Again, I Get Annoyed With the "Fan Press" (TDKR SPOILERS)

FIRST OFF - NO LIE - SPOILERS FOR The Dark Knight Rises.

DO NOT READ THIS BLOG IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE!!!

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!  

Ok, there's this 2-part article over at newsarama.com about where the final moments of The Dark Knight Rises leave us, in terms of the long-term Batman franchise. Yet another example of fanboy supposition and speculation disguised as a legitimate "news" story, because it's on a comic-book news site. Now, let me make this clear...I have no problem with fanboy supposition and speculation. What I have a problem with is that it's presented as a editorial piece by a knowledgeable expert, and it's really just a guy blabbing about what he thinks Warner Brothers should/will do with the Batman Franchise.

What's offensive to me is this: The reason Christopher Nolan's "Dark Knight Trilogy" is likely the best live-action interpretation of the Batman we will ever see, not to mention great works of art, is precisely because Nolan approached the entire arc without worrying about how to nurture a continuing franchise. He aimed, at least from The Dark Knight, to END the Batman story he was telling, about the Batman he created for his films.

(This last point is a HUGE reason why Harry Knowles review of the film over on Ain't It Cool News is so utterly stupid. Nolan's Batman has been talking about "when the time comes that I can hang up this cowl" from the first film...incessantly. To act like him actually having done just that as The Dark Knight Rises opens is being willfully ignorant of the themes that Nolan has been laying out...Honestly, I feel like is has more to do with some slight from Warner Brothers, than anything else. Probably because Hollywood has caught up with the fact that AICN isn't the hot-bed of web activity it once was. You're far to easily read, Harry.)

THIS Batman story, Nolan's Batman story, perhaps THE definitive Batman story, is over. Bruce Wayne has left the cowl behind and found love, peace and happiness, and, Like Kevin Smith, I found this deeply moving. There were tears because, here, finally, our hero who had given so much, who had sacrificed for his city and his fellow citizens, who carried the weight for us all, was given the opportunity to have that weight lifted. From the age of 10, Bruce Wayne was carrying more than any person should be asked to, and here, finally, in the end, God, fate, Allah, whoever, let him put that down.

THAT was the most moving thing in the movie, to me. His virtue was rewarded. Yes, Nolan leaves us with the image of John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) entering the Batcave, and the idea that the mantle of the Bat will be carried forward. Even pointing out minutes earlier that his birth name was Robin John Blake (nice touch), but here's the real thing that pisses me off....

WHY THE FUCK ISN'T THAT GOOD ENOUGH?!?!?!

Nolan leaves us with a lyrical, satisfying ending that ties in deeply to the character, and the concept of heroism, on thematic and story levels. It's complete. It's powerful. It's moving. And the first goddamn thing the assembled fanboy brigade can do is start whining about "where do we go from here?" Not in a "wow, I love the questions Nolan left me with" way, but in a "where's my next movie" way.

Nolan has always talked about "the many interpretations of Batman," he understands that every creator puts his mark on the character in ways that the next creator may or may not make use of. This is Nolan's take on a complete Batman epic, unencumbered with bullshit like continuity and shared universes. What we, as fans should take from this is really damn simple....

Continuity, more often than not, hinders storytelling, rather than adding to it.

Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns was NEVER Supposed to tie into the "regular" DC Comics universe. It was Miller's attempt to tell an iconic story about the end of a hero's life, without having to be tied to 10 other books, or what the character was doing in Justice League of America. THAT'S why the story is great. You can say the same about Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's The Killing Joke. The reason these stories are great and live on is because there are no rules, period.

It's only after the fact, when these two stories because so popular, and the fans started clamoring about "how they fit" into the comics they were reading on a monthly basis, that things got fucked up. With various elements from these stories, that weren't supposed to fit in perfectly, being forced into the "regular" books. What DC should've had the balls to do, and I hope Warner Brothers learned the lesson, is say, "they don't. We're looking for someone with a visionary new story to tell about this character, period." I think John Blake taking up the mantle of the Batman, and being the first of a continuing line of defenders of Gotham is fun to turn around in your head, but I don't need, or want, to see a movie about it.

