Catwoman Rises
Jul. 26th, 2012 12:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sevenswellsSo how about that latest (last) Batman movie, huh?
It was okay. Not bad. Kind of meh, but okay. I was certainly expecting more from it.
Was it, as Neil Gaiman said on his blog, "more powerful" than The Dark Knight? Haha, no. Some ideas were good (like cutting Gotham from the rest of the world and turning the whole city into a lawless enclave, brilliant idea), but it's a shame they were not better developed and not the main focus of the movie. What I would have liked to see is Bane. Bane with a plan, Bane with an ideal, Bane with a hatred for Gotham that was justified, Bane with a motivation. It seemed he had a plan at the beginning, and then it was Ra's-Al-Gul's plan that he just wanted to complete (dear Nolan: going back to Batman Begins? Not a good idea. Batman Begins was a really shitty movie and should have never been mentionned again. Also, Ra's-Al-Gul? The guy who targeted Gotham's water main for his evil plan like some dumb 1960's cartoon villain? Who would ever want to follow any idea of Ra's-Al-Gul's, honestly?) and so the whole revolutionary and "giving Gotham back to the people" thing was a bit... moot? Like, why did he want to do that in the first place if in the end he just wanted to blow up the whole place? I wanted Bane to believe in his own ideas, to set the whole of Gotham after Batman, to succeed where the Joker failed. Not to be Talia-Al-Gul's lapdog (in fact, why didn't they just remove the Al-Guls completely from the movie? It would have been improved by a 1000%, seriously).
I liked what Hardy did with Bane at the beginning. His voice was weird, but also so calm, so reasonable, it clashed a bit with his monstrous muscles, and it was good. I mean, imagine: Bane super strong, but also logical, the kind of logic that if it's seen through the end, will cause nothing but destruction of mankind. But, somehow, he has a point. Which makes him even more dangerous than the Joker, because the Joker was mad and wanted mainly chaos. What if Bane wanted order, in a really warped way, instead? What if he wanted something that, on some level, even Batman could agree with? Strong and somehow making sense (but still evil), that would have been an invincible villain. What I mean is, the main question in The Dark Knight was, "what is justice?". To Harvey Dent turned evil, it was chance, which implied complete impartiality. To the Joker, justice was chaos. I wanted to know what Bane's version of justice was. I wanted to know the workings of his mind as a villain. Instead, we learn that he's just a thug. Huge disappointment. When they started talking about that prison in the desert thing, I thought "Riddick". When they brought up Ra's and the League of Shadows or whatever, I sighed heavily. When Bane fights Batman and talks about how darkness is his ally because he is part of it yadda yadda, I thought "Riddick". When Marion Cotillard revealed herself to be Talia-Al-Gul, I rolled my eyes (can't we have a movie with just ONE villain, plz Nolan?). When Bane was killed in the most no1curr way in the world, I didn't care indeed, because at this point of the film, I didn't buy Bane as a character anymore.
Also, what did they do to Alfred? Who was this whining old crone? Why did he abandon Bruce? Alfred, you're Alfred Motherfucking Pennyworth. You're a badass. And this is your Master Bruce. Even if you don't agree with him, even if it pains you to see him waste his life as a goth vigilante, you fucking STAY BY HIS SIDE and fucking DEAL WITH IT. You follow him to hell and back, and you don't show up at the end crying on his tomb about how you should have been there and how you failed to protect him. Also, what was this with telling Bruce about Rachel's letter? I loved that scene to death in The Dark Knight, Alfred finding the letter, Bruce completely shattered telling Alfed that Rachel would have chosen him, and Alfred nodding and destroying the letter. That to me was beautiful, and a very Alfred thing to do. And they had to ruin it in this movie, whyyyy?
Anyway. The really good thing about The Dark Knight Rises, and the reason why I don't hate the whole movie altogether, was Anne Hathaway's Catwoman. I had my serious doubts about her (but then again I had my serious doubts about Heath Ledger as the Joker too) but wow, I can't get over how perfect she was. I never knew she had it in her, but she was everything I want in a good Catwoman, and then some: strong, funny, sexy, wicked, devilishly smart and always finding a way to win ultimately. She was also a lot like my Irene Adler's headcanon (and we all agree that Catwoman is Irene is Catwoman is Irene). She alone justifies my LJ icon for this post, and the fact that I still put TDKR leagues above Batman Begins. Well done, Anne Hathaway.
In sum, TDKR wasn't completely a disappointment to me. The main problem was the references to Batman Begins, which is a movie that should have been forgotten and cast away into a pit in the desert, never allowing it to crawl back to the surface with its broken vertebraes, and the fact that it wasn't as good as The Dark Knight, which to me was perfection in so many aspects. All in all, it was okay. I'm not overly enthusiastic about it, but I don't hate it either.
