The problem with The Dark Knight Rises is that the film puts its focus all over the place in the overbloated epic that it tries to be, rather than keeping focus on what makes these movies interesting to watch: which is Batman himself. In ‘Begins’ and ‘Dark Knight’ while both added new elements, stories, and characters the main focus was on the character of Batman and how these new situations affected him physically and mentally in his struggle to overcome them. This is something that all great Batman stories in both comics and film must do regardless of direction or tone, as it is the core of character. Batman is a character who thrives in more psychologically personal stakes rather than massive and grandiose ones. Heck, what is considered to be the greatest Batman story of all time is one focused on Batman trying to rescue a kidnapped commissioner Gordon from the Joker with no threat to the rest of Gotham.
So, with that in mind let’s take a look at the actual film.
For starters, the premise for the film is actually a decent one it’s been about eight years since the events of the Dark Knight. Bruce Wayne has become a recluse; isolating himself from the world; Crime is down, Gotham is Thriving, The Police force is stronger than ever, and no one has seen Batman in years. However, after that we need to start making some changes.
1. Forget the League of Shadows, Bane came to wreck Batman and take his stuff
The villain Christopher Nolan chose for this film was Bane, played by Tom Hardy. On paper it sounds great but in execution the way Bane is in the film he’s a terrible villain. His plan is over-complicated and ridiculous, he doesn’t challenge batman’s character philosophically, and he ends up just being a goon for the League of Shadows. Taking one of the most distinctively badass characters from the comics and making him someone else’s patsy.
Because, lord knows what we really wanted was this twist
Plus, we already finished off the League in the first movie,when they had the exact same plan. Make Gotham tear itself apart, then destroy it. Its repetitive storytelling that makes this film feel like more of the same rather than stand on its own.
Heck, in both films, the plan revolves around using a piece of secret Wayne Enterprises Tech to destroy Gotham!
To fix this I propose that we keep Bane as the villain, but remove the League of Shadows angle entirely. So, no League, no continuing Ra’s Al Ghul’s mission, and most definitely NO MIRANDA TATE!
What made Bane cool in the comics was that he was a highly intelligent, collected, hulk of a man who made it his sole mission to break the bat and take Gotham for himself just because he could! He didn’t need to have some grand bankruptcy scheme or be a part of some ninja club. He was simply the badass who broke Batman’s back, so let’s use him goshdarnit!
Exhibit A of Bane’s Awesomeness
So, in my version, like in the comics, Bane is a highly intelligent and ruthless mercenary (with the excommunicated League backstory if you really want to) who sees Gotham as a criminal kingdom, ripe for the taking with Batman being his only obstacle. Therefore, Bane and his men quickly wrangle what remains criminal empire and systematically begin destroying Gotham from the inside. He incites riots, kills police, and frees inmates from both Arkham and Blackgate, finally capping it all off by bombing the Police Department all in the effort to lure out the Batman and take over.
Besides, does this guy even resemble a ninja?!
2. The Fall and Rise of Batman
Where’s Batman in all of this you may ask, well he is pretty much in the same place he was for the original film. A broken recluse in Wayne Manor, grieving over all that he has lost and all he failed to do. His appearance is disheveled, with a scraggly beard, limp, and a worn face. He is the very definition of not okay. He hasn’t put on the cowl in years and doesn’t plan to again until he sees Bane’s rampage.
Yeah, that’s good
Now, in the film all it takes is a super leg brace and some errands to get Bruce up to snuff enough to successfully fight criminals and engage in car chases as if he hasn’t spent the last eight years later doing nothing but moping around the house. This is especially ridiculous when you remember that Bruce was written to be a cripple with multiple long-term injuries, and no cartilage in his leg (which a leg brace would not fix). Which leaves him in no shape to be doing any crime fighting anytime soon. At least not soon enough to make an interesting film.
How can we fix this?
Well, in the film Bruce’s arc is supposed to be one of rising to the call. He has fallen and he is trying to reclaim his former glory in order to defeat Bane. So lets use his crippled body to our advantage by having him fight Bane when he obviously isn’t in the right shape to do so.
He sees Bane on the television then, like in the film, against Alfred’s pleas that he isn’t the man he once was, he denies the severity of his condition and goes to fight Bane thinking he’s just another thug for hire that he can easily take. That he can just put on the mask and be Batman again. Why you may ask?
You knew this joke was coming
So, Batman meets with Bane in Gotham and while seemingly doing okay at first, keeping up with Bane and even getting in some good shots; this is really just Bane toying with him. Batman totally gets wrecked by Bane, who easily blocks all of his attacks and gadgets just totally beating the crap out of him and tossing him about in front of the entire city on the news. Bane ends his assault and then just as he is about to finish the Job, Alfred remote pilots the Bat, airlifts Bruce out of there, and gets him back to the Batcave. It is there he will stay for the rest of the movie either laid up or training to get ready for a rematch with Bane, realizing he is out of practice and has to find Batman again. This will be is his arc for the movie through the entire second act and into the third which we will cut back to now and again until the climax.
Dramatic Reenactment of Bruce’s Training
3. Gotham = No Man’s Land
It is at this point that we find our story at a depressing low. Batman is presumed dead, The Police are scattered, and Bane has an army of Criminals at his back rampaging through Gotham. How could this possibly get any worse?! It can, it will, and here’s how.
