Batman ends

When I was a kid, I used to love the Batman TV series.  I knew it was silly and I knew, even then, that the character deserved better treatment but it was bright and colourful and taught me two things. Firstly, it taught me the meaning of "camp" and secondly it taught me that directors can do things with cameras to manipulate the way you watch their films or TV programmes.  They can send you messages and tell stories through things other than just words.  I still remember when I realised that every time the villain was on screen, the camera was tilted at a crazy angle.  The director was telling me that the world was out of balance while whoever it was that week - the Joker, the Penguin, the Riddler - was at large.  Batman restored order and balance, made things level again.


When I was older, I read The Dark Knight and loved it.  I read Batman: Year One and loved that, too. I watched Tim Burton's two Batman movies and loved them - I though Michael Keaton was great for the part of Bruce Wayne.  Then there was Val Kilmer and Robin and George Clooney and nipples and I kind of lost interest in the whole thing again.  I'd moved on, I already new what camp meant and there was nothing new to see.


This weekend, I went to see The Dark Knight Rises.  (Don't worry - if you haven't seen it, there are no spoilers in this post.)  I liked it.  TDKR is a good film: I enjoyed it.  It's long, but it doesn't feel long.  There are some great set-pieces.  The actors are all fantastic, especially Anne Hathaway and Michael Caine.  It's a good story that has some interesting things to say about the world.  I watched Batman Begins and The Dark Knight and I liked them, too. 


But I didn't love them, any of them, not the way I loved the TV series, all those years ago; not the way I loved the comic books and the Burton films, for all their flaws.  When I stopped to think about it, I didn't love Inception, either; I didn't love Memento or The Prestige or Insomnia.  I liked them all and I thought some of them were really clever but none of them engaged me on an emotional level, none of them found a place in my heart.  


It's a great finale to a great trilogy but for all its intelligence and brilliance; for all the talent and effort, TDKR felt somehow slightly less than the sum of its parts.  It felt hollow, in a way, like there was something missing.  Christopher Nolan is a great and intelligent director who makes great and intelligent films.  Perhaps if he'd just tilted the camera a little more...