Rajorajorajo | 16 Dec 2011 | 3,270 Views | 22 Likes | 0 Dislikes

Review: The First 6 Minutes of The Dark Knight Rises

As a new dad I haven’t been out to see many films in the theatre this past year which makes me kind of sad because I really, really miss it. While home theatre technologies have reached miraculous new heights, nothing will ever match the excitement and rush of adrenaline associated with sitting in a darkened theatre and being completely immersed in the flickering shadows dancing across the enormous screen in front of you. As a life-long lover of film I can still say that I am at my happiest when I’m watching a movie on that theatrical scale, no matter how big HDTVs are getting, and I wish I was able to do so more often because size DOES matter. At least it does to me, when it comes to moving pictures anyway.

Which is why I don’t take experiences like the one I had last night for granted... . What a treat - a midnight screening of the Brad Bird-ified new Mission Impossible movie shown in occasional IMAX huge-o-vision. Massive, sweeping 70mm+ vistas and dizzying action sequences set atop the world’s tallest building - the kind of stuff you hope to see when you go to the theatre for a film like this. Not too bad at all...

However...

As advertised, M:I4 was preceded by what ended up being the most viscerally exciting 6 minutes of cinema I’ve seen all year - the prologue of Christopher Nolan’s next film, The Dark Knight Rises. ALSO FILMED IN IMAX. Holy Moly, the level of spectacle on display in those short 6 minutes is staggering, leaving me literally gasping for air. Well, mildly gasping. Based on what I saw last night it’s clear that this one is going to blow your eyelids off.

For those who haven’t been following the production news surrounding Nolan’s film lemme get you up to speed: it allegedly takes place several years after the events of the previous film, it features a very Julie Newmar-esque Anne Hathoway as Catwoman, and the main baddie is a guy named Bane who in the comics is a huge steroid freak, and is played by chameleon Tom Hardy in the film. Besides that, not much is known, and after the 6 minute intro I saw last night I can’t say I’m any more enlightened as to what the plot of DKR will be. But I’ve got a pretty good idea of the tone and scope of the film are, and that’s left me pretty damn excited to see the rest.

Here’s what I saw:

After a short clip of Commissioner Gordon eulogizing Harvey Dent, we see a Land Rover race across a field towards a waiting plane surrounded by armed soldiers. A CIA spook greets the new arrivals: goons with guns and two hooded prisoners. They all get on the plane and it takes off which is when hell breaks loose... One of the prisoners reveals himself to be Bane who planned his capture all along it seems (in order to kidnap one of the dudes on the plane? Or something?). Everybody starts fighting and shooting each other and then - holy shit - an even BIGGER plane shows up out of nowhere, overtakes the small plane like some kind of bird of prey and before you know it, the smaller plane is ripped apart in mid air while Bane and his cronies ‘skyhook’ up to their escape plane on ropes.

The entire sequence is breathtaking; it’s beautifully shot and it often leaves you with a sense of real vertigo thanks to the scope of the action and, of course, the 70mm presentation. Like, for real... when that plane rips apart in midair revealing a dangling Bane on a rope 2500 feet above the ground, I felt some serious chills run down my spine the like of which I’ve never felt while watching any 3D movie. Nolan sure does know how to capitalize on the massive scale of the IMAX footage, which to me will always be way more engrossing than 3D technology, hands down. This guy is working with the richest, highest quality of actual film stock available today which just pops off the screen, drawing you in. Gorgeous stuff, for sure. Basically, I would have no problem handing this 6 minute The Dark Knight Rises prologue the cinematography Oscar come February.

The only drawback (and it’s actually quite a big one) to the DKR prologue is the fact that it’s kind of... impossible to understand exactly what the hell is going on. For some reason Tom Hardy’s take on Bane means that he speaks in a muffled, unintelligible voice that’s also just as gravelly as Bale’s take on Batman. This is not exaggeration: it's difficult bordering on impossible to comprehend the words that the villain in the piece is saying. That's... an issue. And since the action takes place on a plane that experiences a drop in cabin pressure, it gets real loud real quick and everyone else’s dialogue suddenly becomes hard to understand also. A guy in a body-bag appears out of nowhere from the 2nd plane only to get a weird mid-air blood transfusion. And then Bane and his henchman practically kiss at one point. I have no real clue as to what I saw and it’s squarely because I couldn’t understand a single thing that was said. Yikes...

Still, The Dark Knight Rises comes out in July which means there is potential for this issue to be addressed/fixed/improved. Unless of course, it isn’t... Nolan may leave things as they are and just say fuck it.

Regardless, it’s plain to see that we’ve got a visual spectacle to look forward to that might just set the bar on action filmmaking... DKR seems to promise absolutely stunning cinematography, bar-raising practical stunt work and visual effects that are virtually seamless in every way making it impossible to confirm whether or not Nolan's even using any CGI in the film at all. MUST BE SEEN TO BE BELIEVED! The prologue was that good.

TL:DR - Go see it, it's awesome.

- Rajo

Rajo's the Design and Content master here at thesubstream, mostly he films, edits videos but occasionally he reviews movies. For more on what's out this week, check out Mike's video reviews of Carnage and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and Matt Brown's excellent review of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

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