Tuesday, December 13, 2011

7 Minutes in Heaven: My The Dark Knight Rises Prologue review



DISCLAIMER: I'm gonna spoil the shit out of this.

I had the pleasure of checking out a screening tonight of the Prologue to The Dark Knight Rises and boy was 7min, worth the 2hrs I waited.

The prologue begins as mysterious as the opening of The Dark Knight does, we don't know what is quite going on, but we are hoping that is all comes together in the end. The Dark Knight prologue was meant to introduce one of the iconic characters in the DC and Batman universe: The Joker. This prologue introduces and resurrects a character from the DC and Batman Universe: BANE.

Here is a brief description of the prologue, If you don't want to read it skip the italicized portion.

A car ride through a field leads to a plane on a private airstrip with a CIA agent standing at the front. The men who exit the vehicle are a Dr. and three men wearing black hoods over their heads. The hooded men apparently have information about the "masked man"; Bane. Once in the air the CIA agent begins the to hold hooded men out the plane asking for information about Bane and his wear a bouts. Bane reveals himself as one of the hooded men. Bane explains to the agent that the reason for allowing him to be captured was to apprehend the Dr. they now have in custody and make sure he did not spill any beans about him or his plans. The agent believes that Bane is trapped but all the while there has been a second plane hovering over the one Bane is in and men have zip lined down to the plane, sabotaged it, and recovered Bane in a way that definitely one ups the bank heist.

Afterwards there is a about a 15 to 20 sec sizzle reel that literally made me JIZZ IN MY PANTS! Which included, a Bat-plane, big fights, the tumbler, the bat-pod and also an iconic shot of Bane holding a broken Batman cowl in the rain and just throwing it away like it was garbage.

Then I JIZZED AGAIN.

The Dark Knight bank heist prologue echoed so skillfully of Michael Mann's HEAT. The precision of the position all the masked players played, the timing and betrayal, had the Joker not revealed himself at the end it could have been any other movie. When Inception came out there were many great similarities the movie had for example, The Matrix or Dark City, but none rang so true than Nolan had made his version of a James Bond movie, he continues it here with this prologue. Had Bane not revealed I would have half expected for a version of James Bond to zip down from the opposite plane.

Now most of the criticism around the interwebs is that Bane is really difficult to understand, which I must say is my only criticism but on the other end, Nolan is still editing, thank God for ADR.

While watching you can really feel like every shot and scene is their for a purpose and not just because it will "look cool". There is a method to the way Bane operates and this prologue definitely was a fantastic preview of his grand, ruthless, and brilliant villainous mind. The sizzle reel at the end really makes me want to say that Nolan will out do The Dark Knight, but even with this I want to keep my hopes at bay.

Then again if anyone can out do Nolan, its Nolan. I will be there Bat cowl on and all on July 20, 2012 when The Dark Knight Rises opens in IMAX and regular theaters.

Dueces!
StuntmanBob