Five Pros/Five Cons - Chris Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy

Next up is something that I’ve been meaning to re-visit here. A few years ago, I briefly talked about the Nolan trilogy right when The Dark Knight Rises was being released. Now that we have had more live action Batmen come and go, I thought it was time to see how this momentous trilogy stacks up now.

I don’t remember when I first heard that new Batman movie was coming. I also didn’t know who Christian Bale was, but I knew he was that jackass racist from the 2000 Shaft movie. Anyway, Batman Begins was released in 2005 and I was really surprised. I even read the novelization and played that PS2 game. Then, The Dark Knight came three years later and set everything ablaze. After that, you knew a sequel had to come. It took four years, but The Dark Knight Rises made its way to theatres in 2012. I’ll have you know that I haven’t seen this movie since its release until now. I know, it’s kinda weird to say that especially since I’ve seen the first two plenty of times. Now that I’ve finished my re-watch, what are the 5 pros and 5 cons of the trilogy? Yeah, it’s got some problems… come at me, Nolanites!

5 PROS

So, what hasn’t been said about these movies? They’re good! I could leave it off there, but I got more to add to that.

1. Great Cast
The cast assembled over the three movies was good. Pretty much everyone did a good job here.  Everyone like Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Liam Neeson, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Anne Hathaway did good jobs here. Even Katie Holmes, who played Rachael Dawes in Batman Begins, did a fine job with what she had. That was something I was surprised by during my re-watch since folk tend to dog on her performance. I thought she was fine, guys. Honestly, Batman and love has an issue in this franchise, but I’ll get to that later.

While Bale isn’t my personal favorite Batman or Bruce Wayne, he brought his A-game to the role. You could tell he put his all into the role physically. He had to pack on muscle for the role after he had finished The Machinist, a movie where he lost a ton of weight. His Batman was pretty interesting. He was pretty capable, but he wasn’t as overblown as he was in the comics. He can get in over his head and make mistakes. He also suffers injuries physical and mental. I also thought he had a good overall arc within all three movies.

Other characters that were standouts to me were Alfred, Lucius Fox, James Gordon, Harvey Dent, and John Blake. Gary Oldman’s Gordon was especially good. While some folk may be used to a Gordon who calls Batman to do the hard work, this version of Gordon got right into the action.  Eckhart’s Dent was good and tragic. Of course, you can’t forget about the late Heath Ledger in his iconic role as the Joker. He took a character that was already pretty good went to town with it. I also liked Hathaway’s Catwoman. Even when the casting was… questionable (Liam Neeson as Ras al Ghul), it still worked for me.

2. Used the Source Material Well

While the trilogy was in a much more grounded world, Nolan and the writers were still able to include quite a bit of the comic material. The trilogy took inspirations from stories like Batman: Year One, The Long Halloween, Knightfall, The Cult, No Man’s Land, and a few others. They also remembered that Batman didn’t just have the rogues’ gallery to contend with. All of the movies had Batman dealing with some sort of corruption in Gotham whether it was with the gangs like the Falcones  or just bad business.

3.Good Villains

This goes right into the casting for the characters. All of these movies had some good villains. Batman Begins did something that most superhero movies still struggle with: have multiple villians. You had Falcone and his gang, Scarecrow and his folk, and The Demon’s Head himself, Ras al Ghul. Not only were they well-acted, they also provided a good threat to Gotham. Then, we get the Joker, more gangsters, and quick version of Two-Face in The Dark Knight. They also provided an awesome threat to Gotham. Joker especially made Batman question his own morals and how far he needed to go as a vigilante. Then, The Dark Knight Rises brought us Bane and Talia al Ghul. While the movie wasn’t that great, these two did provide a good threat to Gotham.

4. Good Cinematography, Designs, Special Effects, and Action Scenes

The cinematography for all three movies was top-notch. It was cool that we got to see how different Gotham City could be throughout all three movies. We got to see the high-life as well as the grittiness of the city.  Things also looked beautiful when we weren’t in Gotham.  I wish I saw this in IMAX.

I also liked the designs for all the characters and vehicles. Yeah, they mostly got watered down from the comics and animated shows, but they work for this more realistic version of Gotham. I liked Batman’s costumes, but I will say that the original was my favorite of the two. While the one in the later movies had more mobility, it just looked too overdone and that bat symbol was so small. The special effects were also pretty good. When CGI is used, it’s used to good effect. Nolan’s movies are pretty good when it comes to its use. The biggest feat was Two-Face’s look. While I wish he had a little more skin, it was a pretty good look for the tragic character.

I think if they had the cowl of the later movies mixed with the body of the first movie, you may get a great costume.

The action scenes were also top-notch. We’d get quite a few chase scenes in these movies using the Tumbler, this franchise’s Batmobile. I think the biggest and best action scene from the movies is when Harvey Dent is being hunted by the Joker and his men. Batman pulls out all the stops to take him down. As for the fight scenes… well… , they had their moments. I’ll get to my problems later, but there were some impressive scenes. Batman’s beatdown on Falcone’s gang in BB is probably one of my favorite intros for a superhero. It’s one of the places where the fast-paced editing actually came to good use. Batman’s fights with Ras al Ghul and Bane were also okay for the most part.