 Plus, I don't think Joseph Gordon-Levitt would be interested without Nolan. I know, speaking as an actor, I wouldn't.

Why? Because that was Nolan's story, and Nolan's made quite clear that he is done with Batman and superheroes. (I would advise all of you to quit thinking that Nolan is hands-on with Man of Steel. His own comments make it pretty clear that he was just there to jump-start production as a favor to David Goyer and Warner Brothers) I don't want to see Darren Aronofsky trying to work inside Nolan's version of Gotham City, I want to see what Aronofsky would build from the ground up. I want to see how David Fincher would tell Batman stories, or Joe Carnahan.

And, yes, those three guys, Aronofsky, Fincher or Carnahan, are my dream directors to carry on the franchise. Not the continuity, but the franchise. They encapsulate audacious film-making with deep understanding of the crime genre. What Nolan understood that, say, Tim Burton didn't, is that "superhero" doesn't have to be a genre. Nolan made epic crime films, that happen to have a superhero in the middle of them.

Now, I'll put on my speculative hat....

My best guess is that we won't see Batman in a movie theatre until Warner Brothers gets a Justice League movie off the ground. It will be an all-new Batman, unconnected to any previous film version, and compatible with a unified DC Comics film universe. This isn't the Superman situation, with a lawsuit forcing Warners into having the Man of Steel on screen, or possibly losing the rights. The sad thing is, that's almost guaranteed to generate a much less distinctive and singular interpretation of the character. It will pale next to Nolan's version. Best case scenario, in my mind, is somebody reads a ton of Grant Morrison's JLA run, and casts Batman as the know-it-all/smartest-guy-in-the-room that was so much fun in those stories.

Frankly, I'm asking the fanbase to just stop. Stop trying to do to these films what you've done to the comics, with the incessant need to know how everything fits together. You've reduced the big two (Marvel and DC) comic companies to shoving out books as pacifiers between the big crossovers that "really matter," but never amount to anything. Every single one of those events promise "sweeping change," and it usually amounts to somebody getting a new costume.

Enough.

Nolan gave you sweeping change. Nolan gave you an ending, a deeply compelling, emotional end to the adventures of HIS Batman. Accept it as the gift it is, and demand that the next version be as well thought out and lovingly crafted.

The Dark Knight Rises

Before we get into this, Comic-Con update; I'm having some problems with the photos, and I don't want to write it all up until I have some pictures. It's coming.

Onto today's topic: The Dark Knight Rises.

I am going to be brief and to the point here. I do this because if I begin talking in specifics about the film, I will be prone to spoilers. I will say this: if you haven't seen this film, do yourself a favor and don't read anything about it. Go in unspoiled, and enjoy the twisty ride Christopher and Johnathan Nolan have crafted for you (not forgetting David Goyer's story credit). This is a film filled with secrets and surprises, and I happily only had one major one spoiled for me before the film rolled.

I am so happy about that.

So, I'll stay in broad strokes. The cast is uniformly great. I've heard some rumblings about Tom Hardy's Bane not matching Heath Ledger's Joker, but that's just silly. It moves from this idea that comic-book villains are uniform and one-note. The Joker was an agent of chaos, Bane is an engine of destruction. I think Christian Bale does his best work of the series, as does Michael Caine. Anne Hathaway is probably the best Selina Kyle ever put on screen (even if she's never called Catwoman). Gary Oldman is still letter-perfect as Commissioner Gordon.

However, I think the MVP is Joseph Gordon-Levitt as John Blake. There are large swaths of the film where Bruce Wayne and Batman are out of the picture, and Blake gives us a very human hero to root for. Gordon-Levitt handles the action with aplomb, and I really feel like you're watching a true superstar on the rise in this film.

