Hiding something

Rating: 8/10 (8 August 2012)

The Dark Knight trilogy tells us a lot about Nolans understanding of modern cinema, as well as his control over the Batman franchise.
It's not always obvious that Nolan is that interested in the hero genre, more with continuing the journey he started with Inception (along with much of the same cast). But the advantage of this is that the scenes with Batman and Bruce Wayne have no extra gravity to them, giving the chance for characters to develop.
To a degree.
Even approaching 3 hours, Nolan stretches his skill and that of the cast to rush through much of the plot, especially the back-stories that he isn't much interested in. This leads to the usual number of unexplained convergences, plot vacancies and narrative extended death scenes that plague most modern films. Yes, it drives the internet forums and people see the films again but this weakens cinema and strengthens the longer TV serials that attract so many film directors. Nolans exploration of identity (every character has a masked past, present or future) feels compressed here, fitted between the blowing up of the scenery.
Looking through his, er, oeuvre, it is clear that Nolans interest in perception was best met by Christopher Priest with The Prestige. I can see Nolan and Priest combining again, but I can't see him trying another full action film - his disdain for the material is starting to surface.