5. Awesome Music

Finally, Hans Zimmer knocked it out of the park with his music for all three movies. It was something different after getting Danny Elfman and Elliot Goldenthal for the previous Batman movies. There wasn’t a booming theme, but the music definitely had hints of one. Shoot, the song from Batman’s first night out with the Tumbler might as well be his theme. Everything matched up well. When the action hit, that music was bangin’! when it needed to soft or dour, it fit that too.

1 PRO/CON

1. The Grounded Nature

Now, this is one aspect that has good and bad with it. One thing I know fans chimed in on was how grounded the world was for these movies. As you might know, Batman’s world in the comics is pretty vast with a variety of villains, allies, and weird stuff. You got pits that can bring immortality, serums that can transform men into monsters, child endangerment to the max, and that alien do-gooder that may or may not show up. I ain’t even going to mention the multiversal crap or the fact that Batman is one overpowered dude.

This is about as creepy as they get.

I see why Nolan decided to only put some of the more grounded features into the movies. There’s so much that can be done just in that area alone. That being said, it would’ve been cool to see some of the more weird aspects show up in the movies. I don’t really see it as a problem as some do, but I do think that the movies can be held back by not going there. Heck, they may have helped The Dark Knight Rises out a bit.

5 CONS

Yeah, I got some bones to pick with the trilogy.

1. Some of The Dark Knight Rises

As you can probably tell  now, The Dark Knight Rises wasn’t a favorite of mine. I don’t know why it took 8 years for me to see the movie again, but here we are. I just felt that it wasn’t as good as the previous two. So much happens in the movie. In fact, too much happens in the movie for me. It felt like two movies smushed into one.  TDK kind of did that, but at least that plot had a point. It kinda felt like Nolan and the team were kinda phoning it in with some places like with Talia and Bane. Oh yeah… could’ve we had named the Dick/Jason/Tim amalgamation  known as John Blake after one of the Robins? I know they didn’t want to include a Robin, but come on.

I can’t say that movie was bad, though. It’s definitely the least favorite of the bunch, but it’s still a good movie. I thought it was a fine ending to the trilogy especially for Batman. Yes, I am of the belief that Bruce Wayne would eventually let someone else take that cowl. I did like how Catwoman was used. While Bane’s voice was laughable, he was a good threat. There are enough good things here to make it a good conclusion.

2. Lackluster Fight Scenes

While Nolan was good with a lot of the action scenes, his fight scenes were not good. It’s pretty apparent in Batman Begins. While I do like Batman’s takedown of Falcone’s gang, that’s about it. A lot of the fights have these quick, up-close shots to them and you can’t always tell what’s going on. It’s pretty disorienting. I guess it was just his lack of experience in shooting hand-to-hand stuff because he is better in the later movies. That being said, the fighting also can be not too engaging there! I think it’s a mix of the shots and some of the choreography for me with the fights in TDK and TDKR. It’s not all bad, but it could be better.

Yeah... fun... that kick at the end was hilarious, though. What idiot said these movies can't be funny?

3. Batman and Love

If there’s one thing that was a bit of a problem with the movies, it would be the lack of a good love interest. Batman doesn’t necessarily need one, but if you’re going to give him one, they might as well be good. Rachel Dawes just wasn’t that for him in any of the movies. While that could be by design, I think it had to do with the writing and some of the chemistry. I thought the same about Miranda Tate/Talia in TDKR. The only one he seemed to gel with was with Selina, and even that felt a little underwritten.

4. That Dang Voice (And I’m not just talking about Bane’s either!)

Yeah, y’all knew this was coming. The voice that Bruce Wayne used for Batman was weird. He sounded like he was out of breath all the time. Now, it wasn’t too bad in Batman Begins. While folk have memed “SWEAR TO MEEEE!” to death, it’s actually fine there. It just that it gets worse as the movies go along. He sounds horrible in TDKR. “THIS ISN’T A CAR” definitely gets a laugh out of me. I know why they went with the voice, but it just overstayed its welcome. I don’t even need to comment on Bane’s voice. I couldn’t stop smirking whenever he talked. That’s not good for a threatening villain.

5. Wish More of Batman’s world was involved

Now, this is pretty much a nitpick, but I do wish that more of Batman’s world was involved. I do wish we got a Robin in there somewhere, and while we did get that with John Blake, that could’ve been better. I also wish that there were some other villains used other than the ones we’ve seen before. Then again, we got good takes on villains like the Joker, Two-Face, and Bane (sort of). It’s not too much of a complaint especially since Nolan only wanted to do so much with these movies. We got what we got and I’m more than whelmed.

……………………………….

While there are other stuff I could include, I gotta stop somewhere. In the end, the Dark Knight trilogy is a good one. While it has a couple of problems here and there, the pros completely outweigh the cons. Well, this should do it for my Bat-phase. It might come back after May, but I’m not sure. For now, think it’s time to get to some sci-fi goodness. Anyway, Peace, God Bless, and be careful out there.