A movie for its own sake

Rating: 5/10 (23 October 2012)

I felt this movie was pretentious, pompous, melodramatic, grandiose, sensational, stagey, over the top, contrived. Everything had momentous significance. This was a big movie that took itself far too seriously. A movie for the movie's own sake.
There wasn't enough exposition. The viewer was not properly reacquainted with the characters and with earlier events. I barely remember the earlier movies. I don't really remember the business with Harvey Dent. Who is Ra's al Ghul again? This aspect was very annoying.
I felt much of the plot was difficult to understand. For example, the kidnapping of Dr Pavel was admittedly amazing film-making -- this is where Nolan shines -- but I just didn't understand who he was and why they were doing it. Where did Bain get the money and technical expertise to do it? What were the motivations of this group? Obviously they were highly trained, but by whom? Who is Bain? None of this is explained. We're just left to watch this scene without context. Indeed, this scene is not really important to the plot. It's just an amazing scene added to the movie for that reason alone.
I had a hard time with the Bain character: was he a brute or this incredibly wealthy and intelligent mastermind? Surely, he can't be both. Life just doesn't work that way. The scene where he pummels Batman while making these highly articulate comments...yikes, that's when the movie lost me during my first viewing (I left). So why did Bain hate Batman so much? Why did he banish Batman to the pit in Uzbekistan rather than just kill him in the tunnels?
Later, the scene in the stadium, when he explained at length his elaborate plan for Gotham City, just seemed utterly ridiculous to me. (During my second viewing, this is when I had to walk out of the theatre to take a ten minute break.) Why did he hate Gotham City so much? We don't know.
Quite a few of the plot developments didn't seem believable to me. ~ How could it be so easy to divest Wayne of his billions? ~ How did Batman survive the journey all the way to the pit in Uzbekistan when he had a protruding vertebrae? ~ Can human beings survive for years in this pit in Uzbekistan? ~ Why do the police in Gotham City conduct operations en masse and in block formation? ~ Are we expected to believe that thousands of them survived for months, including into the winter, while trapped in tunnels? And that when they came out they were clean and ready to go? ~ How did Bain manage to plant all those explosives all over Gotham City without anyone noticing? ~ The US, with all its money and military forces, were unable to get Gotham City out of Bain's clutches. No, only one man, Batman, could save Gotham.
Anyway, you get the idea. It went on and on. I don't need believability in a movie necessarily, but in order for a viewer to suspend disbelief you have to give the viewer a reason. Maybe characters to care about.
Batman conquering his fear of death in the pit in Uzbekistan and the "revolution" in Gotham City both just seemed pointless. Why not just kill Batman? Why not just destroy Gotham City? OK, I get it that this is a movie requiring drama and action set in a cartoon world and telling a comic book story. I suppose the problem is that it was trying to be so much more than that. These plot developments were too contrived.
It astonishes me that so many people have given this movie such high scores and such good reviews, given all this. In my view, giving this movie a score of 8.8 simply discredits the IMDb ratings process. Something is askew here. Apparently there are a lot of people out there that want to see movies like this. Not only do they enjoy movies like this, but they actually see this as the epitome of movie making.
One final point: I used to be a big fan of Batman. Many years ago, I used to know exactly when a new issue of the Batman comic book would arrive in our local cigar store. On that day I would head down and hand over my 12 cents. Often I would finish reading it before I even got back home. And after school I used to watch the Batman TV show. Yes, the one with Adam West. (Admittedly I was more into Superman though.)
Nolan directed "Momento" and "The Prestige", two movies I really enjoyed. I also thought "Inception" was an interesting film. So my problem is not with Nolan as director, but with what has become of these Batman movies. Maybe I should just accept that these Batman films are aimed at a different demographic and stop going to them.