It was okay. Not bad. Kind of meh, but okay. I was certainly expecting more from it.
Was it, as Neil Gaiman said on his blog, "more powerful" than The Dark Knight? Haha, no. Some ideas were good (like cutting Gotham from the rest of the world and turning the whole city into a lawless enclave, brilliant idea), but it's a shame they were not better developed and not the main focus of the movie. What I would have liked to see is Bane. Bane with a plan, Bane with an ideal, Bane with a hatred for Gotham that was justified, Bane with a motivation. It seemed he had a plan at the beginning, and then it was Ra's-Al-Gul's plan that he just wanted to complete (dear Nolan: going back to Batman Begins? Not a good idea. Batman Begins was a really shitty movie and should have never been mentionned again. Also, Ra's-Al-Gul? The guy who targeted Gotham's water main for his evil plan like some dumb 1960's cartoon villain? Who would ever want to follow any idea of Ra's-Al-Gul's, honestly?) and so the whole revolutionary and "giving Gotham back to the people" thing was a bit... moot? Like, why did he want to do that in the first place if in the end he just wanted to blow up the whole place? I wanted Bane to believe in his own ideas, to set the whole of Gotham after Batman, to succeed where the Joker failed. Not to be Talia-Al-Gul's lapdog (in fact, why didn't they just remove the Al-Guls completely from the movie? It would have been improved by a 1000%, seriously).
I liked what Hardy did with Bane at the beginning. His voice was weird, but also so calm, so reasonable, it clashed a bit with his monstrous muscles, and it was good. I mean, imagine: Bane super strong, but also logical, the kind of logic that if it's seen through the end, will cause nothing but destruction of mankind. But, somehow, he has a point. Which makes him even more dangerous than the Joker, because the Joker was mad and wanted mainly chaos. What if Bane wanted order, in a really warped way, instead? What if he wanted something that, on some level, even Batman could agree with? Strong and somehow making sense (but still evil), that would have been an invincible villain. What I mean is, the main question in The Dark Knight was, "what is justice?". To Harvey Dent turned evil, it was chance, which implied complete impartiality. To the Joker, justice was chaos. I wanted to know what Bane's version of justice was. I wanted to know the workings of his mind as a villain. Instead, we learn that he's just a thug. Huge disappointment. When they started talking about that prison in the desert thing, I thought "Riddick". When they brought up Ra's and the League of Shadows or whatever, I sighed heavily. When Bane fights Batman and talks about how darkness is his ally because he is part of it yadda yadda, I thought "Riddick". When Marion Cotillard revealed herself to be Talia-Al-Gul, I rolled my eyes (can't we have a movie with just ONE villain, plz Nolan?). When Bane was killed in the most no1curr way in the world, I didn't care indeed, because at this point of the film, I didn't buy Bane as a character anymore.
Also, what did they do to Alfred? Who was this whining old crone? Why did he abandon Bruce? Alfred, you're Alfred Motherfucking Pennyworth. You're a badass. And this is your Master Bruce. Even if you don't agree with him, even if it pains you to see him waste his life as a goth vigilante, you fucking STAY BY HIS SIDE and fucking DEAL WITH IT. You follow him to hell and back, and you don't show up at the end crying on his tomb about how you should have been there and how you failed to protect him. Also, what was this with telling Bruce about Rachel's letter? I loved that scene to death in The Dark Knight, Alfred finding the letter, Bruce completely shattered telling Alfed that Rachel would have chosen him, and Alfred nodding and destroying the letter. That to me was beautiful, and a very Alfred thing to do. And they had to ruin it in this movie, whyyyy?
Anyway. The really good thing about The Dark Knight Rises, and the reason why I don't hate the whole movie altogether, was Anne Hathaway's Catwoman. I had my serious doubts about her (but then again I had my serious doubts about Heath Ledger as the Joker too) but wow, I can't get over how perfect she was. I never knew she had it in her, but she was everything I want in a good Catwoman, and then some: strong, funny, sexy, wicked, devilishly smart and always finding a way to win ultimately. She was also a lot like my Irene Adler's headcanon (and we all agree that Catwoman is Irene is Catwoman is Irene). She alone justifies my LJ icon for this post, and the fact that I still put TDKR leagues above Batman Begins. Well done, Anne Hathaway.
In sum, TDKR wasn't completely a disappointment to me. The main problem was the references to Batman Begins, which is a movie that should have been forgotten and cast away into a pit in the desert, never allowing it to crawl back to the surface with its broken vertebraes, and the fact that it wasn't as good as The Dark Knight, which to me was perfection in so many aspects. All in all, it was okay. I'm not overly enthusiastic about it, but I don't hate it either.
