Begins, Falls, Rises
I am writing my first review about this particular movie saga because it is the best story-acting-music work that I have experienced in the last couple of years. I must say that I am not a big fan of DC Comics, I am more of a Marvel fan guy, but this movie trilogy was better than any Marvel has ever had part in. The guy who wrote “ Inception ”, made a screenplay for “ Memento ” and “ Prestige ”, created the story for “ The Dark Knight ” and his upcoming movie “ Man of steel ” showed that a man can be great more than one time. That guy is Christopher Nolan the one responsible for this masterpiece. I am saying a masterpiece because the 3 movies are a masterpiece when they are seen as one. The saga is created in a way that every movie has its own story and all of them share a larger and nobler that creates the whole picture, which is a masterpiece. I am going to separate 4 main segments that I will talk about. The appearance – Images, wallpapers, costumes; The organism – Cast crew, acting, effects; The character – Characters, story, music; The soul – The message the work sends;
The appearance – The 3 movies have a great artwork. The villains and the heroes are placed in the exact right place so that we understand how they “ complete each other ”. The batman logo is a great way to express the meaning of the titles of the movies. The batman begins logo is created by bats which means the beginning of the legend and how batman was made. The dark knight rises logo is created by fire which represents a chaos and hell. That means that the legend will burn shits about to go down. The dark knight rises logo is made by the light of the sky outlined by the falling buildings that are the metaphor for the fallen legend and how the light can best be seen when it’s darkest. The logo represents the hole that batman must climb to give his hope to the people. It also says that first we have to go through hell in order to get to heaven. We have to be afraid to see the hope. The masks that are made for the characters are perfect, the make-up and the costumes are synced and the decorations in Gotham are miraculous.
The organism – The cast crew in the trilogy is so perfect that it is unreal. It is impossible to try and understand how anyone can choose so perfect crew that will act better than I act like myself. Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Heath Ledger, Tom Hardy, Liam Neeson, Anne Hathaway… All of the cast crew, each individual is doing his work perfectly. Let’s talk about Christian Bale, how he combines the charm and the cold need to be a hero. He creates a guy who we see as a fighter for good but also a fighter with something that is deep inside his soul, his need to be a hero. Gary Oldman makes Alfred a butler anyone in the world would love. He creates a complex love that Alfred has for Bruce and a hope that he will see Bruce winning that need to be a hero. The words cannot describe how Heath Ledger presented The Joker to us. That monster with scars that looks like a wet scrubbed drawing with watercolors who wants to “ bring a little anarchy to our lives ”, he makes us love that monster. He makes Joker so charming that we actually start to understand him. Some of us wish they were joker, the twisted sociopath that is more sincere than any good person we know. I will say once more, the cast, the acting, the effects, locations every gadget, every vehicle was perfectly presented.
The character – The story of the saga is like an iceberg. Like a big iceberg. It shows a significant amount of meaning over the water but the part of the iceberg that is under the water is what really matters. You can watch the trilogy by its surface and see a guy who loses his family and it’s raised by his butler. He overcomes his fear of bats using it to become a batman. He trains, kicks the ass of the crazy bad guys, falls in love, loses his love and almost gives up, but finds the strength to kick the ass of the last bad guy. Is that really what happens? Well yea like a human is someone who is born, lives by eating, drinking water and breathing and in the end dies. The meaning of the story, the iceberg is much deeper than that. Batman is a complex character, a character who needs to be a hero because he was helpless when his family needed him the most, he needs to save people and lock bad guys in prison. He lives by a code where he kills no one and no one except Alfred must know who he is. That is why The joker is his second half, his yang. He gives batman the only thing that makes him survive, the essential thing batman needs to be alive, that is a bad guy, a guy who he needs to save people from. The joker needs batman, he needs someone who will never break his code, who will never let chaos in. That is the thing joker loves about batman, someone who will find a way to give a sense to all the illusions of order. As much as he likes to see batman become a monster, he also hopes that batman will see he is much more than that. He is the truth. He tries to prove to himself that in the right circumstances each one of us would become like him. That there are no true heroes. The scarecrow shows batman his worst fear which batman uses to see that fear may also serve us good. That if we embrace our fears maybe we can learn from them to become the hero we search for. There is a scene in “ Batman begins ” and also a soundtrack in “ The dark knight rises ” it is called “ Why do we fall ”. It is the most powerful question in the whole saga and the answer is “ to learn how to pick ourselves up ”. That means that we must confront the darkness in order to see the light that shines through us. That is the whole point with the hole. That is the metaphor, Bruce falls in the hole full with bats, he gets out like a batman. In the end he falls in the hole again, this time is prison, prison without hope. He is broken, exposed and no logic would say he has hope, but in that darkness he finds hope deep in him, in his memory, in the question and in the answer. He knows why he has fallen there so he picks himself up, he crawls from the hole into the light using his fear. He rises from the ashes, from hell. From the same hell Bane was in. From the same hell that took all of Bane’s hope and made him the person who wants to create fear that will destroy everything. Who wants to show everybody how hope is useless and everything there is after the light at the end of the hole is darkness. He is a broken man who doesn’t have a scheme on making money or gaining power. He just wants to bring pain and suffering in order to destroy everyone’s hope. He doesn’t fear anything which makes him weaker than batman who uses his fear in order to become stronger. That is the true definition of a hero. The point in courage is not to be fearless but to keep on going even if you are terrified. That is the advantage of batman, he is brave enough to hope. That is the difference between a villain and a hero. That is why at the end just before he leaves in “ The Bat ” he tells officer Gordon that “A hero can be anyone. Even a man doing something as simple and reassuring as putting a coat around a little boy’s shoulder to let him know that the world hadn’t ended.” A hero can be anyone who gives hope where there is none. That was batman for Gotham. That was the meaning of the ending, which is why Robin Blake could be the next batman or the possibility that Bruce is alive. Because the hope must never die. Batman must never die. Bruce’s hero was Gordon, he gave him hope when his parents died. Bruce’s code that he lived by was given by his mentor Ra’s al Ghul. Alfred was his father figure that cared about him. The saddest part in the movie saga is when Alfred tells him that he doesn’t need to be the batman, that he wants Bruce to be happy, to get a girl, have kids and live happy, regular life. He hopes that Bruce one day will be happy and even when everyone knows that Bruce is dead, he still hopes that he is somewhere, living happy, loved life. In a way Alfred wants Bruce to avoid the mistakes he made, to create a family, something Alfred never created for himself. He wants Bruce to stop serving the good and start living happy, regular life. The music in the trilogy is the cherry at the top. The names of the soundtracks give me goose bumps, I don’t need to start talking about the music. It awakes a feeling in you that make you realize the bottom of the “ iceberg ”.
The soul – The message of The Dark Knight Trilogy is that hero can be anyone who gives hope when there is none. In order to find hope we must learn how to pick ourselves up in the midst of fear. Each one of us can be a hero or a villain, we choose what we will become.
I can talk about this trilogy for so long because the iceberg is a lot bigger than this but I think I have said the most important staff. If I rate the saga I would give it a golden 10. I don’t want to create long posts that will tire you from reading them so I’ll stop now. I just need to say that.. I am batman…