The Dark Knight Rises (2012) - 4K Review

Review:

*Originally written September 12th, 2018*

I've tried, I've really tried. I want to love The Dark Knight Rises so much, I've given it so many chances, but it never improves, the flaws become more apparent and it seems to get worse with every watch. That said, this isn't the worst watch of it I've ever had, possible due to a 4K bump. As gorgeous as the 4K disc is, that means nothing for a film that is a complete write off on nearly every front.

I'm probably going to pick out a lot of things that have been brought up over the years with this. I'll get the good out the way first. It looks gorgeous, this is still a cinematic and beautiful film with one of Hans Zimmer's strongest scores. Nolan's flair for set-pieces and action is nearly unmatched. I nearly thought I was on board with this watch after the thrilling plane sequence, but it quickly falls apart.

Where DKR falls apart 90% of the time is in its screenplay. Nothing makes sense. Rather than feeling like a compelling and powerful ending to the Dark Knight Trilogy, what we have is an overlong mess of a film. I used to find this at the very least entertaining to watch, but in all honesty, it's just really boring and irritating. 

Nolan has had scripting issues in his films before, but they're usually during smaller or background scenes that don't really matter and can be overlooked. Here, it's front and display through the entire run-time. It is insane how this first draft feeling screenplay managed to get greenlit. Characters you've seen grow through two films are completely wasted and go against everything you'd seen from them so far. Alfred leaving Bruce because he feels Bane is unlike anything he's come up against is just so strange and makes no sense. 

The film makes a big deal about Tom Hardy's Bane being removed from The League of Shadows because his methods were "Too extreme", in this we're given no real indication of what that could be. Instead it's just a boring nuke the city and the good guys have to disarm it at the 11th hour. It's a very uninspired bad guy plan that could have least had some emotional weight to it, but just failed to make me care. They nearly manage to squeeze an emotional moment out from you, but due to extremely manipulative and lazy editing, that potentially meaningful moment is pulled from under us for a lame, eye rolling reveal at the end.

We're also introduced to a whole new series of characters that are all so under-baked and wasted. All the performances are fine, it's just the script that screws them over. Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Blake is just the worst, a muddled character with a confusing arc. He finds out who Batman is due his smile when Bruce Wayne visited his orphanage as a kid, it made no sense. Then we have him shoot two criminals, in a blatant exercise of self-defence, throws his gun away in disgust (Obviously to mirror Batman's no guns policy), but then just picks up a gun anyway... It made no sense. And for some reason his superiors constantly refer to him as "Hot head" for no other reason than doing the basics of his job. 

Tom Hardy's Bane should have been a hulking force of nature, and he has his moments. The scene where he "Breaks the Bat" is genuinely brutal and exciting, displaying how powerful he is. It's a problem that has been mocked and made fun of for years, but it's true, His voice is a completely misguided idea. It really helps to watch DKR with subtitles, because a lot of the time, it's near impossible to understand what he says. It's also a shame where they go with his character by the end, reducing him to some lovesick henchman and giving him a completely unsatisfying and rushed death scene.

Since Bane is reduced to a henchman for Marion Cottilard's Talia al Ghul, things get even messier. Cottilard is a fine actress, so it's so strange and bizarre that she's completely wasted and given one of the most mocked and atrocious death scenes ever committed to film. Her role is so blatantly telegraphed through the film, making her villain reveal utterly meaningless and ineffective. 

Anne Hathaway's Catwoman is a also meant to be a sorta minor villain who changes her ways to be with Bruce at the end. While all the other performances range from fine to good, Hathaway sticks out like a sore thumb, trying so desperately hard to come off as sexy and snarky, that it just feels utterly cringe. She's just another character who's arc makes no sense at all. She's a career thief who only cares about herself, but changes her mind towards the end for no real reason. Oh, and there's a whole subplot about her after a device that wipes someones entire criminal record and every trace of them off the internet. 

I haven't even got to Bruce Wayne or Batman yet. 8 years after The Dark Knight, he's a reclusive cripple who hasn't been Batman since killing Harvey Dent and is still suffering from the injury he sustained from that. He's walks with a cane due to the fact he has no cartilage in his knee, then he gets some robot leg thing that completely fixes that. Oh, okay. He's called back into action due to Bane's exploits and constantly talks about how he hasn't given everything for Gotham yet. So it would have made sense for him to die. He goes through Hell in this film. His back is broken and he's taken to a prison in the middle of nowhere where his back is fixed after a couple of months and a punch in the back. Then he's able to be Batman again. No, really. That happens. It's such a muddled mess.


There was just so much potential here that's utterly wasted, it has the feel and scale of a Christopher Nolan film, but it just crushed and the immense weight of its truly awful screenplay. I continue to be confused at the people who 5 star this complete mess. Did they see a different film? Or am I just wrong? I've tried for years to like this film, and while I wish I could even enjoy this on a surface level, I can't even do that, I just feel disappointed and the insane potential that could have made a satisfying end to the trilogy. Still my biggest disappointment of all time.

