The Dark Knight Rises: And So It Begins...

It’s 12:14 A.M. on July 20, 2012.  About twenty minutes ago, I was playing Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 with my brother (for a night-devouring three hours straight).  But with that done, I can focus on more important matters.  See, by this time twenty-four hours from now, I’ll have seen The Dark Knight Rises -- in IMAX, of course -- and laid this black-clad beast to rest. 

It’s the biggest movie of the year…well, one of the biggest, considering The Avengers.  It’s a movie that’s been anticipated by countless comic fans, film fans, and generally anyone who just likes living.  It’s set to vaporize box office records and cast them into the wind.  The time is ripe for Christopher Nolan, Batman, and everyone involved with this trilogy to step onto the stage -- the final proving ground -- and lay waste to all our hopes and dreams, and substitute them with dreams of the cowl-shrouded crimefighter.

And I for one am glad.  Because now -- or eventually, at least -- we can all shut the hell up about Batman.

"Now where did I leave my keys...?"

Now don’t get me wrong.  I don’t have anything against Batman as a character.  Far from it; even though I don’t have an intimate knowledge of his storied mythos, I respect what others have done with him, as well as the hero as a whole.  Batman (when he’s done well, at least) is an interesting character, even for someone who’s only got a basic understanding of him: he’s surprisingly brutal at times, but sticks to a strict code of honor and is ultimately out for the safety of the people.  He’s had it rough throughout his life, and not only has to balance life as a billionaire and a brawler but also two distinct personas.  He exists in a universe where, even with all his tech and resources and skills, he’s automatically outclassed by way of being a human…a human often in the company of an alien messiah, a venusian gladiator, and a space cop whose only limit is his imagination (good thing he’s got such a shoddy one).  Batman’s had a lot of fans over the years, and he’s certainly earned them.

And yet…I can’t say I really care for him.  Like if you asked me to choose between getting a Batman comic every day for the rest of my life and a Superman comic, I’d go with Superman.  It’s personal preference, to be honest; I’ve always found the “truth, justice, and the American way” type characters (i.e. Captain America) to be far more appealing than brooding, scowling, stoic anti-heroes.  It’s a bit of a sweeping generalization to put Batman in that category since, again, I don’t know everything about the mythos -- or Superman’s, for that matter -- but you get the idea.  Think of it this way: given the choice between hanging out with Batman and hanging out with Superman, which one do you think would be more fun?

To be fair, Superman has his off-days.

But what does that have to do with the Nolan trilogy?  Because -- if you’ll allow me to make another sweeping generalization -- it’s easy for me to look at the movies and blame them for necessitating so many dark and gritty reboots.

I know that’s not a fair declaration, but play along here.  After the atomic blast of money that the other two movies made -- two movies that are notably dark, and notably gritty, and notably serious, is it really so far-fetched to assume that there’s a correlation between the Dark Knight Trilogy’s success and the grimification of other products?  The most obvious example would be the recent Amazing Spider-Man, but I’d argue there are other examples.  For some reason, people have tried to make Snow White gritty.  On a different axis, you could link the bombastic, action-packed nature of several properties (Transformers, Battleship) to becoming gritty.  Comics dip in and out of being gritty all the time, but I have to wonder what bank-annihilating franchise could have spurred on a few of the changes on this list.  TV’s gotten grittier, too; the new Green Arrow show looks primed to revel in delicious filth, and I could probably chart out Smallville’s gritification with enough time and repeat views of episodes.  And the less said about gritty reboots to video games, the better off we’ll all be.

Among other myriad travesties.

Is there a definite link?  Well, that’s hard to say with 100% accuracy.  But whatever the case, whatever the facts, I have my opinion: I’m tired of grit.  We can have worlds where everything is brutal, the heroes range from ineffectual to outright villainous, and there’s violence and societal/political overtones between every panel.  But if EVERYBODY decides to be gritty, NOBODY wins.  Why can’t heroes be allowed to be heroes anymore?  Why can’t we have color?  Why is there a stigma towards people and worlds and events that are actually likeable, and are geared towards making us smile?  Why can’t we -- oh wait, never mind, we still have things like that.  It’s called The Avengers, and it just finished casting Ultima on the box office.

So yeah.  With the Nolan trilogy finally ending (but let’s be real, I doubt this is the last we’ll see of this universe -- can you say “Catwoman prequel”?) I’m hoping that we can step away from the grit for a while -- and the general worship of Batman and co. -- and move on as a paradigm.  Let’s have some fun with our worlds, yeah?  Doesn’t that sound awesome?

With that little rant done, it’s time to move to the real purpose of this post: it’s a preamble to my upcoming thoughts on The Dark Knight Rises.  Just as I did for The Hunger Games, The Avengers, and Prometheus, it’s my wholehearted intent to dissect this movie as best I can.  I’m not going to be swayed by hype or improbable motorcycle physics; gritty or no, I’m going to go to the movie, watch it, and decide for myself whether or not it’s good -- and I’ll relay the good word to you, fair blog-readers, for your sake.  Even though it’s likely that by the time I finish, you’ll have already seen the movie.  You know, because you exist.

If you don't, Batman will smack you with his backhand without even turning to look at you.

But before I do, I want to use this post as a record -- a piece of evidence to use for or against my testimony.  I’m going to make my predictions.  Five predictions that will be proven right or wrong by analysis’ end.

The five predictions are:

1) Based on my previous chart, The Dark Knight Rises will be somewhere around here on my SmartChart (yes, that’s what I’m calling it now):

2) TDKR will be a good movie.  Not the greatest thing ever, but as competent as I predict.

3) I will have a newfound appreciation for Batman.  That said, it still won’t be enough to make me love him more than anyone else.

4) I will be able to rest easy, knowing that some of the low review scores and complaints about the movie have no power over my experience.

5) If someone asks me what I think of the movie -- friends, family, or otherwise -- I will be able to answer, without hesitation, as such: “Really good.  It had its flaws, but I enjoyed it.”

All right.  See you guys on the other side.

Guide me, Kevin Conroy.