I need a new Nolanverse icon. Badly.
First of all, I'd like to say that my heart goes out to everyone in Aurora, Colorado. That was a heinous, sensless act and I hope the justice system will give this deranged Mr. Holmes the fate he deserves, whatever that may be. Disturbingly, when I actually saw The Dark Knight Rises, I saw how people could have thought that was part of the show. I want to say more about it and/or try to make sense of it, but I can't. Anyway, my prayers are with the survivors and with the victims' families.
As you've probably guessed, I went to see The Dark Knight Rises today. There are flaws, but it's mostly just high-octane awesome. I'm refraining from using caps because of the situation described above. I feel like too much squee is in poor taste. Though there was squee to be had.
Anyhoo, thoughts:
- For a Batman movie, this had a limited amount of actual "Batman fighting bad guys" in it. That said, Bruce Wayne felt like more of a three-dimensional character in this movie (albeit still a privileged 30-something white dude). In The Dark Knight, he was this know-it-all vigilante force of order standing against the Joker, who was much more fun to watch. Here, he was a lot less sure of himself, and therefore more engaging.
- Lack of Joker references bothered me. A lot. They pretend he never existed. I understand that Nolan did that because he thought referencing the Joker would cheapen the tragedy of Heath's death. That's cool...except that when they bring up Harvey Dent's in-universe death, they leave out the circumstances that brought about his fall from grace, and those portions just feel hollow, probably because Harvey's fall was a very important thematic part of the last movie, and not mentioning the man who helped cause it just leaves a weird hole. But I'm probably overthinking this.
- Let's talk about Bane. I enjoyed him. The thing about Nolan's villains is that they're kind of flat on paper, all very philosophical and mouthpiece-ish, but the actors really make them come alive, and Tom Hardy certainly did that here. Yes, I'll agree that the Joker had an extra spark of personality, but the Joker also has 70 years of comics backing him up. Bane has only existed since the early 1990s, so that's something to consider when comparing the two. Bane did get something the Joker did not have: pieces of a sympathetic backstory. That's probably part of what made me like him so much. Part of me really wants to write fic that would elaborate on that, but not woobify him. Hopefully.
- Bane's voice didn't bother me. People are freaking out about similarities to Darth Vader and such, but whatever. Vader wasn't the first villain with a mask and/or garbled voice, and he wouldn't be the last. C'mon, people.
- The women. God, I love Catwoman. She wasn't essential to the plot, but unlike a lot of Nolan's other female characters, she came across as a person, not a symbol or a man's ideal. I could actually imagine her scouting out her marks/stealing groceries/making out with her girlfriend/sidekick. I didn't like Marion Cotillard's character, Miranda Tate, at first; she seemed like a typical Nolan female character...and then he turned that on its head. Good job, sir, though I wish we could have seen more of that side of her.
- I also liked that this movie didn't have a forced love triangle or a romantic plot tumor this time. The romance that did happen happened, but the movie didn't labor over it. This is a Very Good Thing.
- JGL's character ended up being pretty good, but a lot of his scenes probably could have been cut to elaborate on Catwoman, Bane, Miranda, etc., instead of another handsome young white dude with man-pain. He was still cute, though.
- "What a lovely, lovely voice!" is my new meme for when my sister, JoJo, starts singing at random in her Choir Voice, which is often.
- Owen Harper from Torchwood was in this movie. Every time Burn Gorman was onscreen, I thought, "Go away, Owen! Why are you even here? You need to go annoy Ianto or something!" I never liked Owen that much and that distracted me, mostly because it was so darn random.
- I love flashbacks and call-back cameos. They're mightily entertaining (especially when they involve a certain former supervillain). Except when they're heartbreaking.
- The ending was satisfying. Things were tied up, but there's still room for more, just in case.
- What's really amusing is that a lot of the fan-theories I heard about this movie turned out to be right.
I may write a review of this for my movie0girl blog, but I may not. I'm not sure at the moment. If I do, I'll have to include "Burning Questions About Bane", because my sister and I have them (like "How does he eat?").
As you've probably guessed, I went to see The Dark Knight Rises today. There are flaws, but it's mostly just high-octane awesome. I'm refraining from using caps because of the situation described above. I feel like too much squee is in poor taste. Though there was squee to be had.
Anyhoo, thoughts:
- For a Batman movie, this had a limited amount of actual "Batman fighting bad guys" in it. That said, Bruce Wayne felt like more of a three-dimensional character in this movie (albeit still a privileged 30-something white dude). In The Dark Knight, he was this know-it-all vigilante force of order standing against the Joker, who was much more fun to watch. Here, he was a lot less sure of himself, and therefore more engaging.
- Lack of Joker references bothered me. A lot. They pretend he never existed. I understand that Nolan did that because he thought referencing the Joker would cheapen the tragedy of Heath's death. That's cool...except that when they bring up Harvey Dent's in-universe death, they leave out the circumstances that brought about his fall from grace, and those portions just feel hollow, probably because Harvey's fall was a very important thematic part of the last movie, and not mentioning the man who helped cause it just leaves a weird hole. But I'm probably overthinking this.
- Let's talk about Bane. I enjoyed him. The thing about Nolan's villains is that they're kind of flat on paper, all very philosophical and mouthpiece-ish, but the actors really make them come alive, and Tom Hardy certainly did that here. Yes, I'll agree that the Joker had an extra spark of personality, but the Joker also has 70 years of comics backing him up. Bane has only existed since the early 1990s, so that's something to consider when comparing the two. Bane did get something the Joker did not have: pieces of a sympathetic backstory. That's probably part of what made me like him so much. Part of me really wants to write fic that would elaborate on that, but not woobify him. Hopefully.
- Bane's voice didn't bother me. People are freaking out about similarities to Darth Vader and such, but whatever. Vader wasn't the first villain with a mask and/or garbled voice, and he wouldn't be the last. C'mon, people.
- The women. God, I love Catwoman. She wasn't essential to the plot, but unlike a lot of Nolan's other female characters, she came across as a person, not a symbol or a man's ideal. I could actually imagine her scouting out her marks/stealing groceries/making out with her girlfriend/sidekick. I didn't like Marion Cotillard's character, Miranda Tate, at first; she seemed like a typical Nolan female character...and then he turned that on its head. Good job, sir, though I wish we could have seen more of that side of her.
- I also liked that this movie didn't have a forced love triangle or a romantic plot tumor this time. The romance that did happen happened, but the movie didn't labor over it. This is a Very Good Thing.
- JGL's character ended up being pretty good, but a lot of his scenes probably could have been cut to elaborate on Catwoman, Bane, Miranda, etc., instead of another handsome young white dude with man-pain. He was still cute, though.
- "What a lovely, lovely voice!" is my new meme for when my sister, JoJo, starts singing at random in her Choir Voice, which is often.
- Owen Harper from Torchwood was in this movie. Every time Burn Gorman was onscreen, I thought, "Go away, Owen! Why are you even here? You need to go annoy Ianto or something!" I never liked Owen that much and that distracted me, mostly because it was so darn random.
- I love flashbacks and call-back cameos. They're mightily entertaining (especially when they involve a certain former supervillain). Except when they're heartbreaking.
- The ending was satisfying. Things were tied up, but there's still room for more, just in case.
- What's really amusing is that a lot of the fan-theories I heard about this movie turned out to be right.
I may write a review of this for my movie0girl blog, but I may not. I'm not sure at the moment. If I do, I'll have to include "Burning Questions About Bane", because my sister and I have them (like "How does he eat?").