4/10 Dans

The Dark Knight Rises is out now on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
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The Dark Knight (2008) - 4K Review

Review:

*Originally written September 9th, 2018*

Oh, boy. There is a lot to take in here. I've seen The Dark Knight at least a dozen times since its release a decade ago (A decade ago? What the fuck?), it's a film I'd always loved and was easily my favourite comic-book film up until Logan was released last year. That said, upon this rewatch, this just jumped back up to my numero uno superhero film and it still has a place in the my top 10 of all-time.

It's just such a huge improvement all around coming of Batman Begins. It opens to one of the best and most inventive bank heists in film. It truly is one hell of a way to open things off, yet they still manage to top things from there. Every set-piece is a feast for the eyes and insanely impressive on a technical and visual level. It never goes over the top and it all feels real, much like Fury Road or Mission Impossible: Fallout. I'm always consistently impressed when directors go for practical effects or CGI, it always shows and pays off.

Nolan's decision to use IMAX cameras for some scenes was a great choice and really shows off the impressive scale of what he outs on the screen. Also helped by just how much better visually those scenes look quality wise. The 4K disc is a 5 star ride all the way, but the IMAX scenes shine in particular.

This would all be for nothing though if the story wasn't good, but it is. The Dark Knight is still the defining Batman experience. We dig deeper into Bruce Wayne's psychology than we've ever seen before and Christian Bale seems far more comfortable in his role than he last time, fully embracing his role as Batman while his time as Bruce Wayne takes a backseat. I always forget how fast The Dark Knight moves about, it's 2 and a half hours, but goes by like it's nothing. It's one of those rare films that defies the law of diminishing returns.

I've obviously got to talk about the late Heath Ledger and yes, despite the "We live in a society" and Gang Weed memes nearly derailing the character into cringe, he still holds as one of the best film villains of all-time. I hadn't rewatched this since seeing Suicide Squad, and while I didn't mind Leto's Joker. Ledger's Joker just makes a complete embarrassment of him. Ledger completely embodies the role, giving The Joker an array of small ticks and moments that I'm still only noticing today. One of the smaller things I'd never noticed is that he never looks at someone in the face when he kills them, he's always looking off in a different direction or with his back turned to the person he's murdering.

He's the ultimate challenge for Batman and his plan, or lack of a real plan is what makes The Dark Knight's plot far more interesting than most. It's villain isn't motivated by money or power, he's simply interested in bringing out the worst in people and proving that deep down, everyone is just as crazy or bad as each other. It creates far more interesting tension and motivation for Batman compared to a nuclear bomb going off in the city (Oh, I'll get to Dark Knight Rises, don't you worry).

As incredible as this all is, there are just some things that Christopher Nolan just can't seem to get right and have only been made worse since they've been brought up by the internet. 90% of the dialogue from the police and extras are just awful. Everything a cop says is just a cliche line that is painful to here, made worse by some truly awful delivery. A character genuinely says "I didn't sign up for this"...

While everyone talks about Heath Ledger's Joker as the main talking point for The Dark Knight, it's disappointing how underappreciated Aaron Eckhart is as Harvey Dent. His arc is tragic and compelling. I always forget about him before every watch, but when I'm watching it I'm always pleasantly surprised at how good he is. His chemistry with Rachel (A much better Maggie Gyllenhaal) works and creates an interesting dynamic that goes to horrible places towards the end.

I always remember this getting a lot of people riled up for how dark and violent it was for a superhero film aimed at kids, but while this is a comic-book film, it is so different in tone to what we've seen before, it feels more like a Michael Mann crime-epic than a costumed fluff piece. It's brooding and really violent, it pushes that 12 rating as far as it can go, but isn't without the odd bit of editing that is a little confusing. especially in the scene where The Joker cuts Gumble's throat, but is done in such an awkward manner that it looks like he cut his cheeks open.


I just wish Christopher Nolan was able to keep up the quality of The Dark Knight, as it still holds up. It's not just the best comic-book film ever made, it's one of the best action or crime thrillers, full stop. on a technical level and performance level, everyone is on top form here. It's an unforgettable 150 minutes and one I'll continue watching till I die.

10/10 Dans

The Dark Knight is out now on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
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The Lego Batman Movie (2017) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written February 14th, 2017*

Batman films have had a rocky road these last few years. I wasn't a big fan of The Dark Knight Rises, Batman V Superman was a mess and the recent animated films weren't great. 2014's Lego Movie on the other hand was a pleasant surprise in a way no one expected and Will Arnett's Batman stole the show, so it was inevitable he would get his own film. I wasn't the most keen on this idea, but somehow they not only topped The Lego Movie, they also managed to make the best Batman film since The Dark Knight.

