Metaknight: Overthinking The Dark Knight Rises

An Unreality guest post by Zack Ruskin.

Why I picked it: It’s part of my job to be up on the latest movie news and happenings, and more often than not that involves me seeing entirely TOO much of upcoming movies I wish I could just experience when they were released. Zack feels that this is happening currently with The Dark Knight Rises, a sentiment I would agree with after being emailed photo set after photo set of paparazzi set snaps each day.

As I waited for the lights to dim at the Sony Metreon and an IMAX-sized Bane to wreak a prologue’s worth of havoc, I wondered: was there any other movie I would be this excited to see six minutes of? Regardless of the answer, here I was, about to watch over two hours of Tom Cruise and explosions, $20 poorer and for what? A chance to see one scene from a movie that won’t be released until next summer.

The culture of The Dark Knight Rises, really all of Nolan’s Batman series, is unparalleled. From the interactive online and real-world viral marketing gameplay that leads hungry fans to early photo stills, trailer snippets and sometimes more substantial treasure, to paparazzi who photograph any outdoor scene they can slither close to so we can all salivate over blurry footage of Batman standing on a sidewalk. Have we crossed the threshold where we are so rabid for a movie franchise that we’re willing to spoil it for ourselves?

The best parts of many films are the unexpected moments: explosions that catch you by surprise, twist revelations that retroactively alter the meaning of the movie etc. Christopher Nolan is no stranger to these cinematic sleights-of-hand. Indeed, he exudes a masterful understanding of their importance and execution. The haunting final scene in The Prestige is a good example. Ditto the end of Inception, with its top that just keeps spinning into the credits. I don’t think it’s a reach to say that Mr. Nolan may have something in store for us with The Dark Knight Rises. Aside from his tendency to mindf**k audiences, DKR is the final chapter of a trilogy, where stakes are raised, resolution is reached and characters arcs find completion. If there’s a Prestige or Inception level unexpected moment coming, I sure as hell don’t want to know about it before I’m watching it on opening night.

It’s all well and good to extol the virtues of an untainted cinematic experience. I told friends I was skipping Deathly Hallows Pt. I so that I could watch both parts back to back when the latter was released. That didn’t even come close to happening. Likewise, despite my sincere dedication to the integrity of DKR’s intrigue, I saw its prologue at the first possible opportunity. I’ve read myriad theories on whether Batman will die, how the trilogy is itself a manifestation of The Prestige’s pledge, turn and prestige concept and so forth. Some of the ideas out there are amazingly crafted, and should they prove accurate, would be a brilliant ending to a series unlike anything else in the realm of superheroes. Except that since I spent months reading about it beforehand, the polish would be slightly scuffed.

It’s Lost redux really: how can any of the theories so often bandied about by fans turn out to be truth when it would mean we did know the answers all along? I want to be as wrong as possible about Batman. There’s no reward for knowing the plot before you see it, but rather the burden of missing what is sure to be a hallowed moment: the first time you see The Dark Knight Rises.

Perhaps the best example lies in DKR’s direct predecessor. The Dark Knight, already a highly anticipated film, mushroomed in excitement with the untimely passing of Heath Ledger. Not only would The Dark Knight be Ledger’s final film (at the time, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus was in limbo), but we would also see Batman take on his true nemesis in the Joker. Thus it comes as no surprise that the masses stormed early IMAX screenings of Will Smith’s I Am Legend on word that the opening scene of Dark Knight would precede the film. The scene those fans saw stands in my mind as the best opening scene of any modern crime film: taut, interspersed with bursts of action all leading up to a betrayal that establishes a man intent on watching the world burn. It was mesmerizing.

And then…nothing. Another trailer. A different movie. But to see that scene and then follow it with the rest of The Dark Knight, every frame fresh to the mind? Perfection. I highly doubt the Batman faithful who did sit through Will Smith sulking around an apocalyptic New York had a significantly less satisfying experience, but there’s no way they had a better one. And yet, there I was at the IMAX for The Dark Knight Rises, to witness a scene that outside of context is little more than eye candy. Perhaps when I see DKR in its entirety, the scene will take on new meaning. Of course it will. Regardless, there’s no way seeing the Bane scene early has enhanced my future viewing of the film.

Assuming we have some crossover readers who also enjoy George R.R. Martin, let’s compare the two. The Game of Thrones author is notorious in his pacing of his proposed seven book series, A Song of Fire & Ice. Martin’s first book was released in 1996, and the next two books came out in intervals of two years. From there, it was five years until A Feast of Crows and six years past that for A Dance with Dragons. Now that’s a lot of waiting. Even still, if I offered you a segment of a chapter from the forthcoming sixth book, would you really choose to read it? The book is clearly intended to be read in order. However “unspoilery” the section I offered you may be, would it really satiate your desire for an 800 page new work in the series? When the book does finally come out, will the segment you got to read all those years back do anything but ever-so-slightly taint your enjoyment of this brand new entry into a much-beloved series? I doubt it. Perhaps it’s time we pay films of Nolan’s caliber the same courtesy.

Some things will never change. There will always be leaked materials, advanced scenes and rumors for hungry fans. The onus will be on us as viewers and disciples of the Nolan approach to cinema to resist scarfing down every morsel of DKR fed to us on computer screens and ahead of Tom Cruise movies so that our minds aren’t full before the main course. You want to see Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman suit? Go ahead. Desperate for a snippet of Hans Zimmer’s score to put you in the right brood? No sweat. Just remember: The Dark Knight Rises is coming. Lightening is not going to strike the only existing reels and disintegrate them. A day will come when you can walk into your local theater and say, “I’d like one ticket for The Dark Knight Rises, please” and no one will think you’re borderline mental. We’re getting a whole movie, I swear it. Let’s pledge to obsessively Google a little less, to stop watching horrid bootlegs of unreleased trailers and most importantly, to give Christopher Nolan a chance to surprise us. To bastardize a line he wrote, I’m whatever Chris Nolan needs me to be, and in this case, it’s in the dark.

 

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9 Comments

  1. Its like peeking at your christmas presents early. Does it enhance or lower the final outcome? No. But sometimes the pain of waiting and not knowing is too much to bear so you end up spoiling it for yourself.

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