Am I the only one who began to hum the oh-so-catchy Parks and Recreations ditty when Bruce Wayne…well…fell into a pit? Because he stayed in that pit for a long time. Would this pit—an obvious allusion to the earlier childhood pit and his current depressive abyss—transform Batman (I’m sorry, “The Batman”) from a super strong masculine fighter into a fresh brand of cerebral hero? Now, I realize Batman has never had super powers and has always relied on his toys, but his powerful male body has also always been his primary tool. But I sensed a change. Hobbling around his mansion in a bathrobe and getting physically bested by—horrors!—a skinny woman, this Bruce Wayne hinted that Nolan was, for once, creating stakes in a superhero film by suggesting that continually bruising and battering a man’s body could have an effect not just on his morose soul but also on his knees.
Next, he loses all his money. This manufactured plot point is even less believable than the whole sun-setting issue. Bane is holding the stock exchange hostage during the day (i.e., before 4 pm), yet he is then chased (maybe thirty minutes later) in total darkness. Holy daylight saving time, Batman! More to the point, you can’t trade away your entire company by pushing one button; Nolan seriously needs to hire a consultant who has read The Wall Street Journal at least once. If one is willing to dismiss reality (this is a comic book film after all), then you are left to ponder the more interesting question of whether this aging, physically damaged, and semi-impoverished (if you don’t count that mansion and BatJet) Batman could defeat the forces of chaos as a broken man. But then he fell in the pit. Continue reading ““When I Fell in the Pit””