dark knight rises – but not above the joker !

 

in any creative person’s life, one swansong will come which just happens magically, and however successful or legendary his or her other creations may be, that one ‘special’ flagship creation will always destined to remain unbeaten. even by his/her own-self. as art is not laboratory science. that particular creation is blessed or destined to be having midas touch, and its not just from a creator, but something invisible – an extra X factor is added into it, which even creator cant repeat. it doesn’t mean thier other outcomes are of inferior quality or less memorable. but that one life changing creation will became his/ her shadow or stamp for the life. for chetan bhagat , its ‘five point someone’, for sachin its innings against australia, for for for mirza ghalib its ‘hazaro khwahishe aisi’, for ARR its ‘taal’, for ramesh sippy its ‘sholay’, for salim-javed its ‘deewar’, for james camaroon, its ‘titenic’ ( however, he came extremely close to it, that too back to back in ‘avatar’ – a rare triumph like our suraj barjatya’s MPK & HAKK), for alfred hitchkok its ‘psycho’, for micheal jackson its ‘thriller’- the list is endless. thats why i doubt if J.K. rawling can ever touch harry potter again. only some chosen one next to god type creators like Steven Spielberg can break this ‘law of nature’.

for Christopher Nolan, its ‘Dark Knight’ (2008).

and, Nolan – a genius filmmaker to whom i bow down always, is no Spielberg.

i had already sensed that ‘hand of god’ in dark knight, and expected that barring once in a lifetime miracle, its extremely tough to repeat the height of intoxication to ‘dark knight’ again in same premises / backdrop and that’s also too soon.  its hard. really really hard.

and sadly, i felt so after watching ‘dark knight rises’ at home of Nolan, in Hollywood, that too in IMAX. that too in one of the best IMAX of USA of universal. as prescribed by Nolan himself.

and like most of the trilogies fails to maintain impact in third act (with record breaking box office success and acclaim though) – be it LOTR, MATRIX, SPIDER MAN, POTC, ALIENS, JURASSIC PARK, TERMINATOR (again there are exceptions like ‘star wars’) – this BATMAN TRIOLOGY got hit from its own legendary second part ‘DARK KNIGHT’.

the film is not bad. its watchable. in fact two time watch. Nolan has composed breathtaking action scenes and some well written dialogues and dramtaic scenes. and i have no problem with the talkative side of it – as far as conversation is engaging and novel to me. with grand background score, sincere performances by cast and an noir undercurrent of heavy philosophical angle established since long in the series – its fine film. but just not that great. perhaps my expectation rises too much. perhaps film rises much then needed.

and not so class!

its impossible to beat the ‘joker’ and even Nolan couldn’t outdo it. (comparison are inevitable as we are talking about installment of same universe). villains here are so predictably uni-dimensional that any 007 villain can laughing out loud in graveyard. with same plotline of terrorism, i had seen many better thrilling products of Hollywood itself. john travolta to tom cruise, matt damon to robert downey jr we have seen them all. too much stress on portraying batman as tragic hero makes the whole point unrealistic to me. as ultimately it must be batman movie, not ‘pyasaa’ without a shawl, with a mask !

the climax is surprisingly having too much similarities with hold your breath (and close your eyes if you don’t want spoilers) , ‘Agent Vinod’ !! WTF :-P. and the so called ‘twists’ are domain area for abbas-mustan. infact, a set up for major plot point somehow instantly reminded me ‘soldier’ of bobby deol ! actually, this film holds many unintentional similarities with our Bollywood movies. we have seen it all in sunny deol or sanjay datt or ajay devgan or naseeruddin shah or akshay kumar or khan films. here it is narrated in serious way with dash of heaviness.  and those prison in well, is more absurd rather than absorbing and i would have send a copy of duma’s ‘count of monte christo’ tto warner bro.s for future reference. 🙂

and, the core message / ‘gyan’ that Nolan wanted to give us is though compelling and makes sense – its nothing but repetitive extension of its worthy predecessor ‘Dark Knight’ . same notes, same brush strokes, its like attending same lecture twice. and that dilutes its impact to me. what through joker is perfectly narrated, this time boringly narrated as there is nothing unusual and i can sense / predict most of the scenes in advance, including dialogues !  besides that some set pieces and events way too familiar with past Nolan movies – like real identity of a crucial character is hidden, black suites and yellow lighting during some important action (Don 2 or the avengers offered better surprises ! and daredevil has better dark culmination ).

so, the film has length (2hr45 min.) and width(IMAX though jarringly intermittent) but lacks depth. i mean, it has depth, but not of Nolan’s prestige or inception or dark knight. one may ask ‘why so serious?’ 😉

still, its very good watch, though catwoman has half backed characterization, this time all ladies on screen are sizzling unlike ‘dark knight’ and alfred the micheal always rocks.

its what i felt. you would have felt otherwise. i will surely miss best batman of all Christian Bale, those fantastic batman / gotham universe created by Nolan, already missing joker the ledger and that missed target in final chapter which could have rise much above then we are being offered and already accepted happily.

i repeat, still its a must watch film by many standard, may be flawless, may get critical appreciation this time too. and i shall watch it again for its many lyrical qualities that i have not discussed here. but not that all time favorite memorable classic. eventually you may realize that. i wish Nolan make at least one another batman movie instead of suggested robin at the end with fresh outlook. i wish film’s vision would have been as exciting as its visuals.

what rises up , up and up…will fall ultimately with its own burden. that’s how all legend ends.

superheroes and super-makers are no exception of this laws of gravity.