Exit The Dark Knight: Another take on The Batman Trilogy

First I have to say that I am not a big fan of the title. We had The Dark Knight, and now The Dark Knight Rises. That sounds like there are only two of them, seeing as the first movie didn’t have Dark Knight in the title. People call this the “The Dark Knight Trilogy”, but that is just inaccurate.

Batman is swarmed by Gotham's Finest

I will start with a quick word about the first two Nolan Batman movies. I did not care for Batman Begins. I believe part of the reason why (other than things I just didn’t like about it) was the FX treatment. I’m talking about the TV channel FX. This channel plays a lot of movies. Let me rephrase. FX plays 2 movies a lot of times. FX gets the rights to show 2 movies, and plays them over and over and over again for 6 months until they swap the two movies. They play it so often, that it may ruin, or tarnish the movie. You don’t have to watch it over and over again, but just the fact that it is always playing, lessens the film. Plus they do that horrible “DVD on TV” show, which further hurts the movies. I think it’s good that movies are available on TV, just not the way FX does it. Have a movie on Reelz, AMC, Showtime, HBO, G4, even Comedy Central, just not FX.

The Dark Knight was a much better film than the first all around (or at least more fresh) as far as story, characters, villain, action, and pretty much everything. The Dark Knight was hailed by some as the greatest movie ever made, and while I do feel that is a huge overstatement, I really like the movie. To be honest it took me a few viewings to really enjoy it. The first time I saw it I didn’t get what everyone was making such a big deal about but then I saw it at Smittie’s Cinema (where it played for free one day). Seeing it on the big screen, (at a time where I wasn’t half asleep for once), made me enjoy it much more than I previously had. That is not the first Nolan film that I had to see more than once to really enjoy, but more on that in a different post.
Bruce and Selina dance the night away
Finally I’ll talk about The Dark Knight Rises. Christian Bale has really come into the role of Batman. He took a lot of getting used to, but after 3 films I can now say that he is great in the role. Batman is a great hero, and a such a hero needs an equally badass villain. In Batman Begins, it was The Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy), who was…let’s say, under utilized. In the Dark Knight we had The Joker (Heath Ledger), who was the best part of the movie. Then there was Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent aka Two Face. I was extremely disappointed by Two Face. Harvey Dent turns into Two Face, and I thought Dent was handled well, but I just thought that there wasn’t enough of him actually as Two Face. He does a few things, kills a few people, and then dies, not much happens. Two Face is actually my favorite Batman villain. I know I’m in the minority because most games, shows, and movies use him as only a small side villain.

In The Dark Knight Rises we have Bane as the main villain, played by Tom Hardy. Everyone has talked about his voice which is a little surprising at first. The way it sounds catches you off guard. But after hearing him talk for awhile, you get used to it and I personally liked it. There is an effect applied over his voice as well, but that wasn’t what I found to be surprising. The character of Bane is interesting. He is extremely powerful, but also smart. I had heard that Bane was the worst thing to happen to Gotham City. Which I did not believe when I heard. I just didn’t think he could do any worse than The Joker, but…he can, let’s just leave it at that.

Bane can't believe his eyes

Selina Kyle aka Catwoman is played by Anne Hathaway. Like many others I thought that she would be horrible for the role. After seeing it I must say that I was wrong, she wasn’t. I don’t think she was that great either, but hey, she got the job done, and there isn’t really anything to complain about. I had heard that Alfred, played by Michael Caine had a very small part in the movie. It is true that his character is gone for a large portion of the running time, but he does have a bigger role in the beginning of the movie than he did in either of the previous films.Morgan Freeman is back as Lucius Fox. He is good as always. If anyone had a smaller role, I would say it was him. I think they also found the perfect actor in Gary Oldman to play Commissioner Gordon. A new addition to the cast is Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Officer Blake. He is a rising star, who will definitely be one of the biggest actors of his time. He is good as always, and his character is interesting.

The Bat rises

So this is the end of the Nolan Batman Trilogy. I like the ending which was very fitting and had good closure. There are a few questions that arise from the movie mostly from Marion Cotillard’s character, but the answers aren’t really needed.

My favorite of the trilogy is between The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. I think I’m going to give it to…The Dark Knight. But my opinion might change. The Joker is mostly what pushes me towards The Dark Knight, but you know what?…NO, I think I prefer The Dark Knight Rises, for one major difference over The Dark Knight: it has much better pacing. The Dark Knight had very uneven pacing, and some parts that could be completely cut from the film. The Dark Knight Rises WINS!

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

5 thoughts on “Exit The Dark Knight: Another take on The Batman Trilogy”

    • mm