The Dark Knight Falls... Flat On His Face

Watched The Dark Knight Rises [2012] yesterday. It was a mess. I don't know what that movie was trying to say. Isn't this the same Gotham that contained convicts that refused to blow up citizens on the other boat and vice versa? Isn't this the city that's "full of people ready to believe in good"? Well, apparently they really do get along with convicts just fine. To the point of shooting at cops with assault rifles and charging to meet them in battle like some kind of medieval engagement. The final street battle was all kinds of retardation and contrivance, by the way.

Apparently all it takes to make people repudiate Harvey Dent, their white knight, is for a masked madman to read from a ream of papers which he claims to be the true story of Dent's demise written by the police commissioner. That doesn't even sound likely even though it was true.

And Bane's character. Besides the use of the name 'Bane' he really had nothing to do with the Batman universe character of that name. They never made note of any strength-enhancing drugs, a hallmark of the character. He also wasn't a massive person at all. He was of above-average stature at best. He only sporadically exhibited any measure of 'super-human' strength. Without the name I'd have thought he was just an above-averagely strong man the entire movie.

Catwoman's character never really got any development. I think they just needed a pretty face and a happy ending for Bruce.

At the end of the film John Blake (Gordon-Levitt) reveals his legal name is 'Robin John Blake'? Not Dick Grayson? I was disappointed at that.

And, of course, Bale's "Batman voice" is still as ridiculous as ever. It seemed like everyone knew Bruce was really Batman and yet, when in costume, he'd still talk to them using that voice.

Insanity! I Want That Fractured Reality

Something about insanity has always appealed to me. If I tossed in a disclaimer saying, "Not that I'd really want to be insane or anything" I'd be lying twice over. For one thing, I do kind of want to know what it's like. And secondly, as it is I'm already quite aware that I'm a little bit what you might call 'strange in the brain'.

That or, as I suspect, I'm just more honest to myself about my thoughts and motivations than most people.

Batman

Comic book Batman's gotten pretty pre-reboot James Bond-sy. That is to say, he's become a parody of himself. You heard about how Batman is crazy prepared, as in he's prepared for anything that could happen ever and that's why he can go toe-to-toe with anyone who ever existed? Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Writers for Batman stories have gotten their heads so twisted, they can't portray him as a believable character anymore. He's no longer "Bruce Wayne by day, masked crime fighter at night". He's "The Goddamned Batman". Nigh invulnerable. Goes on adventures with the Justice League. Goes on adventures outside of Gotham, sometimes not even on Earth. Going missing for extended periods like that has to be noticeable.

Simply put, Batman is broken. Just like Artemis Entreri, just like Ando, he's lost what made him special. He used to be the human element among scientifically-augmented humans, extraterrestrial aliens, robots, superhumans and other such implausible good guys. It's gotten to this point partly because of the fandom, partly because of poor writing. Writers see how much the fans love a character and they say, Hey! They love him like that! Then lemme make him MOAR AWSUM! And that's why you get stuff like Batman punching Superman and somehow doing anything more than getting a throbbing hand.



Batman should never have been placed in the same universe as Superman.
I love the animated series Justice League/ Unlimited and I can understand the corporate decision to put their two biggest properties together. But these two are in different classes and worlds universes in fact, when it comes to their separate realities. I'm talking villains.
Batman's villains are jokes compared to what a Superman villain has to be to make things interesting for Superman. This is really where the writers have to get ham-fisted in order to make things work. It's not pretty. Joker is a deranged but brilliant criminal but he has nothing on Superman. But when he's armed with the greatest power of all: THE WRITERS, he can do anything. He can knock Superman out with a electric buzzer (he has one of those), he can hit him with a projectile weapon infused with Kryptonite (an amazingly poor plot device in its own right), etc. All this despite Superman's super-fast reaction times in other situations.

My suspension of disbelief can only stretch so far.