THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (2012)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological, sociological*

It's extremely amusing that when Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) meets new romantic interest Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard), she accuses of having a "practiced apathy." Apathy perfectly describes the third and last Christopher Nolan Bat-film. It's the work of a cynical filmmaker with no interest in the mythos he's exploiting for fame and glory, and when RISES is compared to either BATMAN BEGINS and THE DARK KNIGHT, it's hard to imagine this weak effort being anyone's favorite Nolan-Batflick--not even Christopher Nolan's.

So we pick up some time after DARK KNIGHT. That film started out by positing that Batman had managed to whittle down the forces of Gotham's underworld. For RISES, Nolan simply flips the script. Now crime has been all but neutralized by the regular cops, thanks to a miraculous piece of legislation, "the Harvey Dent Act." Only Commissioner Gordon and an essentially retired Caped Crusader know that this popular idol had feet of clay, though the false idol of Harvey Dent empowered the cops so that a bat-vigilante was no longer needed. Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) clearly has a guilty conscience for having helped perpetrated the Big Lie of Harvey Dent's sainthood. Wayne, though, seems content to molder around his mansion, much to the disapproval of Alfred (Michael Caine), who wants the retired superhero to pursue a life of marriage and baby-making. But Wayne's only passion, more or less redirected from crimefighting, has been to plunge all of his company's R&D money into a fusion-energy project, in part also sponsored by rich lady Miranda Tate. 

However, though one of Wayne's father-figures wants him to pursue the course of pipe-and-slippers, his other surrogate dad, Lucius Fox, encourages a return to crimefighter-mode. So does a proxy for a surrogate-son/Boy Wonder, a twenty-something cop named "Robin" Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who's figured out Wayne's deep dark secret. But as always, it's the bad guys who call forth the Batman.

Some forgotten film-reviewer of the 1970 DIRTY HARRY film made the incisive point that the regular cops were fine for dealing with regular criminals, but for super-criminals, the world needed a super-cop. Two super-crooks (not counting yet another piddling appearance by a road-company version of The Scarecrow) come to town not to duel with Batman but to ruin Bruce Wayne. (Alfred doesn't know the new villains' intentions when he castigates Wayne for returning to the superhero game, but the butler's ire mirrors the liberal director's pansy squeamishness toward vigilantes.) At any rate, a brand-new version of Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) steals Wayne's fingerprints, which are used to beggar the billionaire by none other than mercenary Bane (Tom Hardy). The latter fiend, equipped with a Darth Vader breathing-apparatus, resembles both the city-destroying Ra's Al Ghul (who was one of Bane's employers) and the Joker (in his cheerful desire to upend Gotham's financial structure). Oh, and there's a fourth villain in stealth guise, for Miranda Tate is really Talia Al Ghul, daughter of the assassin-lord who gave a wayward, guilty plutocrat the idea of becoming a bat. 

Since Ra's in the first film was a poor excuse for the comics-version, it's no surprise that the Demon's Daughter is similarly underwhelming. Bane in his original appearance was a stupid villain, but Tom Hardy's performance elevates the character slightly. However, the schtick from the comics, in which the villain breaks the hero's back, after which the latter just gets better later on-- is still lame. Nolan's mediocrity, though, knows no limits in his ruination of Catwoman. Hathaway gives her terrible character a game try, but a few decent fight-scenes don't make this Princess of Plunder anything but a wuss. Her only motive for robbery is to pursue a method of erasing her criminal past-- a redo of a similar trope from DARK KNIGHT-- and she betrays Batman to Bane with only minimal regrets. Nolan's Catwoman, as much as his Batman, is defined by what I previously called negative compensation: both are not pursuing positive ends but are fleeing the ghosts of their pasts. Not surprisingly, Nolan, after having given Bruce Wayne two previous drippy love-interests, can't even come close to getting the allure of Catwoman.

So it's another expensive Bat-fake, with carefully crafted (but empty) dialogue, some big FX-scenes at the climax, and a conclusion that does not show the Dark Knight "rising" in any way. i guess Nolan got what he wanted out the Bat-franchise, for he went on to a lot of big, bloated Hollywood projects, none of which I liked. I've accused Nolan of holding a Marxist sympathy for the criminals of his three Bat-films, but his investment in villainy may be more personal. His theft of the Bat-franchise certainly indicates that for him, crime did pay.