I used to love comic books and the escape they provided when
I was younger. So at the beginning of 2012, I was psyched to anticipate the
release of the 3rd of a revolutionary trilogy of Batman, and for
the epic concurrent sequel to 5 films, The Avengers. At that stage, I had my
expectations of either movie laid out: I was going to enjoy the shit out of
Avengers, but ultimately admit that TDKR would be the superior film....
As a teen, X-men was the first real live action incarnation
of the characters I had grown accustom to. When Spiderman came out, that was the second comic book milestone movie for me. Not only was the webslinger my
favourite of Marvel’s flawed heroes, but also, unlike the X-men incarnations
with their black leather suits, Spidey was swinging through New York in all his
blue and red glory, faithful to the source material. That film showed me that
this was the real deal. The earthbound heroes are finally becoming a possibility
for the live action treatment. CGI had reached a stage where not only did it make comic book films possible, it made them popular as scripts. It provided that perfect blend between romance, drama and crazy spectacle actions scenes that come with a legion of fans before the film is ever written.
Watching Avengers
earlier this year blew both the previous milestones I mentioned out of the
water. My favourite part of the Marvel universe was finally realised: The fact
they all live in one world. Before delving into Avengers, let’s just make sure
we all understand that every single Marvel Studios film thus far are science fiction
films, whether it is science fiction levels of energy powered robotic suits, chemical
reaction of transforming man into monster, a serum to turn a dweeb into the
ultimate soldier or straight up aliens of Asgard. So let’s not go into this
expecting something too grounded in reality. The more important aspect is that
it sticks to the universe they set up and realities within that. It has to be as realistic as it could be within the constraints of the universe and the
characters of the story. Yes it is not some deep layered analysis of the human
psyche or society but hopefully, as I will prove later, neither is Batman. Joss
Whedon has also cleverly set-up the introduction of cosmic level plots, which
is the final frontier for the big comic companies.
The more casually
viewer of the Averngers will watch it and find it comparable to films like
Transformers or Michael Bay’s ExplosionFest 7. But the skill required to make
all those characters inhabit the same universe, to bring the egomaniacs
together to fight as one, to make a film grounded, to make each character likeable
and relatable, to set up not only the next one, but also leave the characters so
they can go off on their solo films, and make it coherent is very high. Luckily
Joss is the king of ensemble casts and dysfunction. It also helps to have a
true comic book fan at the helms, as much as I respect Nolan. The Avengers was for
me the most enjoyable film of all time so far.
I’ll preface this paragraph with the fact that Christopher
Nolan is one of my favourite directors if not my favourite. And this from back
in the days of Memento which has been in my top 5 films since first viewing. The
reason Nolan has been so successful with Batman, I feel is a meeting point
between the most grounded, dark and realistic hero in a world with no
supernatural or science fiction, an inspiring director and the fact the trilogy
is a crime/action film than a comic book film. Let’s not exaggerate the level
of skill Nolan has. A Nolan Superman film, or a Nolan Thor film or a Nolan
Green Lantern would not have achieved anywhere near the greatness of TDK.
Batman Begins is a straight up crime story. TDK is a crime story with a crazy villain.
TDKR is a crime story with terrorist elements. Relatively easy topics to keep
gritty and realistic. Try doing the same with aliens and energy cubes and
Hyde-mutations in.
I’m sure hundreds of
thousands of people watched TDKR, and were impressed enough to call it a good
end to the trilogy. However, I, maybe because I analyse it too much, was left
very disappointed. When a film tries to achieve the levels of high-browness
that TDKR was attempting, it helps to have a coherent plot and themes and ideas
that are not merely introduced, but explored. My largest gripe with the film: Bane’s plan makes
no sense. So Bane has a nuke in the city, he gives triggers to people, he warns
people not to leave or he’ll blow it, but secretly, it’s going to blow anyway
by itself. WHAT THE HELL? Are we to believe this genius who wants to destroy
Gotham wouldn’t have just activated the thing when he got it and blown it up immediately,
or if he wants to live, as soon as he got away from the area? What exactly was
the point of the delay?? So you could have a plot. Batman has enough time to
heal from a broken back, jump out of a hole and come back and stop the nuke. Other
things that made little sense: sending ALL the cops into the sewers (WTF??),
Batman doesn’t want to use any projectiles against someone insanely physically superior
to him, fact if Bruce has listened to Alfred and left it alone, Gotham would have
been nuked, Bruce and Batman die at the same time to the world, pointless sex
between Talia and Bruce, why he dons the suit so quickly after a 8 year absence,
a reactor that can be converted to a nuke in 20 mins, fact that the previous
two films are ingrained in the idea that Batman doesn’t kill people, yet in
this, he is cool with Catwoman doing it for him, etc. The fact that Robin
clocked the world’s greatest detective from one smile is very silly, but I was
actually quite pleased with the set up of Robin. Yeah they had to force him to
get angry at cops at the end for silly reasons, so he could go down the route
of a vigilante.
My point about ideas and themes that are introduced but not
explored is the main reason I can’t describe this film in one sentence like the
previous fims (BB – fear and the creation of a symbol, TDK – chaos and what the
symbol must represent). They introduce elements of class warfare and terrorism,
but ultimately pussyfoot around making any points on either topic. The theme of
this is something like Alfred doesn’t want Bruce to be Batman. Nolan set this
trilogyas a level above the rest, which he proved in the first two films. In
TDKR, he doesn’t come close to living up to the level he had set up. A muddled
story and incoherent themes are saved by stellar performances and direction so
even though this was a huge disappointment for me, it is still probably 7/10
when compared to most films. All in all, comic book films are still just getting started, stay tuned!
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