Controversy hits the internet with opinion divided over the new Batman teaser poster. Some such as the guardian’s film critic Paul Owen see it as showing lack of invention looking too much like Nolan’s recent smash hit: inception with the apocalytpic vision of buildings falling into the sea.
Owen has a point, he is also worried that the cast list has too many baddies in it: “Ra’s al Ghul (“rumoured” on imdb.com) and Bane, an uninteresting, monosyllabic lunk who broke Batman’s back in the comics a few years ago.”
As someone who loved both of Nolan’s batman movies I am convinced we can trust him not to mess up the final part of the trilogy. The Dark Knight was an excellent film. Both Mark Kermode and Paul Owen are critical of the second movie arguing it is baggy and loose with its plot. For example, if I remember correctly, Kermode was critical of the “unnecessary” boat scene – I think it continued the exploration of human nature : are we basically selfish or selfless? Will Batman’s optimistic heroism or Joker’s anarchic pessimism rule the city and so a necessary part of the movie. Dark Knight eclipsed Batman returns and not just because of Heath Ledger’s Joker.
Yes there have been a lot of film trilogies that let you down with the final film: for example the Matrix – though the writing was on the wall with the Matrix Reloaded, The girl with the Dragoon Tatoo – the third film was the least gripping of the series. But inception was such a great film I think Nolan is on a roll at the moment – so I, for one, am very excited by this teaser poster. What do you think?
Author Description
There are 3 comments. Add yours
love it - dark, vertiginous and neat
Ditto Mark M. The fact that it is somewhat derivative only means it is knowing about the genre it is inhabiting / interacting with. Both visually and cinematically.
A kind of inverted Heart of Darkness, where the Knight who operates in the darkness, protected by the darkness, is in fact the great hope, the bright light at the end of the oppressive tunnel that is Gotham City.
Just stumbled upon your blog again Krish. Definitely agree with you over against Paul Owen.
Unfortunately Owen doesn’t seem to realise (despite his comic book references) that Bane was far from an ‘uninteresting, monosyllabic lunk who broke Batman’s back in the comics a few years ago’—in that comic series he was an intellectual nemesis too; well-educated and smart enough at least to deduce Batman’s true identity in order to track him down and break his Bat back… There’s plenty about the character to make this interesting.