Again in broad strokes, Nolan has done what few have done before. He's taken this trilogy to it's completion as a unified statement. He's used a pulp/comic book/serialized fiction character in ways that we've only really seen before in actual comic books. He understood that these characters can, and should be, used as a reflection of the times in which they are told. That they adapt and endure because great creators have defined and redefined them for their times. What Nolan has done is in that grand tradition.

He's crafted a super-hero movie that's about where the world sits right now, in this post-9/11, internet age. He's done it without smirking or looking down on the material. He knows the power of the toys he's been given to play with, and he's used it for the right, and best reasons. This is a summer blockbuster art film.

I loved The Avengers, unreservedly. However, what The Dark Knight Rises shows is how much more you can get out of these stories if you're willing to look deeper, and embrace the thematic elements. The Avengers, and the entire Marvel Productions film output, so far, have been artfully rendered commerce. Nolan's Batman trilogy is highly commercial art. That's why these three movies will live on for decades to come, not just as huge blockbusters, but as examples of great filmmaking.

Bring on whatever you want to do next, Mr. Nolan. I can't wait. 

In the Wake of Tragedy...

It's likely the teaser trailer for Man of Steel ran in that Aurora, CO theatre moments before James Eagan Holmes walked into the auditorium and started shooting. I had been luke-warm on this Superman reboot, but something about that teaser really hit me in the heart, and I think it comes down to the voice over by Russell Crowe as Jor-El:

"You will give the people an ideal to strive towards. They will race behind you, they will stumble, they will fall. But in time, they will join you in the sun. In time you will help them accomplish wonders".

It's silly, I know, but that's what I think about the most. What these characters are supposed to be to us, how they are supposed to inspire us to make ourselves better, to help each other, to shepherd our world closer and closer to the kind of bright, noble place it could be. If we'd only stop being so selfish. If we'd accept our failings, stop looking for excuses, and WORK to make the world better.

Superman, Batman, Tarzan, etc, etc, the list can go on forever, represent not reality, but an ideal. Perhaps an ideal that can never be achieved, but certainly an ideal that can be reached for. If a bystander pulls someone from a burning car, and says "it's what Superman would do," is that any less powerful, or real than if they said "it's what a fireman would do"? Is that inspiration to be scoffed at? Is it to be belittled?

I say it is to be revered. Superman doesn't have to be "real" to inspire, he need only be a symbol of what could be. These stories, these characters, these myths are our legacy of morality, hope and basic goodness. To have this horrible loss of life tied to them pains me.

Which, of course, doesn't even touch the pain of the victims and their families. I mean no disrespect my what I've written, only that this tragic event stirs in my soul the understanding of how far we are from where we could be.  My deepest thoughts and best wishes to each and every one of those touched by this horror.

It pains me that people will blame the film for this rampage. It's inevitable. It's the nature of where we are now, as a society. Scrambling to find easy answers, to assign blame, to look anywhere but at ourselves and our own culpability.

Millions of people saw The Dark Knight Rises last night. Most probably just had a kick-ass time, some may have been reduced to tears, and truly felt Christopher Nolan's deep understanding of exactly what I'm talking about above. Almost all of them didn't have the urge to kill anyone, except maybe the idiot in the front row who just couldn't stop checking Facebook on his damn phone. ONE guy, James Eagan Holmes, felt an urge he could not control. It was an urge that erupted in that auditorium because there were lots of unsuspecting people in a confined space, not because of the movie. A movie which, when you get down to brass tacks, he didn't even see, walking in some 15 minutes after the film began and immediately firing.

That action is about James Eagan Holmes, not the movie.

And it certainly isn't about Batman, who's legacy, who's meaning, would've been to provide an inspiration to Holmes in his darkest moments, and help him see a way to carry himself through his despair. To see that he could prevail over demons, within or without, and reach for the better part of himself. The part of all of us that he, and all our heroes, real or fictional, represent.

Oh. My. GOD!!

I cannot wait six months...

I cannot wait six months...

I CANNOT WAIT SIX MONTHS!!!