Bound to be a box office hit due to the anticipation of this film, and I further know this, because the cinema that I visited last night, with the expectation to see Ice Age 4, I may add, added in another time to fill demand, and by lucky chance we happened upon the last of the tickets for that showing. You can imagine our night turned increasingly better.
Batman has never been your standard super hero. There’s something about the superman, spiderman, iron man, etc films which carry with them a feel-good element, where the world is saved from certain disaster and we all raise to our feet in delight when everything turns out all right. None of the batman films have ever been like this. You wouldn’t find a feel-good factor in the previous batman films and I tell you, you won’t find one in this. I could quite easily argue that this film is one of the darkest to appear since ‘The Dark Knight’, and I wouldn’t expect any less from it.
The big difference in Batman stories to other super hero stories is that in Batman, the world has to fall to its knees in irreparable damage and chaos practically before the hero even appears, leaving your mind as desolate and destroyed as the characters in it. And the conclusion isn’t predictable, nor even conclusive. That’s what makes it so dark; there is an abundance of violence, death and evil, and a lack of hopeful moments and vibrant colours. That’s not a criticism, that’s a feature. And Batman will always be different because of it.
The best thing about Batman, excluding the very talented cast and crew, cinematography and everything else about the film ;), is that there is always two ways to watch it. With the film, carried is an underlying moral question or meaning, and I being quite a serious person, will always seek to ponder over that element of it, as many would. But, then again, with this film, you can also leave all that pondering to the person next to you, and simply just enjoy the action. It works both ways depending on your preference, and therefore allows the film to appeal to more than just one type of person. I always find it a struggle to just enjoy the action unless it’s 01:00 and I can’t sleep, but I’m well aware that many of my companions couldn’t bear to think deeply about it. And it’s highly possible, of course, to enjoy both and in which case, you will thoroughly enjoy the film.
I don’t really need to say anything much about cinematography, because I think you will believe me when I am as equally impressed as I was for the last film. The very darkness of this film is very much complimented by the darkness of the cinematography; cleverly done. The casting of catwoman was one to be nervous about, but I felt Anne Hathaway did a very good job, and there wasn’t a need to doubt her acting abilities.
My grievances for this film were few, but there were some. I felt there were a few loose ends, though only as expected, but I also had difficulty believing how certain events would realistically happen, but thinking about it, it was a Batman film. My one annoyance was the general absence of Alfred, the butler, because I have always loved his major presence in the film. And you could argue that the length could have been shorter, considering the current figure was 2 hours 44 minutes.
In general, though, the darkness of the Batman film was very much as good as it should have been, and if you do see this film, I very much doubt you will come out unimpressed.