The story starts The Dark Knight in an interesting place. In denial about his loneliness, he raises an orphan he accidentally adopts at a charity auction and has to stop The Joker from releasing all the villains from 'The Phantom Zone'. It's an incredibly simple concept, which lasted a breezy 100 minutes (Beautiful).

This really captured what made The Lego Movie truly great. It has a heart and all the characters are great. We really care about this Bruce Wayne/Batman who has vulnerability and humanity under his snarky ego and obnoxiousness, far more to root for than Ben Affleck's psychotic kill crazy Batman. Will Arnett is also great as the voice, I'm not entirely sure how to judge voice acting, but I'd say Arnett bought a lot to the role.

Michael Cera also made for a wonderful Robin, who was adorable and annoying in an endearing and lovable way. Cera's voice captures that always at 11 optimism personality of the character. The animation of his facial expressions were great, especially the way his eyes enlarged behind his glasses. It made it impossible not to love this character.

I won't list every cast member, because the array of voice actors on display here is insane. I will say that Zach Galifinakis wasn't the most memorable as The Joker, I liked the design of his character, but he did not leave as much of a lasting impact. The cameos from the other villains were much more enjoyable. The spoof of Dark Knight Rises Bane was particularly inspired, complete with mocking Sean Connery like accent. 

There is an outrageous amount of villains here, nearly every single Batman nemesis you can name is here, and even a display of Warner Bros. characters make appearances from the 'Phantom Zone'. I won't spoil them, but think in the vain of The Lego Movie, I was not expecting any of the out of DC villains to show up here. 

As self-referential and meta as the humour is, they make every prior Batman film canon in Lego Batman's universe. There is an insane amount of references to other Batman films and DC in general. There was always so much on display with all the gorgeous stop-motion animation going on, so it was hard to digest it all in a single viewing. They even go as far as mocking the critically panned Suicide Squad and Batman v Superman in a few quick throwaway gags.

The animation itself really is beautiful. It does a lot of creative and inventive things. Warner Bros really are doing an incredible job with their Lego universe right now, and as great as it was, it was really depressing to see that a Lego Batman film is far better than anything they're trying to do with their actual DC films universe. I wish Zack Snyder had half the creative talent of the guys working on the Lego movies.


Lego Batman is pure joy. Fast, inventive, extremely funny and heartfelt. One of the best on-screen outings for Batman ever.

9/10 Dans

The Lego Batman Movie is out now on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
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Batman: The Killing Joke (2016) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written July 23rd, 2016*

"The joke's on me"

I was very much looking forward to this. I haven't read the comic, but everyone talked about it like it was the second coming of Jesus. An R-rated Batman film. It had potential to be amazing.

Well, this is mostly just a horrible mess. The voice performances are great, Mark Hamill is incredible as expected as The Joker. The inclusion of both Hamill and Kevin Conroy makes me feel like it could be canon to the Arkham game series (Which I love).

It just falls apart in its horribly sadistic and pointless feeling story that borders on torture porn with its treatment of the only female character. Barbara Gordon is so sexualized in this, it is disgusting, it felt like Michael Bay directed an animation at some points. What they do in a scene with her and Batman just felt wrong and a little disturbing.

We spend the first 30 minutes utterly destroying what could have been a really strong female character and reducing her to a immature school girl with a crush on Batman that takes things to a place that had no right to be there. They even shoehorn in an awfully offensive and stereotypically camp gay character that just left me thinking "Wow". The writers must have never interacted with a real gay person and based this character on over the top parodies.

The whole thing about Joker's backstory sucked. What makes The Joker great is his mysterious past. By telling us what happened to him in increasingly uninteresting flashbacks really takes away from his character. i'm really, really confused by what the purpose was to that whole entire subplot.
While I really didn't like this. I will admit they were some inspired moments. The Joker's funhouse ride was effectively disturbing and his musical number was awesome. Aside from that and the animation, everything else sucked.

It did at least earn its much talked about 'R' rating due to its content. There's some bloody shootouts, beatings, an implied rape and someone gets beaten to a pulp. I would have liked to have seen this kind of content in a better written Batman film, but instead we're stuck with this.

The script was just awful. Filled with cringeworthy lines and terrible dialogue that was almost laughable. And at 70 minutes this still felt too long. The first 20 minutes are such a drag too. I don't know how big the comic is, but by the looks of it, they really struggled to get this thing up to feature length.

I really have no idea what they were going for with this. If I hear people say "Oh, but that was in the comic". Well, then the comic sucked too, or it translated better on paper. This was just horrible.

If this truly is one of the best Batman stories ever, then this adaptation of The Killing Joke is a complete failure on all levels. I can only imagine how much better this could have been had it had a real budget and been bought to lice-action with a much better crew behind it. One of my biggest disappointments of the year.

2/10 Dans

Batman: The Killing Joke is out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
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