The Dark Knight Rises
This will hopefully be a more comprehensive and detailed review, as I just got back from seeing it for the second time.
Spoilers, fangirling and feels below the cut.
I'm going to kick all this off by talking about my love and respect for Christopher Nolan as a filmmaker. The first of his films that I saw was Memento which, if you haven't seen, is absolutely fantastic, and I've loved since the first time I saw it. Then it was Batman Begins, which, for me, completely reinvented something I'd loved for years and made me fall in love with it even more. Then it was The Prestige, and I absolutely love that film. I love it. It's an incredible film that I loved even more the second time around. I learned there and then that Nolan was prone to re-using actors, but that it was immensely justified. And then, Inception, which, as most of you know I think, is a marvellous film. In my humble opinion, it's truly remarkable. The Dark Knight was fantastic, and The Dark Knight Rises even more so - I know, I know, but I really really really love the last of the trilogy.
One thing I do love about The Dark Knight Trilogy is that even though it's particularly dark (especially when considering past adaptations such as the '60s TV show and ugh *shudders* Batman and Robin), it's also continuously humorous. In the first two films, that humour was mostly manifested in the villains, I felt, but it's also deployed through Bruce and Alfred and, in this film, Selina. It's not laugh out loud funny, obviously, and I'm glad for that (it would just be wrong I feel) but it makes you smile despite the things you're being shown.
So, yes, my love and respect for Christopher Nolan is far-reaching and very, very heartfelt, to the extent that I'm actually prepared to give Man Of Steel a chance - although, granted, the inclusion of Zack Snyder in the filmmaking process is even more of a positive to me - and that is saying something, given my long-felt disdain for Superman.
Now, to the film itself.
I know not everyone else agrees with me here, but I love Christian Bale's performances as both Bruce Wayne and Batman. For some reason, I think he was a really clever choice for the role; he's not the typical pick, for me, but he makes it work for him. The way he works with Michael Caine is fantastic as well, as I said in my other post, I love their interactions and maybe it's just their level of acting but when I'm watching them onscreen, I believe in the relationship between Bruce and Alfred 100%, and that's a really enjoyable thing to take away from the film.
I feel like I should give Crane at least a brief mention, because ahhh I love him. This is the first bit of incoherent fangirling I will inject into this review, but Christ, I really really love Crane. I love him in Batman Begins, and I love him in The Dark Knight, and I really love him in this, I thought it was very clever because for some reason, Crane just would be an excellent... sentencing jurist would be the term, I guess. It works for him, that role, and I felt like it works for the audience too.
The inclusion of Talia was something I loved, too. I'm not going to act like I had that pinned as soon as I saw Miranda Tate, but after Bane was called Ra's Al Ghul's son, I guessed Talia would have to be in the film somewhere. The fact that she was Miranda was something I couldn't have guessed, and I love being taken by surprise like that by a film, so bravo for that, and also for the use of Talia. Since I first read her in the comics I knew I would like to see her interpreted onto the screen (the same way I would like to see Harley coughcough) so the fact that she was there was great. Bane was also fantastic, I really like him as a foe for Batman, and the way they worked in some of the plot points of Knightfall was very, very clever - the back-breaking, Alfred's resignation, the introduction of Robin, I really loved it.
Which leads us into the next bit of fangirling. ROBIN. YES. The secrecy behind Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character in the film was what first made me want Robin included in it. I wanted Robin, and I wanted Gordon-Levitt to be Robin, and I was hoping like hell that it would happen. John Blake didn't seem particularly notable a character at first, but the way in which he behaved was enough to have me hoping - he just seemed to be Batman's sidekick, almost, like a Robin character, and then Batman's comment about wearing a mask got me full on desperate for it. The end just made me so, so happy.
Onto the end - I cried both times I saw it, Alfred just does that to me. But the auto-pilot being fixed, the repaired Bat-Signal, Blake in the Bat-Cave, Bruce and Selina in Florence, it was just everything I wanted. Especially Bruce and Selina, after the Bruce and Miranda kiss I wondered whether my Bats/Cats ship was going to sail at all - and it did! I was so happy!
Times I cried, both times - Alfred's resignation, Bruce climbing out the Pit, The End.
I cried more the first time but I cried almost as soon as the Batman sign appeared in the ice in the opening and all the way out the cinema so I was almost crying all the way through. I was even worse than The Amazing Spider-Man. See, lots of feels. Oops. But yes, Bruce always gets to me because happy!Bruce is so wonderful and I love him but he's even more heartbreaking than miserable!Bruce because I know it's just a mask. I got Alfred feels as usual, and Gordon, and Selina, and Blake, but hell, even Bane was sympathetic. It was excellent.
From a fangirl perspective, as I said, Bats/Cats was fantastic but Bruce/John has totally won my heart too. And I still stand by my argument that Tony Stark, Peter Parker, Bruce Wayne and Loki need to get together, have some tea and biscuits, talk through their daddy issues, and then just hug it out. Yes.
