fanboy cacca

Rating: 1/10 (6 April 2009)

A touch of reality is much-needed for those who of late have occupied themselves in tossing about bon-mots like "masterpiece" and "crime-epic". Perhaps never before have the expectations of rabid fanboys so completely bullied the critics into sheer lying. For lying it must be, since I refuse to believe that the critics did not see through this. It is just not possible. I feel that most of them simply cowed down before the staggering pre-release fanboy blitzkrieg, rather than provoke the inevitable backlash of acrimony from fans and thereby needlessly risk their careers. This is the only explanation I can conceive of as to why TDK has seemingly scored so well with the critics. I don't blame the critics, though. The blame lies in the fanboys' hysteria : their myopic refusal to see the obvious.
I feel that Chris Nolan tried really really hard to make a good film, but ultimately even he with all his skill cant do much simply because of the limitations of the genre. If viewers truly want "more realism" as they say they do, then why turn to comics in the first place ?? Its just amazing how comic-book junkies pull the wool over their own eyes and deceive themselves into thinking that what they read is deep and sophisticated, when in fact (and there cannot be two opinions on this) reading comics beyond a certain age is a sign of neurotic behaviour. And before you shove it in my face that it is ME who is taking it too seriously, let me just say that this movie was nothing but lashes of violence : grim, sadistic violence. Once again, the so-called realism is simply a pretext for the usual action-movie gang-banging, i.e. violence and special effects. And its not even just because of the genre : Batman Begins rose above those limitations, right ? One could empathize with the young Bruce Wayne, tormented by his perceived culpability in his parents' murder, and struggling with his anger and loneliness. Not so in TDK : here there is neither plot nor motivation to speak of, and not a single character with whom one can even remotely identify. The acting, apart from one notable performance, is mediocre. To be fair, the film does take certain risks which I cant imagine the likes of, say, a Sam Raimi ever taking ; it isn't a McDonaldized blockbuster to the degree that the Spiderman films and the rest of the comic-book parade are. The problem is that those risks don't pay off : instead of an even progression of events that build up to a crescendo, what you get here is one absurdity after another until you are numb and it no longer matters who is doing what.
I wonder if it is really so hard to tell the truth, even only to oneself. Apparently it is indeed SO difficult for all the fanboys to own up that the countless hours spent over the last several months, sitting up nights staring at their monitors and devouring every last bit of inconsequential trivia about TDK, have all amounted to a huge nothing. TDK is the prime example of how the advertising business works today, hyping up a product during pre-release to uncalled-for heights and ultimately forcing the gullible consumer to like the product against his better judgement. The marketing behind this film is very much THE phenomenal success story of this decade, and should serve as a de-facto case study for anyone who wants to understand just exactly how mob psychology works.
EDIT : A more appropriate rating for this film is 4/10. But I so deeply despise Warner Bros. & the people lauding this film (i.e. everyone except me) that I must give it 1/10, just to balance things.