Given the director has been talking about it, I don’t think they mind. I won’t spoil it though, I reckon it’s like Blanc’s husband was in Glass Onion; doesn’t spoil any plot points to know it, but it’d be funnier if you didn’t know it before hand.
That cameo (“The Flash”) is quite the wacky idea. But one more reason for me to actually watch this thing.
Full disclosure: Apart from all the Batmen and that cameo I would not be interested in “The Flash”.
But with X.X as X… oh, yes. I definitely want to see him finally do this character.
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Summary
Try not to think of Andy Samberg…
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That‘s
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HIGH PRAISE!
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That’s…
Summary
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Given we’re veering into the Burtonverse, that cameo makes sense, but it’s a long way from enough to make me want to buy a ticket.
Maybe if they’re sneaking in Lego Batman, too…
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I watched THE DARK NIGHT RISES last night, and thought of you. Nolan does well in that film, and it seems like a precursor to INTERSTELLAR more than I had realized before. TDKR achieves a nice complexity.
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I’m touched.
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You make the best case for Nolan, so I always try to keep your critiques in mind as I watch one of his films. TDKR is a technical marvel (the editing and shot-size selection can be thrilling), and at the same time a bit of a narrative/cultural mess. But today as I think about the film, I realize that combination may be the best one for a Nolan movie to have (at least for me). Also, Bane suddenly resembles Ron DeSantis–Nolan seems to have made an anticipatory movie after two Batman movies of their moment.
Tom Shone’s line that Nolan may be the greatest living Victorian filmmaker was also in my head as I watched the movie. Empire’s edges/fringes returning to the mothership/country produces both anxiety and excitement, but Nolan holds the disparate elements together with tight technique, as if the sloppiness of existence is manageable so long as your mise en scene is top drawer.
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The two sides at war, right down to the symbolism, is the point. It’s Dickens “A Tale of Two Cities” - the city at war with itself is rife for abuse, hence Bane, who see’s the social divide then (almost literally) throws in a hand grenade.
I also have thoughts about “Why Do We Fall?” being repeated through all 3 really applies to the state of Gotham but I’ll get to that.
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What is interesting is that Nolan can’t seem to make up his mind where to focus: the oppressed or the oppressors.
Selina Kyle gets in a few nice shots when dancing with Bruce Wayne, but that is dropped (she later disapproves of economic redistribution). We see the hardships the rich are made to suffer–expelled from their homes (the old man in the bathrobe) and the kangaroo court, but the poor/working classes are an undifferentiated mob.
But Bane helps Talia finish her father’s plan (which was to get rid of the corruption that is Gotham City, and had no class analysis element) because it is what she wants to do (if Talia wanted to open a tea shop, I see Bane baking crumpets), and not from any awareness of social inequity (and the concomitant desire to alter it). He is not the agent of anarchy–moral and otherwise–that The Joker was. Bane makes class-conscious remarks, but it is more schtick than conviction. Nolan wants to have his (anti)establishment cred, and eat it too (he will never be mistaken for Ken Loach. Nolan also suffers from a case of Kubrick envy, but the establishment Londoner will never be on the same wavelength as the Jewish kid from the 1930s Bronx).
The question is: if Bane sees the divide (and is motivated by it), why is he willing to harm both the oppressors and the oppressed? The elites are corrupt, but what abut the working class? Do they deserve the same fate as the elites? The original desire in BB to get rid of the corrupt, suddenly gets a class-consciousness retcon that does not fit, thus making TDKR am incoherent text supreme–and all the more enjoyable for it, in my view.
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It’s continuing Ras’ plan from Batman Begins.
but rather than give them time to find a way to fix it themselves (“why do we fall?”) Bane adds a ticking clock.
All of it is really Bruce’s fault as the the two times he bent his one rule created this problem, leaving Ras to die motivated Talia (and by extension Bane, who still sees her as the child he wanted to rescue as his “salvation”) then lying about Dent created the situation that was going to collapse any second.
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It was inevitable given how much got past with some of his other films.
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I´m all in for this one.
Could be the most important studio release this year.
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I will take that bet, and raise you KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON.
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Well, if you count Apple as a studio now (which I would)…
The reviews from Cannes either went full “Scorsese can’t do wrong”-mode or criticized that it was rather about men doing terrible things instead of the treatment of the Native Americans - and that it went on for much too long (despite being edited with a great pace).
I can imagine, from the trailer, how this might be a typical Scorsese-movie, and that’s where I remain hesitant, with my difficulties embracing his style now (during my university-days I was a total fan, probably because my film prof talked me into that).
As for Nolan - I was hesitant at first whether I completely like his cool(er) approach to genre. But in the last years I came to appreciate his “more intellect than emotion”-style. And “Oppenheimer” has probably the most important subject matter of our times… again. Unfortunately. So I hope he managed to make the film this problem deserves.
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Because there needs to be enough (movie)time for Bruce Wayne to fix his broken back, embrace his fears, climb without a rope, fly back to Gotham, have a spa day, and look pretty darn spiffy when he runs into Selina Kyle.
Exactly–he was a hypocrite when he said he would not kill someone, but added the corollary that such a belief did not mean he could not choose not to save someone–thereby, achieving their death through an act of non-intervention, which is an act of killing.
TDKR fixes this contradiction (among others, while leaving still others alone), which is one of the reasons I find it the most satisfying movie of the trilogy (though there are many other reasons. IMAX becomes Nolan).
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