A Disappointed Dark Knight Rises review

Rating: 6/10 (31 July 2012)

By Maurice Jones
In The Dark knight Rises T.V. spots, critics describe the movie as 'Monumental' and 'the best Batman film ever'. Thank God these are just ways to sell the movie and in no way to be taken seriously. Now I know they could not have topped The Dark Knight, butcould they have at least taken their time to make sure this movie was well made, which in then it would have had the chance to be better than The Dark Knight? I caught Nolan on T.V. at the MTV Movie Awards introducing the new dark knight rises trailer. In his introduction he sounded nervous, now I know why....
The Dark Knight Rises is in way too much of a hurry to get the story going and in which leaves no room for real emotional presence and expression. The pacing is amateurish as if they didn't have time to edit everything probably especially during the scene back-breaking scene as some parts of the beat down you can't even tell where and if Batman is being hit, what was the point of that?! They really should have taken more time with Batman coming out of hiding. After 8 years of not crime fighting he immediately knows how to look up criminals who have just robbed him like it's nothing?! Come on! Show us what 8 years has done to him mentally not just physically. Otherwise the act just comes off exactly that, an act. Bruce Wayne was WAY too calm for a guy now facing a mass terrorist and for someone who's been in hiding for 8 years. I really wish there was a scene where Bruce Wayne was more obsessed with making model planes or something, instead of becoming Batman, anything that made seem him more mentally unprepared to get back into crime-fighting where the 8 years really show its toll (in which Batman getting his ass kicked by Bane's henchmen would have shown the true toll of the 8 years). Bane should have taken more steps into luring Batman out of hiding so Bruce is forced to become Batman, rather than having Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character display his past and his knowledge that he knows Bruce is Batman in a rather odd and forgettable speech scene leading Bruce into saying 'Okay, I'll fight Bane 'cause I should' which makes Batman coming out of the shadows less rewarding. If there's nothing for us to worry about then nothing matters, and here they had many chances to make us truly feel something with the fall and rise of Batman but dropped the ball, with the most important chapter of the entire trilogy.
Joseph Gordon Levitt character is too poignant to take seriously and seems unreal as a result. He just says the same thing and acts the same way the whole movie playing a tough beat cop character he can't pull off. His character keeps arrogantly interrupting the other characters speaking with repeat dialogue and pointing out the obvious, making it impossible to appreciate his character and just wanting to see him disappear. Now, I get that they wanted the character to be so far from what he becomes at the end, that's why they made Joseph Gordon Levitt put on that voice, but good lord is it distracting.
The fight scenes: So they make Batman's suit more flexible but yet again Batman fights like every other Batman in movie history (except the 60's version and the cartoon version) like he can barely move at all and his elbows are the best bet. This a Batman movie, Batman's fight moves are just as important as the story, so there's no point in making the Batman suit more movable if the choreography doesn't change, ESPECIALLY in the last Batman movie of the trilogy! Also, I know Anne Hathaway can't really fight but camera cuts don't make me believe she can any further.
The speeches: Speeches get handed out like hot cakes to motivate a scene to progress as oppose to figuring out how a scene would progress with creative visual thought. Nolan thought pointless explanatory dialogue would be best, and how exciting that therefore is? Not exciting at all. For example; Alfred delivers his second speech throughout the movie for his hopes for Bruce as that if Bruce continues being Batman he'll leave. We no Alfred doesn't him to do the crime fighting, just have one scene(the bat cave scene) of Alfred's hopes for Bruce and then just have Alfred leave immediately after Batman ignores his pleas, no more Alfred speeches needed their pointless! So, the writing belittles the audience's intelligence and that's why Nolan's Batman movies will never win best writing, not that he cares.
In conclusion every else this movie has to offer is great. The plot, the story, the start of the film and the main actors all do their part. Anne Hathaway pulls off the real hopeless female emotion Catwoman has outside and underneath and works well within the 'realistic' view of Catwoman in Nolan's Batman world, but at times she seemed like Batgirl and she's definitely not THE Catwoman we're looking for. Bane was perfect as expected, the voice was perfect, acting but maybe they should have given him a green or grey tint of some kind but whatever. Now, this is only someone else's version of Batman not THE Batman, which is why people shouldn't be so up-in-arms with The Amazing Spiderman movie.
P.S. Mr. Nolan, I wish you would have stopped putting known actors in roles unknown actors could have played in your Batman films. It really took me out of the movies having to play the 'guess who that is' game especially during a serious scene (like the prison boat scene in The Dark Knight), so if there's ever a next time, please give other actors a chance to work. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Maurice A Jones