The Dark Knight Rises, or: This Is What Liberalism Gets You, Hippies

[starlingthefool]

Here is my two-line, spoiler-free synopsis of The Dark Knight Rises:

The 1%'s nightmarish vision of what would have happened if the Occupy Wall Street movement had succeeded. Big Daddy Batman must save them all.

Comments

[tellthemyes]

So many problematic politics -- it's like they didn't even try.

[starlingthefool]

See, I was thinking that they did try. It takes effort to make a city's police force the victims, especially after things like the Pepper Spray Cop meme.

But yeah, it really seemed like nobody on the production team had ever actually met a poor person or a leftie, or (gasp!) someone who was both.

[tellthemyes]

True, they did try, but I found their path really inconsistent and confusing. Like, with the Harvey Dent law. Between that gala scene at the beginning and Bane's speech to the media, I thought we were suppose to see that as a corrupt law passed through on a lie that isn't actually doing any good (see: a majority of laws in the name of 9/11 and the War on Drugs), but then, nope, all the criminals are actually ~evil~ and will lose to the honorable GCPD in some epic showdown.

Obviously the League of Shadows couldn't win, but I expected some sort of nod to the continued failure of the establishment. And that scene where Gordon, with a band of GCPD behind him, has the balls to call out the Scarecrow on issues of due process -- argh.

CUT TO BATMAN IN A CAVE!

[starlingthefool]

I KNOW, RIGHT? I'm wondering if there's a director's cut around somewhere where all these weird inconsistencies are actually dealt with. Like, are the cops corrupt? Or are they just misled? Where are the actual gray areas?

I gotta say that I'm also disappointed that Nolan couldn't come up with a better motivation for DESTROYING AN ENTIRE CITY than "I have Daddy Issues" and "It Was For My Girl" respectively.

[silentsiren47]

I think it's pretty interesting how the view of humanity changed from the last movie to this one. In The Dark Knight, we see prisoners and citizens unwilling to destroy one another. In this movie, we see presumably the same people, eight years older, happily joining a warlord and participating in the slaughter of others. It was an incredibly cynical movie, and part of me wants to examine how Nolan's politics may have changed since 2008.

[starlingthefool]

Y'know, I really hadn't considered that. That is interesting, for sure.

[starlingthefool]

Yeah, now that I'm thinking about it, what the hell did happen? CHRISTOPHER NOLAN GOT INCEPTED.

[silentsiren47]

Ha, I'm thinking it may be a pre-Obama-post-Obama issue. I'm totally making assumptions about his politic affiliations, but I wonder if Nolan was on of those people who truly thought Obama would CHANGE EVERYTHING for the better, and that turned to cynicism when it's still our same crappy world 4 years later.

[mrsdrjackson]

who gets his ass whooped in a really interestingly choreographed fight scene
MY FAVORITE SCENE. That was everything I was looking for in the "Batman gets his ass kicked" department. I am not a fan of Batman or any of the heroes in his universe, but the villains are my fangirl crack.

Bane can get an actual, you know, story. I'd watch it.
YES THIS.

You have basically said everything about Batman that I wanted to say but couldn't find the words. I may link this to my flist (if that is okay with you?) so that they can understand my Batman issues.

<3333333

[starlingthefool]

Ha, sure, if you like. This movie had such great moments of brilliance, but there was so much DREK.