Retrospective on Nolan's Batman trilogy

Now that the hype is over. I feel like it is a good time to take a look back at Nolan's take on the Batman legend.

<Spoiler Alert!>

The first film, Batman Begins, was decent. At the time it came out I was not really expecting much from the superhero genre having seen some pretty big disappointments such as Catwoman, Elektra, Ang Lee's Hulk and The League. The only exception at that time was probably the Spiderman series.

Perhaps the biggest surprise for me was how serious I actually took the film while watching it. Having only been exposed to Schumacher's Batman films at the time I nearly didn't go watch it because I thought it would be the same thing.

After seeing it I was pleasantly surprised how plausible and relateable the world of the film is. I really appreciated the effort they went through to demonstrate the lengths Bruce Wayne went through to make every action scene and effect practical and yet seemingly supernatural to his foes. Ra's Al Ghul by Liam Neeson was very compelling as you could see that the league of shadows was not only a cult, but a serious foe within the batman's psyche. He is on that thin line between being a crime fighter, a vigilante and even a terrorist; these roles differ only on principle.

Overall there were no weak lines, no physical humor, it was a solid plot with mature characters and easily earned my suspense of disbelief. I won't nitpick this movie, this time!

I know everyone else has already said it, but The Dark Knight really was a major step up in the game for this trilogy, and is my favorite of the three. I loved Heath Ledger's Joker, I was really affected by the commentary about fallibility of the human morality and ethics, I loved the dialogue. However I do have a major problem with a few things within the film. They were not distracting when I first watched them but now that I look back they are contributors to my less-than-satisfied reaction to The Dark Knight Rises.

The first problem is the underdeveloped criminals in this story. The first movie had some solid criminals they were interesting to listen to, especially when Bruce first confronts Carmine Falcone or Rachel's encounter with The Scarecrow. In this storyline the criminals actually play a much larger role as we continue to explore Gotham and the trio's (Batman, Gordon, Dent) fight against organised crime in the city. Sadly they have much less dialogue, and do not develop at all. Unlike all the other characters which are really well defined and positioned, I did not find myself caring at all what happens to any of the criminals, even as the Joker manipulates them. They seem to just be getting in the way of the final duel between Joker and Batman.

The second problem is the traps The Joker sets up throughout the movie. I loved how far he pushed everyone in creating these impossible ethical decisions, but now that I think about it, it seems impossible he could accomplish so much with only a handful of crazies helping him. How on Earth did he plant that much explosives into a busy hospital without any of the doctors, nurses, patients or janitors noticing!? How on earth did The Joker know the exact addresses Dent and Rachel were after they were kidnapped? Did he know in advance that they would be escorted by one of the traitors in the police department? Why were there so many school buses lined up together and just so happens there was a gap big enough for his bus to fit in? For someone who doesn't believe in plans he sure had some really complicated ones which required almost everything to go according to his schedule!

Lastly, I did have a problem with the ending, but for a slightly different reason to popular opinion. A lot of people and critics have complained why didn't Gordon and Batman just blame the Joker for killing all the people that Dent killed after he broke down. This idea would fail because Dent didn't kill Ramirez (one of the police officers that betrayed them) after flipping heads in his killing spree. Having a living witness means that if they blamed the joker for all those killings Ramirez would know it was actually Dent, and eventually she might have spilled the beans to someone and everything would be undone, which happened anyway but 7 years is a long time to stay silent on something so big!

Having said this, blaming Batman as done in the movie would have the same problem! Why didn't she come out to say that it was actually Dent who did those killings? Then the Dent Act would never be created, Batman would probably be taken in higher regard by Gotham City since he's the only one that is incorruptible throughout the two stories, which would mean the third movie has a much much greater impact from the viewpoint of the citizens of Gotham.

This brings us to grand finale, The Dark Knight Rises. I did not like this film very much. Apart from being a step down in the complexity, maturity and impact from the second movie, I just couldn't suspend my disbelief.

Granted the plot twist at the end was a 'pleasant' surprise, there were about a dozen things with the plot I did not accept even while I sat in the cinema chair munching popcorns (if I'm ever eating during a film it means I've lost interest). And yes, I will list them out right now:

