Review of The Dark Knight Rises (2012) by Randall K — 21 Aug 2015

Batman is a protector and perpetuator of the status quo. He keeps throwing around arbitrary language like good and bad and innocent like they're so easily quantifiable. By contrast, the villains in Nolan's franchise, specifically the Joker and Bane, force audiences to question simple dichotomies, class and social structure. Normativity begets complacency, the latter which both 'villains' try to subvert-to their futility it seems, being that Batman always swoops in to save the day? It's clearly still necessary, because nobody is ready to see our hero defeated yet. I think? But that's what I love about these films. They raise important questions and direct them at a complacent audience, ironically.

I enjoyed Hathaway's cat woman. Even though Pfeiffer's cat woman was tremendous, she was interested in expressing repressed sexual and criminal mores and having fun- unlike Hathaway's Selina Kyle, whose intolerance for greed and hypocrisy legitimized her theft and allotted her a greater degree of purpose. I also enjoyed the emphasis on poverty, hardship, and character as it contrasts with wealth and privilege.