Before I start, let me clear something – I’m a big fan of Christopher Nolan and it’s quite rare if I missed any of his work in movies. Likewise, I’m a great fan of Batman comics, having watched almost all animated series, movies and read few comic books as well (it’s really tough to get Batman comics in India, you know.). Also, note that this post contains SPOILERS, so stay away from this post until you watch the movie.

Nolan, as we all know, is a real magician behind the camera. He has a ability to turn any story awesome even if it’s seemingly too complicated (like Memento). So when he took the charge of Batman series with Batman Begins, I’ve every reasons to get excited, and hell I was.

Batman fan’s view –

When I watched the Batman Begins (then I was new to Batman animations, to be true), I was overwhelmed. It was an awesome plot – a great way to introduce a superhero, to show how he became one and at the same time having satisfying amount of action to make audience stick to their seats. For me, this is how a superhero movie should be (Iron Man is suitable example to follow the trend). And when I thought I have seen best of superhero movie, The Dark Knight simply blown me away. The movie had great plot, amazing action scenes and lots of sequences that dazzled me.

But when I went for The Dark Knight Rises, then the realization hit me. It’s not that the movie was bad, in fact, it’s very true to Nolan’s way of direction. But while watching the movie, the Batman fan in me kicked in, spoiling all the fun of Nolan’s art. I started comparing this movie (and past two) with the Batman comics/animations finding many things that didn’t seem fitting.

For any comics/animations/game adaptation, it’s quite okay if you introduce new characters or and new dimension to existing ones. So when Rachael Dawes was introduced in Batman Begins, Gordon had son instead of daughter or Harvey Dent was made lover of Rachael (The Dark Knight) instead the friend of Batman, I was quite fine with it. Even Maroni‘s character was apt, Joker was just perfect. Integrity of every characters was kept intact as in the comics, something a fan of comics will always loves.

In The Dark Knight Rises, things got ugly. There were handful of comics characters in this movie but a lot of them used as they were no one in comics (read Roland Daggett), and the basic characteristics of others has been twisted so much that they don’t feel quite (comics world) Real. For anyone who’ve read Knightfall and the series, would really be annoyed.

In the comics, Bane was monstrous figure, at least when he is on venom. On the same time he was extremely intelligent person and didn’t blow the Gotham City‘s wall for no reasons, as shown in the movie. And of course, since there was no League of Shadows (although there is different League of Assassins), he worked his way out to figure out who the Batman is, and then broke his back. The Bane shown in the movie was apparently an insult to the character. And speaking of insult, how come The Greatest Detective in the World couldn’t figure out who the hell is Talia al Ghul?

Coming to Talia, how could anyone show her a lover to Bane, when she was always shown in love with Bruce. I think she tops the chart of Bruce’s/Batman’s lover’s list (even surpassing Selina Kayle/ Catwoman). Also, the movie has completely wasted Talia and Catwoman to make any impact at all. I was always waiting to see a fight between Catwoman and Batman that simply never happened in the movie.

A bit of movie review –

Like all Christopher Nolan movies, this movie also packs the punch, but it falls short on some places. The characters in the movie doesn’t hold too well. Bane, who’s shown very powerful throughout, had very ordinary impression in the last fight and died way too quickly. Talia’s character was practically wasted, and even Bane could have carried that part with ease (having any random girl in place of Talia).

There were glitches in plot too. Bane was never shown making escape plans and with bomb detonating in few hours and him fighting with Batman, it seems he had suicidal mission, contradictory to the purpose of League of Shadows shown in Batman Begins.

The movie was, as I felt, unusually lengthy (so is my review right now :oops:). There are few places where the it could have reduced in length, especially in the sequence when Bruce tries to climb out of the pit. This movie was also marred by the legacy of amazing two movies that came before this. Unlike Batman Begins‘ amazing character development and The Dark Knight‘s adrenaline boosting sequences, this movie was a bit slow and less action-packed.

Verdict –

In a way, this was a true end of legend as I don’t want to see the 4th installment after watching this movie :P. Maybe, now this series needs a reboot, just like Spiderman. Don’t get me wrong, Nolan has indeed done a great job to complete the franchise, but as Nolan’s (knowing his true ability) and Batman’s fan, I felt a lot falling short.

I think movie is good true Nolan fan, avoidable for true Batman (especially comics) fans. And if you fall in my bracket (being fan of both), all I can say is my sentiments is with you brother! We can neither avoid the movie nor see it with full enthusiasm.