I watched The Dark Knight Rises almost two weeks ago and I haven't posted anything about it. I wrote something, but it was long and rambling, and more than anything made it seemed like I was nit-picking a movie that I went into planning to dislike. That is not the case, so I won't post that. Everything I didn't like about the movie has been written or talked about with much more insight than I was able to provide.
I really wanted to like TDKR, but I may have gone in expecting a bit too much. I liked The Dark Knight a lot less than the majority of people. I thought this one would be a return to form. Inception restored my confidence in Nolan. I was hoping to love TDKR, but it ended up feeling like a mess to me. There were moments of greatness, but overall it was frustrating.
Nobody would argue that Christopher Nolan is a great story teller, but I don't think it was shown in either of the last two Batman movies. The narrative was all over the place. It wasn't so much confusing as it was chaotic. Every time I started to get into the film something happened that completely took me out of it again. Frustrating.
The most disappointing thing for me when I came out of TDKR is that I didn't care. I reacted to it like any other big-budget action film. There was nothing to take away from it. I could only think about the 3 hours of my life I would never get back. There is a disconnect between what I want out of a Batman movie and what Nolan was trying to do with this trilogy. It was something I was never able to get past.
I should probably revisit all three films at some point, but I'm not sure I'll ever do it. As I sat in the theater watching TDKR I was thinking that this is a movie I will never watch again. Before it was even over I had decided that I didn't want to see it a second time. If anything, the ending reinforced that decision. Nobody wants to hear me hate on Batman, so I will stop now. I think the guys at the /Filmcast did a very thorough job of going over what was good and bad about the movie in their podcasts. I agree with David Chen almost 100%. Scott Mendelson also put out a very good review on his blog.
iTunes link to /Filmcast - check out episodes 194 and the after dark for 195
Mendelson's Memos: The Dark Knight Rises Review
Filed Under: /Filmcast, Action, Batman, Christian Bale, Christopher Nolan, Drama, Film, Scott Mendelson, The Dark Knight