Meghan O'Keefe

I kind of, um, didn’t like The Dark Knight Rises as much as I wanted. As much as the actors deserved. It was hyped too much. Not necessarily by the promotion, but by the quality of its predecessor. Even though it’s part of a trilogy, it really is a sequel to Batman Begins, which we can admit is a decent flick, but not on the level of The Dark Knight. 

For me, the problem comes from Nolan’s efforts to root the trilogy in the real world. He’s made so many choices from the beginning to make us feel that Batman could be real. I watched The Dark Knight from a vantage point of absolute sick tension. The Joker was so chaotic…so clever in how he used human nature to execute his crimes…that I was terrified at every single moment. By going “bigger” with Bane and his crimes, all that tension was…well…deflated. As the film progresses, the plot holes become bigger and Nolan begs us to suspend our disbelief over greater heights. My problem was that because he’s spent three films getting me to invest my real world belief that this shit could go down, I was incapable of suspending my disbelief in the same way that I was in The Avengers.

I mean, I honestly believed more in a clearly CGI space monster dragon slithering through the skies of New York while being shot at by an archer with a bow and arrow than I did in Batman’s romantic relationships in this film. What the fuck is that?

HOWEVER

It was still an amazing summer movie. I liked it more than most of the films I’ve seen in the past five years.

I don’t want to be part of the “Backlash Era”, but it does truly feel as though film companies aren’t even trying anymore. They are just repeating the same story…to the point where they’re re-selling Spiderman and Total Recall. I’m not even 30 yet. I still have a few years. And yet, I remember being in my tweens, teens, and twenties when the original versions of the current remakes premiered. When I was a kid and there was a remake, it was so far or so different from the original. It had to be. Otherwise, people recognized the blasphemy. 

This has nothing to do with The Dark Knight Rises, except to point out that I truly feel that as an audience member that filmmakers have become complacent.

The Dark Knight Rises is a good popcorn film—better than what we usually get nowadays, but not better than certain years and eras in my memory. Certainly not better than The Dark Knight—but hey…that was a unique moment of cinematic brilliance. I get that. 

Do filmmakers get that…well…there’s a generation now that can make good looking films (short films…but still films) for cheap on the web? It’s not enough that you have the marketing and technology anymore. What happened to character and story? Like, I truly feel that to innovate, the next generation—MY GENERATION—needs to go back to the roots of storytelling to stand apart.

Just some thoughts I’ve having now.

Also, I want Catwoman’s lipstick.