The Dark Knight Rises :: My (spoiler free) Thoughts

I was literally rendered speechless after viewing The Dark Knight Rises. I went to the midnight showing on Thursday night (technically Friday morning) with a group of friends, and since the movie let out at 3am I went straight home and went to bed.

Not that I would have been able to chat or discuss it at that time anyways.

People asked me the next day what I thought and I was still without words.

I liked it. Sometimes I felt I liked it in spite of myself. Can I explain that? Maybe not without spoilers. But that was my initial reaction.

As we know, TDKR deals with Bane as the main villain. Bane is relatively contemporary, at least he's a 'my generation' character, unlike the Joker and Catwoman and even Batman who began life in the golden age. But more surprisingly, the film felt like a 'my generation' film entirely, which is not necessarily the best thing or what I want in my Batman movies, especially since the contemporary world is so brutal and unforgiving (see the headlines and news stories of the past few days and you'll know what I mean.)

TDKR is brutal and unforgiving. Bane is brutal and unforgiving. Okay, maybe this last bit is a spoiler so highlight only if you have seen the movie:

I saw my hero beaten near to death and I didn't like it one single bit. The fact that Bane actually picked Batman up and smashed him over his knee literally shocked me to the core. I know, it's integral to the character, but so is 'venom' and they never mention that. I did not expect to see Nolan's Bane snap Batman like that. And when he did it had an impact on me. It hurt.

Yet there I was watching a mosaic made up of pieces of comics I read 'growing up,' that grew up with me, and I couldn't believe they were able to pull these bits off in a movie! It was as awesome as it was brutal.

I haven't had much chance to talk to my circle of IRL folks who have seen it yet (the price you pay for seeing it the second it's released!), but look forward to chatting with both deeply initiated Bat-friends and the uninitiated alike. I think their perspectives will help me digest the film better. I also know that I have to see it again; it was a thick, heavy film and I know I missed a lot in the first viewing, especially because so many moments my mind shifted as I sat there thinking 'I remember that from the comics!'

Bottom line: I liked the movie. I probably even loved the movie. There were some truly incredible moments that I never in a million years thought I'd see in a Batman movie.

It was the movie I deserved, but not the movie I needed. And now that the 'realism' of Batman has been looked at in a trilogy that will never be matched in tone and scope, I look forward to a more 'perfect' (read: less 'real') Batman once the inevitable reboot occurs. I don't want camp, I do want relatively serious, but I don't want to worry about Batman having kidneys full of scar tissue. Think Batman: Animated come to life. That's what I hope to see next time.

But from the bottom of my heart I thank Nolan et al for showing me this Batman and making the past seven years one of the best times in history to be a Bat-fan!