This just got serious, by which I mean, I haven’t ranted, or done a review, I have written something with a bit more substance and thought behind it, turns out I can do it when I put my massive sexy mind to it.
I’m a bit obsessed with the Batman movies at the moment, reason being that the third and final instalment of Christopher Nolan’s reboot of the series comes out later this year, and so it’s very difficult to avoid hearing about it. Despite looking forward to the film, a friend of mine made a good point with regards to the third film, actually she made a couple of points, but you know what women are like blah blah blah (I’m going to have to pay for that if she reads this). But the main points were firstly that there is no way that Dark Knight Rises can live up to the hype that surrounds its release, which is a good point, this has to be one of the most eagerly anticipated movies ever and it’s inevitable that it will not meet the expectations of many fussy moviegoers. The second point was that hopefully Christopher Nolan won’t make the same mistake he made with the Dark Knight... uh oh, hear me out I’m going to be nice, but I have a point to make so just shhhhh for a minute.
Now of the two Batman movies already made, the first – Batman Begins is by far the better film in my opinion, why? Because it’s much more of a movie to me. One thing that Batman Begins has that many superhero movies lack is character development, Nolan manages to delve into the psyche of Bruce Wayne and give the audience a much better chance to engage with his character, so that when he finally does become Batman, which doesn’t really happen until quite a way into the film, the audience truly understands his burden and the reasons behind him becoming the caped crusader known as ‘The Batman. Unfortunately this is something that Dark Knight lacks, not entirely, there is character development, but compared to the first movie it feels like there is nothing at all. The casing point being Harvey Dent/Two Face, in the first half of the film, Dent’s character is quite well developed, despite him stealing Batman’s girlfriend I was sympathetic towards him and I thought his character was a good personification of the opposite kind of hero to Batman, in that he tackles crime in a less subversive and more legal manner. The problem is, when he become Two Face later on in the film, so much is made of Dent’s character it doesn’t really leave much time to develop his villain persona and as such the Two Face storyline is really lacking in depth, something that I feel wouldn’t have happened in Batman Begins as it seemed that Nolan was more focused on creating a character driven drama, rather than a straight up action film, which is what he went for in the Dark Knight.
Now, I’m not saying that the Dark Knight is a bad film, because it’s not, it looks great, it’s fun and obviously Heath Ledger as the Joker is pretty darn good, so good that the second movie is essentially the Joker movie. However the problem is that the film really begins to break down in the second act, or what I consider the second act, basically after Harvey Dent become Two Face, as well as that, I feel there are one too many car chases and fight scenes where Batman gets to show off his Kung Fu skills. I do understand that there would be more of this in the second film, as Batman was fully established as a crime fighter and as such he is going to be fighting more crime, that doesn’t mean that character development should be left behind though I think. I truly hope that Nolan goes back to what he did in the first film for The Dark Knight Rises, because I think the opportunity is there, with the storyline where it is, he has the perfect opportunity to make a film that delves into its characters in more depth. The good news is I believe that’s what Nolan is going to aim for, after all, at the end of the second film Batman is on the run having taken responsibility for Two Face’s actions and looking at the trailer it looks as if Batman and or Bruce Wayne will have to keep a low profile, leaving plenty of room for extended scenes of him coming to terms with his alter ego and deciding what is best for Gotham. There are also various opportunities to explore the characters of Alfred and Commissioner Gordon a lot more, as this is the last film in the series and I think Nolan is going to want to tie up so loose ends, hopefully he won’t do that by mercilessly killing one of them, but sadly I do think someone will die, but hey, maybe that’s what the film requires, and I won’t hate him if he does it. But I will be disappointed is The Dark Knight Rises is just a huge action film with less plot and substance than I think this series deserves, luckily though Nolan is a smart man and a good director and I have faith that he knows what he is doing, I’m going to see the film possibly more than once at the cinema anyway, so I guess it doesn’t matter what I think. In fact I know it doesn’t matter what I think, but hey ho, as long as I have fingers I shall continue to rant nonsensically about subjects that don’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. Maybe Nolan will even one day read this and hire me for his next movie, one can always dream, although I’d rather not when Nolan is involved seeing as he has a history of invading people’s dreams, damn it now I’m not safe even in my dreams, the old lady was right, I need to go!
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