Spoilers, fangirling and feels below the cut.
I'm going to kick all this off by talking about my love and respect for Christopher Nolan as a filmmaker. The first of his films that I saw was Memento which, if you haven't seen, is absolutely fantastic, and I've loved since the first time I saw it. Then it was Batman Begins, which, for me, completely reinvented something I'd loved for years and made me fall in love with it even more. Then it was The Prestige, and I absolutely love that film. I love it. It's an incredible film that I loved even more the second time around. I learned there and then that Nolan was prone to re-using actors, but that it was immensely justified. And then, Inception, which, as most of you know I think, is a marvellous film. In my humble opinion, it's truly remarkable. The Dark Knight was fantastic, and The Dark Knight Rises even more so - I know, I know, but I really really really love the last of the trilogy.
One thing I do love about The Dark Knight Trilogy is that even though it's particularly dark (especially when considering past adaptations such as the '60s TV show and ugh *shudders* Batman and Robin), it's also continuously humorous. In the first two films, that humour was mostly manifested in the villains, I felt, but it's also deployed through Bruce and Alfred and, in this film, Selina. It's not laugh out loud funny, obviously, and I'm glad for that (it would just be wrong I feel) but it makes you smile despite the things you're being shown.
So, yes, my love and respect for Christopher Nolan is far-reaching and very, very heartfelt, to the extent that I'm actually prepared to give Man Of Steel a chance - although, granted, the inclusion of Zack Snyder in the filmmaking process is even more of a positive to me - and that is saying something, given my long-felt disdain for Superman.
Now, to the film itself.
I know not everyone else agrees with me here, but I love Christian Bale's performances as both Bruce Wayne and Batman. For some reason, I think he was a really clever choice for the role; he's not the typical pick, for me, but he makes it work for him. The way he works with Michael Caine is fantastic as well, as I said in my other post, I love their interactions and maybe it's just their level of acting but when I'm watching them onscreen, I believe in the relationship between Bruce and Alfred 100%, and that's a really enjoyable thing to take away from the film.
I feel like I should give Crane at least a brief mention, because ahhh I love him. This is the first bit of incoherent fangirling I will inject into this review, but Christ, I really really love Crane. I love him in Batman Begins, and I love him in The Dark Knight, and I really love him in this, I thought it was very clever because for some reason, Crane just would be an excellent... sentencing jurist would be the term, I guess. It works for him, that role, and I felt like it works for the audience too.
The inclusion of Talia was something I loved, too. I'm not going to act like I had that pinned as soon as I saw Miranda Tate, but after Bane was called Ra's Al Ghul's son, I guessed Talia would have to be in the film somewhere. The fact that she was Miranda was something I couldn't have guessed, and I love being taken by surprise like that by a film, so bravo for that, and also for the use of Talia. Since I first read her in the comics I knew I would like to see her interpreted onto the screen (the same way I would like to see Harley coughcough) so the fact that she was there was great. Bane was also fantastic, I really like him as a foe for Batman, and the way they worked in some of the plot points of Knightfall was very, very clever - the back-breaking, Alfred's resignation, the introduction of Robin, I really loved it.
Which leads us into the next bit of fangirling. ROBIN. YES. The secrecy behind Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character in the film was what first made me want Robin included in it. I wanted Robin, and I wanted Gordon-Levitt to be Robin, and I was hoping like hell that it would happen. John Blake didn't seem particularly notable a character at first, but the way in which he behaved was enough to have me hoping - he just seemed to be Batman's sidekick, almost, like a Robin character, and then Batman's comment about wearing a mask got me full on desperate for it. The end just made me so, so happy.
Onto the end - I cried both times I saw it, Alfred just does that to me. But the auto-pilot being fixed, the repaired Bat-Signal, Blake in the Bat-Cave, Bruce and Selina in Florence, it was just everything I wanted. Especially Bruce and Selina, after the Bruce and Miranda kiss I wondered whether my Bats/Cats ship was going to sail at all - and it did! I was so happy!
Times I cried, both times - Alfred's resignation, Bruce climbing out the Pit, The End.
I cried more the first time but I cried almost as soon as the Batman sign appeared in the ice in the opening and all the way out the cinema so I was almost crying all the way through. I was even worse than The Amazing Spider-Man. See, lots of feels. Oops. But yes, Bruce always gets to me because happy!Bruce is so wonderful and I love him but he's even more heartbreaking than miserable!Bruce because I know it's just a mask. I got Alfred feels as usual, and Gordon, and Selina, and Blake, but hell, even Bane was sympathetic. It was excellent.
From a fangirl perspective, as I said, Bats/Cats was fantastic but Bruce/John has totally won my heart too. And I still stand by my argument that Tony Stark, Peter Parker, Bruce Wayne and Loki need to get together, have some tea and biscuits, talk through their daddy issues, and then just hug it out. Yes.