Batman: The Dark Knight Rises Breakdown (Spoilers)

Right I don’t often tail off from Video Games but today I’m going to discuss the finale of Nolan’s Batman saga and as such those who have not watched the film should probably stop reading now – unless you want the whole thing ruined.

I’ve been looking forward to this ever since Heath Ledger stole the show during the Dark Knight and had been interested to see exactly how the Bruce Wayne and Batman stories would tie up. The movie actually does tie up most of the plot threads but has received a generally mixed reaction online.

The ending of course shows the Batman sacrificing himself to save the citizens of Gotham from certain death by flying off into the sunset with the giant nuclear bomb. The nice hints come at the end where we get to see Bruce Wayne living happily ever after with Selina Kyle aka Catwoman (although she’s referred to at the burglar during the whole film). You do also get the twist that he has actually been pronounced legally dead and leaves John Blake (or Robin if you can believe that piece of shit) the directions to the Batcave signalling that he wants Blake to take over as the saviour of Gotham.

Unfortunately this ending brought out the sensible elements in me and introduced our first major plot hole – how does anyone escape a nuclear bomb explosion? I don’t give a damn if you’re Batman; if you don’t have Kryptonian skin you aren’t getting out alive. Also what’s the fallout of a nuclear bomb going off not 1 mile from shore? No tidal wave? No mutated fish? The worst bit was that Bruce fixing the autopilot was mentioned maybe once during the whole film so blink and you missed how the hell he survived.

What really annoyed me was the John Blake becoming Batman tie in. I hate it! He’s not Dick Grayson and he’s not Tim Drake so why bother. I don’t understand why Nolan would be so loyal to the core Batman universe yet not use the right characters to take over from Bruce. There won’t be a spin off and he won’t become Nightwing or the Batman as he’d inevitably die somehow very early in his new career. You don’t have to believe me but remember Bruce completed all manner of exceptional training for years of his life whereas Blake has 6 months of being a beat cop under his belt and therefore is horribly unprepared. He also has no wealth in comparison to the successful Bruce Wayne and therefore can’t be the globe trotting vigilante that is supposed to be the Dark Knight.

By now, The Dark Knight Rises has garnered the biggest 2D release retures for a first weekend ever. But the plot holes continued. When cop John Blake was a child he apparently saw that Bruce Wayne was Batman ‘in his face’. Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t that Nolan’s biggest fob off yet? He worked this out at the orphanage when he was young and then when he gets older, Blake wanders out to Wayne Manor and says, ‘Hey Bruce, I knew you were Batman all along’. If one small time cop worked it out why didn’t anyone else…

Another of my grievances came from the gargling groans of the beast Bane. His voice slowly grew on my but I didn’t really understand what he was saying half the time and even his little speech reading Gordon’s confession started sounding like a butch child. I found he lowered the stakes and stopped me from investing in anything he did. Actually speaking of the speech itself I feel like I was the only person who thought ‘he could have wrote that himself to make the commissioner look bad’. He just decked a football stadium after all.

Although you probably feel like I’m slating the movie I actually did enjoy it; not as much as The Dark Knight but enough to watch it again. The storyline was great but it didn’t feel much like Batman. The effects were good and it rounded off the trilogy in a satisfactory way; if not in a brilliant one. There were a few wonderful moments like the strobe-like gun approach in the sewers and some nice duel fist fights with Catwoman standing by. The things that bothered me were the emphasis on explosions and vehicles rather than Batmans hand to hand battles and nothing psychological to keep us guessing. The major twist doesn’t have enough involvement and therefore lacks the impact it deserves.

I loved the throw backs to the comic lore though in the form of Killer Croc jokes, storyline elements ripped from the best graphic novels out there and the fact that scarecrow crops up everywhere (welcome back Cillian Murphy). Bane breaking Batman was good but it didn’t have the same impact as it did in Knightfall.

Finally the biggest annoyance for me was how quickly Bruce healed from a broken back (4 months approx). And any doctor out where can tell you that punching a vertebrae does not heal a broken back - no matter who you are – that is unless your doctor is one of those balloon boob-job wannabees.