Dark Knight Rises - Themes, and opinions?

[Mladen]

Just caught the Dark Knight Rises trailer, which wasn't actually a film I really cared too much about seeing (didn't like The Dark Knight, I feel like the only person).

While I don't care for the action aspects in this trailer (not my kind of story), I'm intrigued by the idea that they'll be exploring the notion of wealth inequality through the lens of a superhero story, ESPECIALLY with a character whose own extreme wealth and privilege is a defining characteristic.

For a long while now, writers on Batman have glossed over the fact that there's something classist about the idea of a millionaire who sidesteps the legal system in order to violently enforce his own sense of vigilante justice. Seems like they're tackling that head on here, which sounds fascinating to me.

Singer's first X-men movie has come the closest to having a strong subtext where the film is about something other than itself, wheras this film seems to overtly and directly address the idea within its plot, which might make it a first in that regard.

Anyway, opinions?

[deadpool]

Yeah I think Nolan is a storytelling genuis and he knows how to make you connect to the characters and film. I think that the real credit for doing that is a very harold and kumar 3D christmas which delt with the matter very maturely (half sarcasam). Movies have always been doing that kind of thing but the question is does it stand the course of time? In most cases yes. You have super heroes like captian america and iron man who were products of a specific war. However these characters are still revealent today because those wars are still fresh in our minds.

[bouncingbrick]

Dec 20, 2011 7:44:58 GMT -5 Mladen said:

Singer's first X-men movie has come the closest to having a strong subtext where the film is about something other than itself, wheras this film seems to overtly and directly address the idea within its plot, which might make it a first in that regard.

Wait a minute, what? I assume you meant X-Men was the first superhero film to have a serious sub-text, but it certainly wasn't the last. The Dark Knight had a terrorist story that paralleled the real world situation with the war on terror and the war in Iraq. The fact that The Dark Knight Rises is taking a similar approach by tackling a current real world theme isn't at all surprising.

[Tyler Smith]

Dec 20, 2011 7:44:58 GMT -5 Mladen said:

For a long while now, writers on Batman have glossed over the fact that there's something classist about the idea of a millionaire who sidesteps the legal system in order to violently enforce his own sense of vigilante justice. Seems like they're tackling that head on here, which sounds fascinating to me.

That aspect does interest me. And, while the film will be coming out roughly the same time as public opinion is against Wall Street and corporate executives right now, I think it will probably prove timeless enough that future audiences will appreciate it even without the context.