Whatever happened to the Caped Crusader?
Jul. 25th, 2012 09:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
swatkatI went for Catwoman Returns yesterday. It was pretty great. A pity about that Batman fellow though, I'd have liked to see more of him in the movie as well.
I've never thought much of the Nolanverse, and this movie sort of seals that sentiment: it had a fairly engaging first half, a terribly dragged out and confusing second half, an extremely disturbing political subtext courtesy a lot of half-baked ideas that were evidently not thought through (it's okay to topple existing structures if you're a rich white man, but everybody else is just bad and wrong!), and lastly, it got Batman wrong. Even if I'm willing to accept, for argument's sake, that Bruce Wayne would sulk for eight years after the death of any unfortunately fridged girlfriend or come out of retirement, just like that, at the urging of DickTimJason Blake, I cannot quite buy an Alfred who truly believes that Bruce would hang up his boots and live happily ever after outside Gotham or a Bruce who hangs up his boots and leaves Gotham not knowing what happens to the city. I do like the part where he's with Selina and clearly living off Selina's earnings, but it's not enough to make me believe in this version of Bruce Wayne. It's a bit like reading Nolan's OOC fanfic with a bunch of Mary Sue OCs, with Hathaway's Catwoman and Gary Oldman's Jim Gordon as the lone beacons of recognizable characterization* amongst it all.
The problem, of course, springs from the way Nolan had shaped the Batman universe itself: a daaaaaark, traaaaaaaaaaaagic world where his parents are deeeeeeeeeeeead and also all his girlfriends are deeeeeeeeeeeeeead and he is all aloooooooooone. It seemed that Nolan didn't want to go all out tragedy by killing off Bruce, which would also be what would be half-anticipated by audiences - he wanted to surprise them with a happy ending instead. But he had written himself into a corner there, so suddenly! DickTimJason Blake! Who's actually called ~Robin~! But he's not that Robin, guys, because Batman doesn't need a Robin. And hence the narrative insistence through the voice of Alfred that Bruce can legitimately be content with a life outside Gotham, or that he truly wants or needs any other reward other than being Batman.
A far braver step would have been to keep Bruce and Selina together in Gotham, with maybe ~Robin~ receiving some proper training instead of flailing about in the water, but that would contradict everything Nolan and Bale have ever said about the character or the universe, and we cannot be having with that!
I didn't know Miranda Tate was Talia, but I did know she was going to die the moment she slept with Bruce, so that's all right. I did enjoy the part where she climbed out of that well, I mean, prison in Jodhpur, though. (If somebody could explain her motive behind wanting to destroy Gotham, that'd be great.)
What this movie really makes me want, now, is a proper adaptation of No Man's Land -- television, maybe -- where Gordon wages a war for his daughter, Barbara salvages what she can even in the absence of every facility ever, Helena is a big damn hero and Bruce, after sulking and being emo, comes right back, because Gotham is more important.
PS: Where were all the female orphans in Gotham? Did someone explain to Bruce that 'children' means both girls and boys, or does the Thomas and Martha Wayne Home for Children just take in boys because there are no girl orphans in Gotham?
* We shall not speak of the fail that is the disappearance of class warrior!Selena of the first half or the absence of Gordon's daughter in the Nolanverse, who, you know, is called Barbara Gordon and is a very, very important character in the Batverse.
I've never thought much of the Nolanverse, and this movie sort of seals that sentiment: it had a fairly engaging first half, a terribly dragged out and confusing second half, an extremely disturbing political subtext courtesy a lot of half-baked ideas that were evidently not thought through (it's okay to topple existing structures if you're a rich white man, but everybody else is just bad and wrong!), and lastly, it got Batman wrong. Even if I'm willing to accept, for argument's sake, that Bruce Wayne would sulk for eight years after the death of any unfortunately fridged girlfriend or come out of retirement, just like that, at the urging of DickTimJason Blake, I cannot quite buy an Alfred who truly believes that Bruce would hang up his boots and live happily ever after outside Gotham or a Bruce who hangs up his boots and leaves Gotham not knowing what happens to the city. I do like the part where he's with Selina and clearly living off Selina's earnings, but it's not enough to make me believe in this version of Bruce Wayne. It's a bit like reading Nolan's OOC fanfic with a bunch of Mary Sue OCs, with Hathaway's Catwoman and Gary Oldman's Jim Gordon as the lone beacons of recognizable characterization* amongst it all.
The problem, of course, springs from the way Nolan had shaped the Batman universe itself: a daaaaaark, traaaaaaaaaaaagic world where his parents are deeeeeeeeeeeead and also all his girlfriends are deeeeeeeeeeeeeead and he is all aloooooooooone. It seemed that Nolan didn't want to go all out tragedy by killing off Bruce, which would also be what would be half-anticipated by audiences - he wanted to surprise them with a happy ending instead. But he had written himself into a corner there, so suddenly! DickTimJason Blake! Who's actually called ~Robin~! But he's not that Robin, guys, because Batman doesn't need a Robin. And hence the narrative insistence through the voice of Alfred that Bruce can legitimately be content with a life outside Gotham, or that he truly wants or needs any other reward other than being Batman.
A far braver step would have been to keep Bruce and Selina together in Gotham, with maybe ~Robin~ receiving some proper training instead of flailing about in the water, but that would contradict everything Nolan and Bale have ever said about the character or the universe, and we cannot be having with that!
I didn't know Miranda Tate was Talia, but I did know she was going to die the moment she slept with Bruce, so that's all right. I did enjoy the part where she climbed out of that well, I mean, prison in Jodhpur, though. (If somebody could explain her motive behind wanting to destroy Gotham, that'd be great.)
What this movie really makes me want, now, is a proper adaptation of No Man's Land -- television, maybe -- where Gordon wages a war for his daughter, Barbara salvages what she can even in the absence of every facility ever, Helena is a big damn hero and Bruce, after sulking and being emo, comes right back, because Gotham is more important.
PS: Where were all the female orphans in Gotham? Did someone explain to Bruce that 'children' means both girls and boys, or does the Thomas and Martha Wayne Home for Children just take in boys because there are no girl orphans in Gotham?
* We shall not speak of the fail that is the disappearance of class warrior!Selena of the first half or the absence of Gordon's daughter in the Nolanverse, who, you know, is called Barbara Gordon and is a very, very important character in the Batverse.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-25 07:56 pm (UTC)Can't compare because I'm not a comics reader, save from the occasional volume falling (almost literally) into my hands, but the intrinsic movie issues you had here -- yeah, I'm with you.
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Date: 2012-07-26 08:59 am (UTC)Everything else. Sigh. I'm happy the movie is doing well, because I'm happy to see DC movies do well, but I'm also very glad the Nolanverse is gone for good and we'll have another reboot in a couple of years.
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Date: 2012-07-26 07:05 pm (UTC)Me too, oh so much. When they returned to the cut off city and zeroed in on Selina and the little boy, I though, Yes, this is the story I was hoping to see. But they didn't show it, other than that one scene. (Speaking of which, if not for the rampaging mobs, Gotham seemed perfectly fine being cut off from the world that, oh, I don't know, feeds it.) There were the seeds of multiple interesting stories in that film, but the film abandoned them as soon as it found them in favor of its "Bruce angsts, heals his spine" plot + its fucked up political message.
does the Thomas and Martha Wayne Home for Children just take in boys because there are no girl orphans in Gotham?
Ha, you think females outside of the age range that Bruce would sleep with exist in Gotham? Why do you think Barbara had to leave?
no subject
Date: 2012-07-27 09:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-29 12:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-30 05:46 pm (UTC)