This article is in response to the numerous articles that have cropped up today citing the "unanswered questions" in The Dark Knight Rises. I've put "unanswered questions" in quotes because I want to make clear that it doesn't mean what those words normally mean. Rather, the phrase means "I'm confused," "I wasn't paying attention," or "paint tastes yummy, what movie is this?" More specifically, this is a direct response to the 15 Issues raised over at slashfilm.com. You may want to read that article because I will be addressing things directly from it. However, it is not for the easily upset. I'm singling out /Film not because I want to pick on them but rather because I hold them in such high regard (and because they had the highest number in a day of increasingly high numbers).
Clearly, SPOILERS below.
When and how did Bane find out Batman's identity and the location of applied sciences?
-As the original article alluded to, Bane knows Bruce is Batman because Talia knows. Talia knows
because Ra's & the league of shadows knew. The league wasn't
destroyed in Begins. Bruce insists that Ra's was the league but as we
saw, there are many more members, most of who are not accounted for at
the end of Begins. So, now you have a leaderless league & a daughter
filled with vengeance. Combine those & you get Talia knowing who
killed her father. As for applied sciences, once you know what you're
looking for, it should be easy to find. It's connected to the Wayne
building after all. "Off the books" simply means the records won't
reflect it but Bane & Talia know Bruce has to get his tech
somewhere. Makes sense they'd look at his company. Bane has city plans
& knows Wayne Enterprises is hiding something. Not hard to see where
there is a massive unaccounted for space.
Blake makes Bruce as Batman.
-While
Blake's explanation my not appease you, it makes sense. He's going off
of a shared pain & experiences he's felt. More importantly though,
is that Bruce never denies it. So Blake's hunch or belief is simply
said, & then Bruce lets him off the hook. Blake doesn't know. He
assumes until Bruce confirms.
Bruce is Down, Then Back Up
-You
pointed out the knee is cured by the brace but then say he never has it
the rest of the movie. There is no evidence of this. He may have always
had it on. Bane snapped his back. I doubt he cared about a knee brace.
As for the back, look up decompression therapy. As someone with severe
back problems, that looked like it would help. Don't take my word for it
though. I called my doctor. He said that was the best thing they could
have done. If Bruce's back wasn't broken but rather severely herniated
& dislocated, decompressing for up to 3 months would get him back on
his feet, especially in movies.
Why doesn't the SEC overturn Bane's fraudulent trades?
-Because they were confirmed by finger print. If he could get them
overturned, it would take a great deal of time because billions was
spent. There's not just an undo button. Finger print failsafes are put
in as verification. If that is done, very tough to get around.
Miranda & Bruce have some sex but they barely know each other
-Yes, because people never have sex before they get to know each other. Please.
Bruce is a street artist?
-Seeing
as how that symbol help galvanizes a city, no there isn't a better use
of his time. "People need dramatic events to shake them out of apathy."
Shouldn't Bruce do better background checks?
-Talia
certainly had an iron clad background to check up on. As for Selina,
she can pass a cursory background check. There hasn't been serious crime
in Gotham in 8 years & Bruce has been in hiding for 3. He's not
running any background checks. He'd be more thorough but as Bane said
victory has made everyone soft. They felt safe. 8 years will do that.
Why does Bane take Bruce to the desert?
-Bane
isn't taking a break from his master plan. This is the master plan. The
slow knife. He also has plenty of time. He's in no rush with Gotham.
It's about making Bruce suffer.
How does Bruce get back to Gotham?
-We
saw Bruce survive with no resources for years at the start of Begins.
He knows how to do this. Stow away on a ship or cargo plane. They aren't
watching people sneak back into Gotham. They're watch that one bridge.
Arguably, no one knows Gotham better than Bruce. Sneaking in would be
easy.
What the deal with the prison?
-What's
the deal with the prison? This is explicit. It was once a pit to simply
throw the worst people in (hence why Bane was there.) Then Ra's killed
everyone there as revenge. Now Bane runs it. You don't need a guard or
wardens. It's a hole. Bane throws you in there. Only one person has ever
escaped. Design seems fine to me. It kills hope.
Why do all the police go into the sewers?
-They
knew they had the numbers. No one could anticipate that Bane would trap
them down there. They planned on overwhelming Bane who had just
kidnapped the Wayne board, the first major crime in 8 years. An
overreaction? Maybe, but it's a massive raid on a criminal compound. You
use your numbers.