1.  Why are there no guards at the so called hell pit? I mean, even if they can't climb out that pit, their friends/comrades or just some 'goods samaritan' bypasser could just throw down the rope at any time to give them a boost!
2. The first few times Bruce tried to climb out of the pit, how did he survive all those fall snaps which should have displaced vertebraes on his spine paralysed him forever? Gravity, mass, velocity, SNAP. The physics and anatomy doesn't make sense.
3. How did Bruce get from a prison somewhere in Middle East back to Gotham City in reasonable time? We have to rule out that he travelled as Bruce Wayne the billionaire since it would giveaway he is Batman. So lets assume he managed to stowaway on various transports (including a plane) and arrive back in Gotham city. The least time it would take is half a day. I think in the movie he had less than that. 
4. How did Bruce get back into a supposedly disconnected city, with only one remaining bridge which is blocked off by police and terrorist on both sides? Did he run across the ice where everyone else failed, and somehow no one saw him ice sprinting?
5. How did Bruce find Selina Kyle when he got back into Gotham in the third act? He didn't have her phone number, her gps location, and none of his Bat suit gadgets or Alfred/Lucius' help. Was there like a part of the city he knew she would walk by during the day? How did he know she was still in the city after she handed him over to Bane? Logically since she wanted Bane to spare her life, so she should have escaped the city by now right? Maybe Bruce saw the good in her and knew she would stay, but still doesn't explain how he found her.
6. How did Bruce paint that bat signal on the suspension bridge wall? Did nobody see a guy climbing the walls or smell some gasoline dripping directly above head? Also if the bomb only had hours left why would Bruce waste so much time on drawing his batman symbol at the risk of the whole town going boom? Even if it only took him half an hour it would've made the operation at the end so much less rushed, but I guess then it wouldn't be epic.
7. Where does Bane's supply of painkiller gas come from? We never see him carry spare cylinders? Doesn't he need to refill at some point? Judging by the way he breathes and talks (not to mention fights) sounds like he would empty out the doses on his mask every few hour. Maybe he had a minion who carried it around for him and replaced it off screen.
8. When Blake tried to deliver a group of children across the bridge and the police stopped them by firing warning shots, how did none of those bullets ricochet onto Blake or the kids who are only a few feet behind? I mean you see the sparks from the bullets which indicates that they were reflected. Given the direction the police were firing the shots, Blake's legs should've been riddled with bullets like a pin cushion.
9. "I was born in the dark" as said by Bane. That pit Bane was born in…is not dark at all. In fact it has more daylight than most minimum prisons and correctional facilties…yeah I guess it was just figure of speech but seriously...that prison wasn't that horrible by hollywood movie standards!
10. Why does the fusion bomb have a countdown clock? Lets first assume that they knew exactly how long before the fusion bomb would go off, and also that they had the technical skills to install the timer onto the bomb. What was the point of having a countdown clock if you were going to blow the bomb anyway, and you HIDE THE BOMB INSIDE A MOBILE TRUCK where the only people who would ever see it was the people trying to disable it (namely, Batman and team)? I mean, if everything went according to plan, the bomb would just go off inside the truck when it was time and Gotham would become a giant crater with no survivors. Who would ever see the countdown clock unless they expected their plan to be interrupted or fail?
11. When did Bruce eject from the autopilot-enabled Bat (the flying version of batmobile)? Okay, so we all know Bruce survived because he fixed the autopilot. But we see that him in the cockpit ready to embrace his end with the fusion bomb over the ocean. I guess you could say that the cockpit shot was misdirection, but I am really curious roughly where did he actually get off to be far away enough from the blast zone but also somewhere without any eye witnesses that "batman survived"? Oh wells this isn't as big a question as the other 9 since it's plausible; I'm just curious!

Having complained so much about the plot of TDKR, I didn't think it was awful. It had some good elements, especially Catwoman and Robin. 

Anna Hathaway is definitely one of the more fun catwomans I've seen on screen. I think she had more character development within this movie than Batman did over the entire trilogy! Her rapid switching between personas was a very refreshing experience and I think she should've been given a larger role in this film. 

I actually didn't like Bane. Again, it's not the acting, as Tom Hardy did a decent job, but mostly is how the character talks and behaves. His dialogue is hard to comprehend due to his mask, and his motivation is also really confusing. I don't know if it's faithful to the original comic book character but his preaching was really obnoxious and spurious. If your release the criminals of course the city would descend into chaos, you don't need to prove it, that's why they were locked up in the first place! You have no idea how satisfied I was when Catwoman shot him where Bruce would have refused to even at the cost of his own life and the whole town. 

Actually, if Catwoman did choose to follow Batman's "never kill" rule, this movie would've ended really badly right? Batman would've died, the fusion bomb would've gone off killing all of Gotham, so I don't think it added up very well when you objectively think about the what if scenarios.

I don't need to talk about the other characters too much. Alfred and Lucius combine to be Bruce's voice of reason but also act as his quartermaster, planning the logistics and designing the tools behind his missions, but I feel that they were played really simply. They have their stands and did not really change or evolve throughout the trilogy. 

Actually the most boring main character to me was Rachel Dawes. She didn't seem real, and didn't even play like a real love interest for Bruce. I thought she was basically a female version of Alfred, and I know this sounds weird, but they never made it to bed!  While watching the third movie, when out of nowhere Bruce sleeps with Miranda Tate, basically a nobody, I was just thinking "What the hell! Two movies of opportunity with his childhood friend and love interest who ends up dying, and it's this random chick he ends up sleeping with!?" This was like the only time I actually cared about the Rachel character, other times I just can't stand how "role model" she is. Please bring back Mary Jane! 

In my opinion I don't think these are true superhero films. They are better thought of as character studies of the extreme ideologies within our societies, candy wrapped in recognisable figures we want to see more of. The interactions and commentaries are more valuable than the actual plot itself, and honestly by the end of the movie you feel like there are no heroes, which I guess was the director's intention to some level.

Also the entire trilogy tries to convey is that "Batman can be anyone, and anyone can be Batman" fails since Bruce only did it successfully with the help of an incorrupt police, a loyal butler, Q, a role model childhood friend/love interest, and billions, billions of dollars. Also, in The Dark Knight he tells copycat vigilantes not to follow in his example. Weird.

I think Marvel's The Avengers wins against Nolan's batman trilogy when judging based on the category of 'superhero', simply because it isn't ambitious to pushing the limits of the comic book movie, but rather focus on delivering what comic book geeks want. 

But, having looked at everything overall, Nolan's Batman movies do put me in a good mood at the end of the day, especially the first two films. They have rewatch value, it gets me thinking a lot, but man if only the third was as good as the second!