The Darkest Knight

So, there was this movie that came out recently. It was pretty big, apparently. It also had Batman in it...and Batman is cool!

Better listen to him!

I'm pretty sure you figured out that this movie is called "Batman Vs Bane: The Return of the Dark Knight with a Vengeance".

So, what did I think of the movie? I heard somebody ask that...it was that one guy that I know...and since I know everybody cares about what I think...well...

I thought it was a pretty cool movie! I think my Dad liked it better than I did, and, probably a lot of other people too, but it was an overall fun and enjoyable experience. Actually, it feels kind of weird calling a Nolan Batman film fun when his movies are apparently the darkest and most realistic Batman movies. But, this is kind of the funnest Nolan Batman movie though. It really takes advantages of gadgets, a cool flying tank, and Batman and Bane just beating that crap out of each other. Sure, the stakes are incredibly high, and you're hoping that everyone makes it through, but it isn't as scary as the Joker in the last movie.

Now, I thought "The Dark Knight" was really, really, really good! The Joker was one real bad dude that made us cheer for the Batman that much more. The whole movie was basically a cat and mouse kind of game. The Joker had some of the most cleverest and down right evil schemes, and it was really intense seeing how the characters tried to track him down. It's one of the most involving movies with great ideas and themes, and it's highly regarded as one of the best super-hero movies ever!

You're still wrong if you're one of the people who say Heath Ledger was the best Joker!

I wanted to briefly talk about that movie to show how much this new movie has to live up to. But, I don't think this movie was actually trying to live up to anything. I think Nolan knew that he wasn't going to be able to do anything like the Dark Knight again, so, what we got is just a really good super hero movie. But, even then, there are still some people who would think this is the best Dark Knight movie out of the three. There are also people who think it's the weakest, but that's really not as important because, without even watching the movie, you could probably already tell why. Even my Dad thought is was the best of the bunch. Me? Well, I still think "The Dark Knight" is better because of how well I thought it played out, especially towards the final battle. It was some seriously intense stuff.

Yet, it's understandable why people would think this is the best though. For one thing, Bane is actually an excellent villain in this movie. You wouldn't think that from just knowing that Bane is the main villain in the character, but after watching the movie, I feel they made the right decisions. You see, I don't think Bane would make a good main villain for any kind of story. Hell, even in "Batman and Robin", one of the worst movies ever made, he wasn't exactly the main villain in the movie. You also encounter him in the two Arkham games, with the Arkham games probably being the best things ever with Batman in it, but he's still not the main villain. But that's the thing with Bane. All you can really do with him is just make him really big and having him break things, particularly breaking Batman, and that's really it. He's really just some big guy that Batman has to deal with before encountering the main enemy.

Yeah, this was all Bane really does in the comics. I'm not sure why they used periodic symbols on those words though...

In "The Dark Knight Rises", however, Bane isn't just strong, he's also a schemer. When he talks, his voice takes up the entire room. He's the guy that you don't want to mess with. Of course, most of these things are standard with bad guys. In fact, you could probably replace this guy with Darth Vader, and it wouldn't change anything at all with the movie, except it would make it more awesome! Bane, or Talia, who is the real big bad in this movie, has this master plan behind him, and when it plays out, it does get really intense. I think this might be the reason why some people thought he was an even better bad guy than the Joker(but, don't worry Joker, I'm still you're #2 fan!).

When it came down to Batman and Bane fighting, it was underwhelming though. I could post clips from Haywire or The Raid(WARNING! The Raid is INCREDIBLY violent and brutal) as examples of a good fight scene, except, that's what those two movies were really all about anyway, so, here's a clip from a movie that's probably going to piss you off because you're probably thinking "What? You're using that movie to show a better example for a fight?" Well...for one, I feel that the movie is underrated, and for two, it was seriously the only super hero fight scene I could think of that was similar enough. Yeah, laugh all you want, but it seriously does a better job. But, everyone knows what the problem is. It's because of Batman's costume and how he can barely move in that thing. I guess, for what it's worth, they tried everything to work around it. But, I've seen Batman being able to fight better even in his more restricting costumes because of how they set up the fight. Sure, in the Tim Burton Batman movie, Batman couldn't even turn his neck, but the fight scenes were set up to where he could fight with some sort of fluidity.

At least it wasn't the nipple suit!

That's really just one small problem to a movie that's actually really good though, but there is this one really big problem I have with this movie, and I guess some critics have said something like this before but not exactly in this way. The thing is, I really felt like the movie was in a big hurry to get to the end. That sounds like a weird thing to say about a movie that's almost three hours long, but the way this movie is set up really makes it feel that way though. Except for the final battle in the movie, most of the scenes leading up to it just feel like they're trying to move the story along as quickly as possible. Aside from the spectacular opening, the movie moves along like this.

Cut=Next Scene

"Hi, I'm Jim Gordon, and I want to tell you the truth...oh wait, I can't yet, I feel too bad about it"

cut

"It's not long before Jim has to go"

"I thought he was a hero"

"A war hero, this is peace time"

cut

"Bruce Wayne is doing a Howard Hughes experiment"

cut

"Hi, I'm Catwoman, and I'm a cat burglar"

cut

"Hey Bruce, you should get out more often"

cut

"I'm Batman!"

I'm exaggerating of course, and, yes, I know Catwoman is never called Catwoman in the movie, but feel free to post angry comments about that supposed mistake if you want. But the way I described the scenes, that's how the movie kind of felt. I felt like it needed to slow down. I'd say that it felt like there were a lot of scenes cut out and maybe it would go to the extended edition...except, apparently Christopher Nolan doesn't do stuff like that for what ever reason. It's not exactly about information over-load and not understanding what's going on, because I didn't have any trouble following the story, but that was mostly because characters stood in front of the cameras and told you what was going on. The movie never really takes time to let you get absorbed into the story, it's just feels like something going "And then this happened, and then this happened, and then Bane, and then Batman, and then more Batman"

There were two times where the "show, don't tell" rule was brought up, and the more that I think about it, the more I feel that this might be what's causing the problem. "The Dark Knight Rises" breaks that rule pretty frequently. But, really, that isn't really a bad thing, at least when it's not being done to state the incredibly obvious. Though, like I said, it does feel like it's being used to get the story moving along. Each scene involves a character saying something that establishes an important part of the story, and then it moves on.

I know it sounds like some sort of far fetched complaint from some one who claims he knows what he's talking about, but it really does bother me.

Really though, the movie is really good! I really liked it, you've probably seen it already, and you've probably liked it, so, let's all just be thankful that Nolan has been able to give us three really good Batman movies. Thank you Nolan!

Let's look forward to this in the Batman reboot!