The Dark Knight Rises - How far..?

There are movies that entertain you. There are movies that enlighten you. But there are very few movies that does both, by taking us on a magical journey and lets us experience what's going on in the screen, in our minds as well. The architects behind these spectacles are its screenwriters who bond the audience to these movies with an emotional string. Of late, these amazing writers are few and far in-between. Christopher and Jonathan Nolan are two men who has turned the art of screenwriting to a altogether new level. So before I begin my candid take on the epic conclusion to the Batman trilogy, I salute the architects who are changing our movie viewing experience for the better. Take a bow masters. But, have they scripted the perfect ending?

The Dark Knight rises is about how Batman comes back from self imposed exile to counter his nemesis, albeit in the physical sense, Bane. It shows how, a superhero having sent to the deepest dungeons and crushed both in body and soul, somehow reinvents himself to come back and save the greatest city on earth. But beyond the action, what this movie does is to question not only each pivotal character of the movie, but also the audience. When we leave the theater we are invariably drawn into a conversation not only with our friends but also within ourselves trying to find answers to those disturbing questions. It forces you to answer questions like, “What have you done for you to be saved?”. Think a bit on the cynical side and you will agree to the methods of Bane and Talia and Ras Al Ghul to restore stability to the world. That’s the kind of world that Nolan transports you to. He is one of those rare breed of directors who takes the center stage in his movies instead of his lead actors and that’s the power of good script writing. The movie has got each character having their own personal struggle to the larger one they were all facing. Bruce Wayne’s inability to get over the loss of her beloved Rachel, Alfred’s failure to take care of Bruce like the way he promised his parents, Selina’s wanting to get a new start but finding no way out, Gordon’s struggles of having to live with a lie for 8 years even if it’s for a greater cause was all masterfully interlinked to the screenplay. It proves a simple fact that you cannot protect a lie for long, not even by the strongest of hearts and that truth has to be told, even though it is bitter to swallow. Nolan also ponders into the politics of all by choosing to stage Bane’s attacks in two very distinctive places, a stock exchange and a sports field, two big money dwelling spots. That’s pure genius. Having said that, as disturbing as the movie is, it is not without its flaws either.

Now, I am no critic and being a fan of Nolan myself, its hard to come down on your favorite director but there were a few things that was a bit of a letdown in this epic finale. The Dark Knight was magnificent because of the tight plot and breathtaking performances. The finale lacked both, albeit only just. But since the bar was raised so high in the previous movie, it looked like a gaping hole. Screenplay was flat for most of the times with Nolan’s usual wise grip missing. Not to compare with the magnificent Heath Ledger, Tom Hardy had much less to improvise on his character, albeit through his eyes and body language. A wonderful actor as he is, he manages to do justice to the role if not set the stage on fire. It is the conversations between Bane and Batman that was a put down. Knowing Nolan, I was expecting it to be no less than legendary but not to be. And Bane’s motives, I thought, were flawed too. He set out to give the power to the people of Gotham but how? Rounding out thugs from prison to raise your army is so not the start. If it was shown that Bane did convince the less privileged people of Gotham to fight for him and the cause, that would have made for an intriguing climax. How would Batman fight against a man who is fighting for the people? But sadly, there was no meaning to his motive of “Giving the power of Gotham to its people” and in the end, it almost seemed too obvious that everybody was waiting for Batman to come and rescue them. There was one small scene that took me by surprise. In the end, in Florence, Alfred watches, smiles and nods to Bruce Wayne sitting with Selina Kyle. Nolan would actually finish with a smiling Alfred leaving the imagination to us like how he closed before Dicaprio's totem before it stopped spinning in Inception.

I don’t want to bitch anymore about a trilogy that set our brain sensors ringing. Rarely you will find people talk about movies like how they talk about Nolan’s Batman Trilogy. The Lord of the Rings were a different beast, but this is one series that you can talk, analyze or even do a PHD on. The scope that it showed was enormous. The casting and crew went a long way in making all this magic happen. Christian Bale grew into Batman in every installment and in the final, he has given a performance that can even land a first ever best actor for a portraying a superhero. He is now the reference for any actor portraying Batman. Tom Hardy was an inspired choice as Bane and Nolan’s liking for Michael Caine will never vanish and rightfully so. Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman proved their veteran qualities yet again and Joseph Gordon-Levitt was neat as usual. The biggest surprise is Anne Hathaway who excels in her role as Selina Kyle/Catwoman. She did well not to refer to Halle Berry’s disastrous earlier attempt. Marion Cotillard is on her way to become one of the best female actors and TDKR gives her scope to get the best of her. The revealing of Talia and Robin were straight out of Nolan’s script book. Two chief technical people, Wally Pfister with his breathtaking photography and Hans Zimmer with his awe-inspiring music takes TDKR to the next level.

I don’t want to indulge so much into the theory I gave earlier on Facebook that I would have prefer an order as Batman Begins-The Dark Knight Rises-The Dark Knight for the trilogy. I know it sounds stupid outright but I am not without my reasons. I am not suggesting a scene to scene ordering here. Think of it this way. Batman Begins with evil genius Ras Al Ghul and motives followed by Talia attempts to fulfill her father’s destiny with the help of Bane in TDKR. When Gotham was saved from these physical ravages comes the threat to its very soul from the Joker which when thwarted by Batman, makes Gotham a city resilient to attacks both on its body and soul, making it a model city. Stupid or not, it is a tribute to Christopher Nolan that he made me think that way.

So, The Dark Knight Rises - Only just.