basically, he’s not fucking around. One of his antagonists is the Mutant leader. Leader of an extremely physical and violent gang (the mutants); he and Batman engage in some seriously intense combat.
The primary antagonist of the new movie is Bane but he’s really mostly the mutant leader. He’s a combination of the two characters but much more mutant leader than Bane. Which is a good thing. And Tom Hardy brings an impressive physicality to the role.
If you’ll recall where we last left our hero, he’d taken the rap for the murders Two-Face committed and for Harvey Dent’s death (see what I did there?). DKR takes place 8 years later as Gotham is relatively calm and nobody has seen Batman since. Nobody has seen Bruce Wayne either, he’s become a recluse. It seems like nothing is wrong. Which as anyone who plays Resident Evil knows is time to look over your shoulder for the monster.
I don’t think anyone’s ever going to top TDK’sJoker; but this film’s Bane cannot be ignored. Gone is the luchador mask. He’s kind of like a MMA Darth Vader. You’ll see. While not “topping” the Joker; Bane is easily a more serious problem. He’s bringing the French Revolution on steroids. He’s bringing Occupy Wall-Street with balls.
Nolan rounds out the scene with around 20 other characters, some from the comic, some new. The best new addition, besides Bane, is Ann Hathaway as Catwoman. Ann can pull off pure athletic better than I would have thought. Her fighting prowess is quite believable. And she gives us an understated, aspiring nihilist take on Catwoman that’s by far the most interesting version of a usually stupid character.
Some quick notes on flaws: There’s alot of shit in this movie. Alot of new characters, sometimes it takes away from the moment. Sometimes the fighting feels too smooth. Still not quite sure how I feel about the ending. But that’s it.
See the movie. It won’t make you forget Heath, but Bane is pretty good in his own right. His introduction scene is almost as cool as Joker’s bank heist. And Nolan throws a few curve balls at you and they’re solid pitches. But take a gun, theaters are dangerous.