You're gonna be bothered by how cool I am.

Man, it takes forever for me to put a post together these days. Maybe in a few weeks I'll post about the Olympic opening ceremony!



Let's get some things out of the way here at the beginning. I have never read a single comic book in my life (though I have read a couple of graphic novels, but those aren't the same thing). My exposure to most superheroes has been from television, and the only knowledge base I have for Batman is the Burton movies, the unfortunate Shumacher movies, and a handful of episodes of the old TV show with Adam West. And when it comes to Christopher Nolan's Batman films, I've felt quite detached from them and never really got what all the fuss was about. I mean, hey, of course they were well made films and there was something satisfying about the more subdued, "realistic" style that made them more respectable in the mainstream. But I never had the reverence for them that other fans and movie geeks seemed to have, especially when it came to The Dark Knight. (Good grief, it was good but the "BEST MOVIE EVER OMG"??? Hardly.)

It was this feeling of detachment that led me to rewatch the first two movies in preparation for the forthcoming third, in hopes that they would give me a better appreciation for the new film. I'd forgotten what an outstanding origin story Batman Begins was, and it occurred to me that I hadn't seen The Dark Knight since the one time I saw it at the midnight show on opening night. My opinion of it has not changed - I still think it's a good movie that was elevated by the fantastic performance of Heath Ledger. I still have huge problems with The Dark Knight, like the sonar thing and the fact that I just can't bring myself to be invested in Harvey Dent, blah blah. The bottom line is that I just don't think I care enough about the franchise to be either ridiculously upset or ridiculously overjoyed.

That said, I thoroughly enjoyed The Dark Knight Rises, and it's probably my favorite of the three. It's definitely the only one of the three that I have been strongly motivated to see again. I think part of my enjoyment came from befuddled expectations. I went in the theater with a bit of dread that this movie would take itself too seriously (something I certainly felt at times with The Dark Knight), and I probably enjoyed it more because I felt like this film didn't do that.

One of the main complaints I've seen about the movie is that it doesn't really feel like a follow-up to the previous film. I agree with that, actually, and I think there's nothing they could have really done about that. I've heard that they supposedly had originally planned on including the Joker in the third film, but that Ledger's death sort of derailed that, since they didn't want to recast. It also seems like Nolan just didn't even want to mention the Joker for fear that it would be tacky or would draw attention to why they couldn't include him. I do agree that perhaps they should have done something. Since they had Crane being released from Arkham (presumably to fill what would have been the Joker's role in the "court"), it was strange not to even mention the man that would certainly have been their most notorious inmate, even if it was just to establish that he was too chaotic for Bane to want out of there. I've seen at least one good suggestion for how they could have done it, but it still feels like Monday morning quarterbacking.

But while it didn't feel like a follow-up to the second film, it most definitely felt like a finale and actually seemed to draw a lot more inspiration from the first film. There was an "end of days" vibe in the third act that I absolutely LOVED, and I thought they portrayed that very well.

I kind of like that Gotham has looked different in each of these films, and this time New York City was the stand-in. I kept spotting all the landmarks, particularly the 59th Street Bridge (which was the one left standing that they were going to blow if anyone tried to cross it).

The fandom balked a lot when she was cast, but for my money Anne Hathaway is the MVP of this movie. I had always loved Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman/Selena, but I *didn't* like the origin story Burton concocted for her, where she was this mousey, awkward, stereotypical "pathetic single woman" until she was pushed out a window. Hathaway's Selena (and by the way, I loved that the name "Catwoman" is never mentioned in this movie) is a strong, sexy, smart, and mysterious ("Oh ... so that's what that feels like.") woman who has her own thing going on. She's not really a villain, per se (not like Bane, at any rate), but she has this really entertaining dynamic with Bruce. And there's this great rhythm in all the scenes Hathaway has with Christian Bale that's pretty intoxicating to watch.

I was also a huge fan of Tom Hardy's Bane, and I could not disagree more with the idea that the mask kept him from emoting as much as he needed to. I think he did plenty with his eyes and body language and voice. Oh yes, that voice. Someone on cleolinda's discussion post commented that he reminded them of Goldmember, and now I keep giggling and picturing him saying "I love goooooooold." I didn't hate the voice, but I agree it was absurd.

Speaking of absurd voices, "WHERE IS THE TRIGGER?!?!!" Oh, Batman. Why do you use that voice with people who know your secret identity? (By the way, did it seem to anyone else that hardly ANYONE was unaware of the Wayne/Batman thing?! Seriously, I think Gordon was the last to know.) And why do you growl like you have a personal vendetta against your own throat nodes? I kind of think Christian Bale must be aware of how silly he sounds and does this on purpose. But it's hilarious nonetheless. I saw complaints about Bruce moping about Rachel's death, and I just must see it differently. We saw from the very first movie that Rachel gives him that hope that they'll be together once he's done being Batman, and it's specifically and poignantly revisited in the next movie. I totally buy that he had been counting on that as the next phase of his life, which is what makes the end more satisfying for me.

One of the things that kept me from loving The Dark Knight, I think, was that it seemed to take itself SO SERIOUSLY (which makes the famous "why so serious" tagline so amusing to me), and I think the thing I like best about The Dark Knight Rises is that it is much more fun and ... well, comic-book-y. And I just seriously love that it has a happy ending for pretty much everyone. Yes, I know it probably would have been "cooler" for Alfred to nod in that cafe and for us not to be shown what he saw. But come on. I think we *do* need to see Bruce at that table. His being there with Selena raises a lot of questions, but they're not frustrating questions; for me, they're "exciting possibility" questions. And yes, it's totally out of nowhere for JGL's character to suddenly be revealed to be "Robin," but I loved it. And it's an easy go-to for the huge swaths of audience members - making up probably a majority of the audience, I dare say - who are not as versed in the DC canon as some.

So anyway, loved it and I'm pretty sure it's my favorite of the Nolanology.