Eight year’s after Batman took the blame for Harvey Dent’s crimes, Gotham City appears better on the surface, but, if anything, is worse for the 99%. In it, idealistic police officer John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) tries to make a difference while jewel thief Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) just tries to get by in a world that doesn’t care. Bane (Tom Hardy), trained by the League of Shadows, arrives with mysterious plans for a revolution that involves Wayne Enterprises.
The third Nolan Batman film is by far the most interesting. It is also the dumbest. It is chocked full of messages on economic inequality and terrorism and plastered with allusions to the French revolution. It also contradicts the entire point of The Dark Knight. It turns out all that stuff about the hero Gotham needs—that was all wrong. The symbol of Harvey Dent, the White Knight, was of no value at all. In fact everything that film had to say about heroism was off the mark. The entire previous film was meaningless. Well, I guess that was one way for Nolan to go. I can’t say I mind that as blaming Batman (when the Joker was an easy fall guy) was nonsensical. What I can’t figure is if this is Nolan contradicting himself with no thought, or if he came to believe that his earlier position was too naive. As he is so focused here on the plight of the 99% and the sins of the 1%, there’s a bit more ammunition for the latter.
As for the stupid parts, there’s an ancient secret prison that lack plumbing but gets Gotham City cable news. There’s the muffled Bane voice (and does Nolan have an obsession with White Brits? This is the second character he’s White-washed). There’s orphan-sight (yes, all orphans know each other). There’s the entire police force running underground together. There’s the end of the film, with its miss-timed and underpowered nuclear bomb and impossible survival. And there’s so much more.
None of the Nolan films play fair, but in this one it is harder to find a spot where it follows its own rules. Stock exchange trades that occur during an armed attack are certified. Huh. Cartilage destruction that would leave Batman in a wheelchair is simply ignored. OK. A broken back is fixed by tugging on ropes. Ummm… And in a supposedly realistic world, Bane is an old fashioned comic book super villain.
So, the movie is dim. It drags at times. Interactions with Alfred are neither fun nor interesting. Its message is delivered with the subtlety of a machinegun and still manages to be confused. It is over-stuffed with villains and heroes. Yet it might be the most enjoyable of the three. Partly that is due to Batman actually being a likable character for the first time. Partly that is due to him having a heroic arc that, while impossible, is engaging. Partly it is due to having a character that is witty and whose feelings I could care about, that being Selina Kyle. And partly it is due to it not ending as a depressing drama as its immediate predecessor, nor as a ridiculous, empty, but grim fight as the first film, but as a wild, post-apocalyptic war. Reality is tossed away. Considering how Nolan had treated reality, it was time for it to go. The big stupid fight at the end may indeed be stupid, but it is a good time.
As for the confused message, all three of the films make a mess of their messages. All three hammer on vague ideas but never say anything coherent. The first two films might have themes that are more eternal, but as they lack clarity, end up saying little. Now, five years after its release, the unfocused theme of The Dark Knight Rises seems prescient. The corruption and greed of the elites will lead to their destruction at the hands of the oppressed masses, but the revolution won’t bring anything to those masses. It is Brexit and Trump, and the only happy ending is to go off to Paris with the hot chick.