The Dark Knight Rises Review

Guess what?! You don't have to hear me talk about work or being sick today! Yay! I know you cheer on the inside. No, actually I'm going to talk about the new Batman movie: The Dark Knight Rises.

I have mixed feelings about it but we'll begin with the movie itself and then get to my feelings after.

First I'll get the funny stuff my brain does out of the way. The villain. Well, let's begin with his parentage.

In case you're wondering, that's the Underminer from the animated movie The Incredibles, plus Darth Vader of the iconic Star Wars giving us the uber baddie: Bane of The Dark Knight Rises. After I got over that mental hurdle, he made for a bit of a... I don't know... flat villain. You don't find out why he wears the mask, not really. The reason he wants to destroy Gotham is nothing new. The Joker at least had an ambiguity in his character. This guy is just unswervingly "evil" and as such, he's kind of predictable.

As for Catwoman, I liked Anne Hathaway. First off, I think she really upheld the classy, kick ass, intelligent, sexy yet fully clothed image of Catwoman in a way that previous actresses (cough, cough, Halle Berry) totally bombed at. I'm only making the fully clothed comment because I think having her dressed in practically nothing objectifies her and really undermines the classy and not to be messed with attitude of Catwoman. But that's just me.

I said before that the plot is nothing new. They've done it before. Why does everyone want to destroy Gotham? Incidentally, Gotham reminds me an awful lot of New York. Beside the point. It's fairly straight forward, I found it predictable, filled with gratuitous violence, and in spite of that entertaining. If you liked the previous two Batman movies, you'll probably like the newest instalment. There are a lot of cool gadgets, some crazy explosions, awesome fight scenes. What I really enjoyed was the balance between Gary Oldman, Christian Bale and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Batman of course is outside the law, Gordon is within it. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a character in between who's morality is unquestioned and trusted. It was nice to see that little bit of development.

Alright now, onto my feelings. Firstly, I enjoyed it. Might not seem like it, but I found it entertaining and I think it wrapped up the trilogy in an easily accessible way while also leaving a huge backdoor for further sequels. Here's where I get kind of fuzzy. The violence. Yes, I realize it's an action movie. Yes, I realize it's Batman. It's just there was a lot of pretty up close and personal, very violent killing that wasn't always necessary. I understand that movies prey on our nature, our vicarious needs to experience violence and sexuality, but where's the line? At what point are we passing the representation of violence and glorifying excessive brutality? I agree that we have to represent life in movies, but I don't think we have to push the boundaries of our darker nature and glorify it by calling it entertainment.

I hate censorship. I don't agree with it in any form. What I'm asking is if we're at a point where we're endorsing brutality and violence. We condemn people for carrying out these acts, but not for spending time planning it for entertainment sake. It's messed up. Therefore, I'm fuzzy.

If you're into Batman, give it a go!

Lauren.