Batman Ends

Back in the early 90s, around the time I was at college, Radio 1 — rather randomly — broadcast an adaptation of the Batman storyline Knightfall. While I didn't expect The Dark Knight Rises to be a faithful retelling of this, I felt that the similarities meant it would provide at least a good point of comparison. I came out the other side rather disappointed.

Knightfall represents what I think is one of the major strengths of long-running comic book series: namely, the massive cast of supporting characters the writer has to play with. Batman is faced with a rogue's gallery of villans, and has to call — however reluctantly — on his allies to aide him. The Dark Knight Rises took a different route, in large parts being about Bruce Wayne battling his inner demons. Taking on the Big Bad is left to the secondary characters — mostly Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who thankfully is starting to not look like a teenager — with Batman only reappearing deus ex machina at the last moment.

Is The Dark Knight Rises a good film in the context of Nolan's Batman trilogy? I'm not sure. It's cluttered and confused, and suffers from the Doctor Who problem of thinking that you need to set the stakes really high — OMG they're going to nuke Gotham! — to build dramatic tension. Bane's Occupy Gotham plan doesn't really make much sense, feeling like an attempt to crowbar in some clumsy social commentary, and the Nolan boys seemingly couldn't resist throwing in a couple of random twist endings.

Anne Hathaway is by far the best thing in the film, but then — Halle Berry aside — you can't really go wrong with the character of Catwoman. And there, I think, lies the problem with the film. It doesn't have enough superheroes and supervillans in it. The gradual darkening and grittyfication of Batman over the years shows that it's perfectly possible to keep all that is great and escapist about the genre while ditching the childish campness, but what Christopher Nolan has attempted to do here is make a superhero flick without the superhero. And it's all turned out a bit of a disappointment.