This past summer the final instalment of Christopher Nolan’s wildly popular Batman trilogy was released ranking in the top 10 highest grossing films of all time.
The Dark Knight Rises has been deemed just about every positive adjective out there. Though, strangely enough, the same audiences that have prided it on its cinematic genius and thrilling action sequences are now tearing it down for the presence of its inevitable shortcomings.
Since the release of the film an all out war seems to have broken over whether or not the film deserves such praise. Though, pessimists and acolytes alike have discussed it at length, no one quite seems to have quite hit the mark with this film.
Yes- perhaps the high-tech robotic leg brace Bruce Wayne uses doesn’t account for his full physical recovery after an eight-year hiatus from crime fighting.
Sure- it wasn’t a rock solid decision to send the entire Gotham PD into Bane’s underground headquarters.
And of course- if it means so much to you, it is quite unlikely that Batman managed to send the nuclear reactor far enough over the bay to protect the millions of onlookers from the blast.
But if you’re busy trying to poke holes in the masterful storytelling behind this colossally successful film, you are either an avid reader of the original comics or you’re missing the point completely.
Many questions have been asked of the story and the first oversight that always seems to be addressed is how Bruce Wayne managed to re-enter Gotham after Bane and the league of shadows sealed the border to all civilians and military.
Bruce Wayne may have been across the world before returning to Gotham, but several months pass before he reappears and with the knowledge that he is neither civilian nor military, but rather Bruce Wayne the all powerful, we can assume that he has managed to find a way back in.
The film is dense enough as is and we should really thank the writers for saving us the twenty-minute scene of Wayne sneaking across the border in a shipping crate.
Then of course there are the ever-popular questions about Talia and Bane.
How does Talia know that Bruce is Batman?
How does Bane find out where Applied Sciences is located?
The answers are pure common sense:
By the time Bane arrives in Gotham, Talia and Bruce have been business partners on the clean energy project for a long enough amount of time that Talia could have and likely would have passed along the information about Applied Sciences to her ally in world domination.
And long before any dark knights rise, Raz al Ghul, Talia’s father and Batman’s mentor, whose life work it was to destroy Gotham, would have hopefully informed Talia, Bane and all the rest of the league of shadows of Batman’s identity.
The passage of time, both within the universe of the film and the film itself is key in understanding most of the inconsistencies that surface. It is both ignorant and insulting to assume that the filmmakers didn’t consider the film’s legitimacy to its final cut and that in a very necessary way, everything happens for a reason.
Anyone who has seen the past films will understand that many things rely on a suspension of disbelief. If Bruce hadn’t found his way back, Gotham would have been blown to smithereens and that wouldn’t have been much of an ending would it?
Though it can be argued that the critics are have different values in filmmaking and the fans are too forgiving, perhaps we can all take comfort in something:
At the end of the day it’s only a movie.
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