The Dark Knight Rises (Official Third Nolan Batman Thread)

[Beet]

Well I just saw The Dark Knight for the first time yesterday, and saw the The Dark Knight Rises today. And while they're both kind of blurring in my head right now, I'd have to say TDK was the "better" film, in that it presented more of an ethical dilemma. TDKR didn't really present the same kind of ethical problem, it seems as if instead, the loose ends from TDK were wrapped up. Second films in trilogies are often the best because they're the darkest. The writer isn't under pressure to provide a complete, satisfying ending, nor the need to introduce the characters and the world. It's the time of maximal freedom in the trilogy structure. The Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy also fits the same pattern, IMO.

[Beet]

Superhero myths definitely have a right-wing tint, in that they ask us to believe in a fantasy superman(or men, or occasionally women) to save us and protect us from evil. If anything it can even be compared to being 'saved' by Jesus. He must die so that we may live, the corrupt people do not deserve the noble hero, yet he must give everything, and so on and so on. The only exception I would say might be X-Men, because the whole humans vs. mutant dynamic they have going on there. But the traditional superheroes- Batman, Superman, and Spiderman, fall into this pattern.

In any case, after this, I can hardly see how anyone could accuse Hollywood of being uniformly liberal. This is going to be the second-highest grossing film of the year, possibly the highest grossing, and it is unambiguously right-wing. There's even an apologia for the bank bailouts in there.