First a little comic history:
Back in 1999, there was a Batman story called No Man’s Land that lasted for the entire year. The basic premise was that in the aftermath of a massively destructive 7.6 earthquake, the government accordingly evacuated as many people as possible but declared the entirety of Gotham island a “No Man’s Land” destroying all bridges and setting up military blockades to prevent people from entering or exiting. Leaving the remaining gangs and supervillains to begin carving up the city with civilians caught in the crossfire. Sound familiar?
Left: Comic’s cover, Right: Territory Map of Gotham for perspective purposes
That’s because this happens in Rises almost beat for beat (barring a giant earthquake and nuclear bomb), but isn’t focused on nearly as much as it should be. I mean this is Gotham literally destroying itself and everything Batman fought so hard for being torn down while the Government doesn’t do anything, yet we spend most of our time trying to find that silly bomb or learning meaningless pit prison backstory. What we should have been doing was seeing more of our favorite characters being put in this dire situation and how they and the rest of Gotham react to it. Like in the film; we should show things like Crane in the courthouse, criminals rampaging, citizens rioting; like in the film; but, it would be the focus rather than the background noise.
More of this please.
In addition to this we could give more relevance and character development to the supporting cast. We could see Commissioner Gordon, The Police, Selina Kyle, Lucius, and Nightwing teaming up to fight Bane and the other criminals in an effort to keep Gotham’s people somewhat safe and provide some order to the city in the wake of Batman’s supposed ‘death’. Fighting a constant backpedaling war against Bane and all of Gotham’s current chaos.
The Guardians of Gotham…Your Welcome
Oh, did I not mention Nightwing is in my movie, silly me. Rather than play the most drawn out game of will he or wont he be Robin, John Blake will become Nightwing almost immediately when Bane takes over the city. Johns arc in the film is that of disillusionment at how little the Police is actually doing and can do to protect the city compared to what Batman does, so why does he just stay a random cop the entire time. He’s already been inspired by Batman to do more so why doesn’t he? Have him take matters into his own hands, don a makeshift costume made out of his cop gear, with some nightsticks in order to go out to kick some serious criminal ass!
(For those of you who don’t know Nightwing: He’s essentially grown-up Robin as Batman with No money and a sense of humor)
All of this would just go on and build and build, heightening the anticipation. As we see Bruce training while Gotham is going to hell around our other heroes with Bane sitting back and watching. Until, finally the moment comes where Bruce dons the cowl, goes to Gotham, rallies the people behind him, teams up with our heroes, and takes the fight to where Bane lives. Now, obviously they save the day and Bane falls but he has an ace in the hole.
He… has a bomb.
I know what you are going to say. ‘BOO! You said the bomb was stupid and distracting from the plot you hypocrite! How dare you take something away and bring it back!’ Which are all valid points, however this bomb is different than the one in the film in that it only comes in at the last second. Its a bomb not a magic ring or life-saving potion, ITS. A. BOMB! These are a dime a dozen narratively and don’t need to be explained. Bomb goes boom, people die, which is bad, that is the beginning, middle, and end of the purpose of bombs in film and its all that it should have been in ‘Rises’, like it will be here.
Getting back to the plot, While the bomb in question isn’t nuclear it still could take out a third of Gotham killing thousands. Batman, being the hero he is, rushes to the roof summons the Bat remotely, gets in with the bomb, and flies it out over the ocean just as it detonates while Commissioner Gordan, Nightwing, and Catwoman look on.
Use to incite heart string pulling
Just to be clear with that, Batman is dead. We never see him on screen again. Zip, zilch, nada, no.We see the government come in to restore Gotham, Jim Gordon restores the GCPD, Selina leaves Gotham, Blake finds the Batcave and that is it!
You can still have the clip of the Autopilot reveal, and Alfred’s cafe where he smiles at the camera but there is no official confirmation that Batman survived whatsoev- okay you know what?! Screw it! Bruce lives exactly as he does in the film!
Out of all the problems this movie has, this is not one of them. Batman has earned his happy ending after all he’s done and its not even out of the question in my version. Considering that the bomb isn’t a nuke and he did fix the autopilot. This is too satisfying a clip that cutting it from this film would do anything other than harm it for me and I will stand by that statement till I die!….or at least till my internet popularity dies and I crawl back to you all begging for forgiveness.
That’s how we leave The Dark Knight Rises.
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BONUS: The Little Things
- If possible I would have it so that Bruce’s crippled leg is actually caused by his subconscious, because of his tortured mental state. This is to act as a visual indicator of Bruce’s psyche throughout the film. Case in point, when he fist goes to fight Bane the limp will be in full effect showing he is not good or ready for the fight, however after that as he heals and trains over the course of the film we will see him limping less and less until finally he throws away the cane to fight Bane for realz! Imagine how cool that would be!
- No one finds out Batman’s secret identity randomly. We could have Bane unmask Bruce in their first fight revealing him to everyone, but that’s as far as I’d take it. Otherwise, it makes everyone look stupid for not figuring it out already, which is a can of worms that shouldn’t be opened.
- A cool subplot would be if Lucius was regularly trying to lobby congress to go back into Gotham and clean up, which could lead to some pretty cool speech scenes with Morgan Freeman. Which ain’t a bad thing.;)
Film Fantasies 