Missing in Action

Rating: 5/10 (28 July 2012)

There are moments when art and reality clash in such a brutal and inescapable way that art seems to lose its (presumed) innocence, perhaps even its freedom and is forever tarnished by something that it cannot control and is not responsible for. When a 24-year-old man walked in to a Colorado movie theater and murdered twelve people who were watching the final chapter in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, such a horrible, catastrophic moment occurred. Far from bearing any responsibility for the killings, The Dark Knight Rises will forever be connected to what happened in that Aurora theater. Even more so as the random meaninglessness of the atrocity might appear to mirror the recurring central plot element of the films: the intended annihilation of an entire city's population for the community's alleged sins, an attempted mass murder as random and meaningless as the very real horror that occurred on the film's opening night. The film and its makers will have to live with this and with the fact that inside many viewers another film takes place while they are watching this one.
The Dark Knight Rises closes Nolan's revival of the Batman franchise which returned to it its standalone position in the superhero universe. Unlike many of his "colleagues" Batman has never been the untarnished brightly shining hero of the Superman variety but a dark, complex, multi-faceted character always hovering on the edges of good and evil. The Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher tetralogy from the 1990s had turned the darkness into colorful popcorn cinema, Nolan restored the color black as its key characteristic. The first two instalments, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight were stark and unrelenting ruminations on the dark side of the human soul, on the destructive power of fear and the fragility of hope, on human weakness and the evil that lurks within it. At times almost suffocating in its relentless examinations of humankind's pain points, they were inhabited by characters that were never just one thing, neither just good nor just evil, never clearly identifiable, there was always something to them that would not fit. First and foremost Batman himself who Christian Bale so much reduced to the symbol which he is that he almost disappeared at times and left the show to others, most memorably Heath Ledger as the Joker, a charismatic as well as deeply haunted villain who was so much more human than the masked hero. The philosophy, the dialectic of this Batman universe – it lies right here.
The Dark Knight Rises proves to be the weakest instalment of the series, mainly because it never approaches this two-faced complexity of the earlier parts. This is even more disappointing as its story would prepare it to be the darkest Batman film yet. The Gotham City of this film (which no longer even tries to conceal the fact that it's really New York City) is a crippled world, a city screaming in pain. Batman is a battered middle-aged man who can hardly walk and later has his back broken, police commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) is incapacitated after being shot and Bane, the chief villain (Tom Hardy) is full of scars and wears a mask without which he cannot breathe without excruciating pain. This is a world in pain, badly wounded and maybe with no hope of being healed. The financial crisis is hinted at when Bane robs the stock exchange, later he will spark a fake revolution which some have seen as a comment on and even condemnation of the Occupy movement and even society's greatest benefactors are not what they appear to be. Everything is lost and even Batman is beyond hope.
Unfortunately, the film never really takes off. Bane might be an imposing chief terrorist, however, he remains too one-dimensional without the edges, the ambiguousness of his predecessors, the explanations for his evil to simple and bloodless, he never comes to life nor do any of the other characters. The inseparable connection of good and evil which characterized the earlier films, it is only hinted at in Gordon's opportunism or the use of Batman's gadgets by the villains. the character, however, have a comic-like flatness and lack any charisma or fascination which makes them seem awkward in this three- dimensional and easily recognizable world in a very real crisis. Is this a defense of law and order against presumed anarchy, a call to arms for unselfishness and solidarity or even a statement of futility? Many threads are laid down, too many, and more are picked up from the earlier parts. However, this results in an almost chaotic mix of many topics and story lines none of which get enough attention to bloom. So the story meanders along, goes back and forth or moves around in circles and soon loses track of where it wants to head. Just as the characters, it remains little more than a sketch.
And so what could have been the darkest ever Batman falls apart failing to even create some distinctive atmosphere. It opens like a James Bond thriller, its dark apocalyptic existentialism so often gives way to standard fare Hollywood action that one almost expects Arnold Schwarzenegger or Bruce Willis to turn up any moment. In the end it remains unclear whether The Dark Knight Rises wants too much or does not even know what it wants. What remains are excellent action scenes and hints at the visual and atmospheric power of the earlier films that make its failure even more painful and disappointing. But perhaps there could not be any other but an imperfect ending to this dark tale of humanity's failings.
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