Banana Scoop

I would’ve had this article up yesterday had it not been for the Finals I had to take yesterday.  As many of you know, The Dark Knight Rises trailer has hit the internet, making a wave of spine tingling emotions be felt across the world.  The trailer itself is fairly unorthodox to most trailers I’ve seen for a number of reasons.  We’re essentially told a miniature story within the trailer.  That part is not so unorthodox because most trailers these days seem to give the entire plot to the movie in 3:00 minutes.  But this trailer told a different story.  I think it’s a way of us getting a grasp on the 8 year gap between The Dark Knight Rises and The Dark Knight, to see what has happened to Gotham and Batman.  From what I can tell, he’ been nearly exhausted as a man and feels as though he’s responsible for maintaining Gotham, even in a its darkest hour [Bane’s coming] that will likely destroy him.  I’m sure this theme will be reiterated throughout the movie, but I think having a grasp on this idea know will help us find deeper meaning in what I’m sure is to be a very complex story. Overall, here’s some notes I’ve been taking as I watched the trailer.

Bane Looks Boss

The last main villain was a psychotic nutcase who went around using his wits over his brawn.  However he was essentially only a man with face paint on.  In this movie, it looks like they’ve stuck with the supernatural aspect of the comic book myth by giving Bane his Venom mask that grants him strength and speed.  This makes him 1) look like something out of a pandemic movie and 2) intimidating as hell.  Especially with that awesome jacket and even awesomer vest, he truly looks like a force to be reckoned with.  And according to both comic mythlore and Tom Hardy interviews, Bane is not just some sort of muscle freak that Batman Forever portrayed him to be.  He was just as smart as he was strong, and by comic book mythlore, was essentially the man who ‘broke’ the Batman, by using his strength and wits.  Overall I think Tom Hardy will do a great job with Bane, especially given his hysterical track record with Bronson. [Watch. this. movie.]

Actual Fighting in More than One Scene

Christopher Nolan reinvented the superhero genre with his dark telling in Batman Begins.  To do this however, he took a lot of the actual fighting out in these movies and favored talking and drama.  While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, some of the coolest parts in superhero movies are the fighting scenes, like in Spider Man 2, the Doc Oc/Spidey train fight was beyond awesome.  Christopher Nolan’s movies have some fighting in it, but other scenes like car chases and espionage sometimes serve as the thrilling points until it leads up to the final fight.  In this movie however, it finally looks as though Batman and his foe go toe-to-toe more than once.  I’m pretty excited for the choreography and how Bane fights.

Dialogue vs. Sound Effects

The entire trailer is very stylish in itself because there are no sound effects.  The entire trailer is voiced over while there are clips and cuts of high tense scenes and explosions.  This in itself makes the trailer mesmerizing and unforgettable.  I managed to post this little quip on Facebook to a friend who linked me the trailer: “I love that how 95% of it was pure dialogue and no soundtrack/sound effects. Compared to a Michael Bay movie where it’s 95% soundtrack/sound effects and no dialogue.”

Class Warfare

There’s always so many layers to every Christopher Nolan film, even before Inception coined the term when it came to his movies.  And so far based on the trailers, the resounding idea is class warfare.  The dragging of the rich while the poor plunder their houses.  The shooting up of a Wall Street Day Trader’s Lobby.  Etc. Etc.  Now, we’re not entirely sure how Bane gathers Gotham’s grittiest to rise against its own people, but I’m sure it’s no walk in the park.  We’ll probably get a sense of Gotham class structure, and Bane’s brilliance will be able to warp the minds and set them against the Caped Crusader.

The Joke at the End was a Bit Unnecessary

This resonates with the Lamborghini bit at the end of the final Dark Knight trailer with Bruce Wayne and Alfred.  While it was good natured, it kinds ruined it a bit for me.  As the other trailers did, it probably should’ve ended with the chanting as it’s a fitting end.  Still though, no ending to trailer beats the first Dark Knight trailer when Joker says, “Let’s put a smile on that face -Hya hya hya!!!”

Why so Much Levitt?

We’re given a look at all the major players old and new: with heavy emphasis on  two new guys, Anne Hathaway’s Selina Kyle and Joseph Gorden Levitt’s John Blake.  Anne Hathaway’s role was billed to be a big deal, so that didn’t surprise me, but John Blake got an enormous amount of trailer time.  Is Nolan trying to make a point?  Is he going to be a pivotal character?  There are many theories on the internet as we speak.  The legacy ends, Bane being Batman’s ‘bane’.  Etc.  And most of the clues will point to one thing:

Batman will Die and John Blake will the Take the Mantle

I think Nolan is trying to set up John Blake to be a pivotal character to take on the Batman icon after Bruce Wayne eventually dies.  In the first movie, Wayne talks about how as a man, he could be destroyed, but as an icon he would last forever.  I believe that in this movie, the man will be destroyed, but the icon will live.  There’s a great number of theories, and I like to think majority of them extend from Cracked articles, but as a Nolan film, it’s truly hard to predict what the man can come up with.  Regardless, I ask you all the join me [not physically but at least spiritually] at the midnight screening of what I easily believe is going to be the best film of the year.