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Why does a 4 megaton nuclear bomb have no fallout and do no damage at all, at the very least the coastline surely would've had damage from the explosion.
ReplyDeleteTwo responses here. 1) the bomb has a range of 6 miles so if he got it outside that range, which it appears he did, there wouldn't be any damage on the coast. In terms of radiation, this is new technology so perhaps radiation free. That's conjecture though. 2) In the land of movie nukes, radiation fallout isn't a thing anymore so I don't begrudge the movie. In the real world, modern nuclear weapons don't have the same lingering radiation effects that we saw at Hirishima & Nagasaki. I may have made that up but I don't think so.
DeleteGood read. Thanks for writing this up.
ReplyDeleteGreat work here.
ReplyDeleteGreat, maybe this will wake people up to how dumb these are and return to actual criticism.
ReplyDeleteGreat piece. Hopefully many read it. You could actually go further with some of these points too.
ReplyDeleteFor example: RE Bruce goes up/down - The whole film is about Bruce trying to move on from being Batman and have a real life. The first time he dons the suit, he's driven by a self-destructive martyr complex and he is just not ready to face someone as skilled as Bane. Alfred says he thinks Bruce wants to die as Batman. Then the second time it's about him choosing to live. The up/down thing is the emotional backbone (no pun intended) of Bruce's arc in the movie.
"While Blake's explanation my not appease you, it makes sense. He's going off of a shared pain & experiences he's felt. More importantly though, is that Bruce never denies it. So Blake's hunch or belief is simply said, & then Bruce lets him off the hook. Blake doesn't know. He assumes until Bruce confirms."
ReplyDeleteNo. He said he saw his fake smile and he just knew because they're both orphans. Did he smell the sadness on him? Is he a psychic detective? It makes absolutely no sense. He explicitly came there armed with what he thought was absolute knowledge of Batman's identity. That was done very, very poorly.
"You pointed out the knee is cured by the brace but then say he never has it the rest of the movie. There is no evidence of this. He may have always had it on."
He had a brace on one knee, but the doctor also told him he had like no cartilage at all, anywhere. I'm pretty sure I remember him pointing to at least 3 limbs on the x-ray. Couple that with the fact he was a totally inactive recluse for 8 years, and him even walking makes no sense. He didn't even train before he put the suit back on. That was dumb.
"-What's the deal with the prison? This is explicit. It was once a pit to simply throw the worst people in (hence why Bane was there.) Then Ra's killed everyone there as revenge. Now Bane runs it. You don't need a guard or wardens. It's a hole. Bane throws you in there. Only one person has ever escaped. Design seems fine to me. It kills hope."
Well, if Ra's killed everyone in revenge, why are the two guys that help Bruce out still there? Then there's the crowd of people cheering Bruce on when he kept trying to get out. Bane never throws anybody in a pit, ever. He kills people for all kinds of reasons including failing him. He doesn't want to make anyone suffer.
"-They knew they had the numbers. No one could anticipate that Bane would trap them down there. They planned on overwhelming Bane who had just kidnapped the Wayne board, the first major crime in 8 years. An overreaction? Maybe, but it's a massive raid on a criminal compound. You use your numbers."
So, you're saying that putting literally the entire police force of a gigantic city save for like 5 people is maybe an overreaction? It's also probably the worst idea they could have come up with. Just have every cop run down a sewer in rows of 5 so that if anything goes wrong, everyone is screwed? That's dumb as hell. Nobody would ever do that.
I also thought Bane was severely disappointing. Any actual acting got blocked by his mask, and his voice was awful and distracting. It's not Tom Hardy's fault, mind you. It's kind of like Kevin Spacey in Superman Returns. He got screwed by the film, not because of his performance.
The final fight between Batman and Bane was really, really bad. It was just two guys throwing slow punches at each other, and then Bane just gets shot and flies off-screen? Lame.
Bane's character also got totally shit on after the final fight. Throughout the whole movie, he's clearly an ideological extremist with a specific plan he wants executed. Then, on a dime, he's characterized as a brute enforcer by Talia. I didn't buy that at all. He was the brains of the entire operation, and then the movie wanted Talia to take that role, so it just said she did it all.