The Dark Knight Rises - Bomb Chase This is the Chapter that seems to hold the key to my turning on him. A CG heavy (for Nolan) storm of explosions and situations going nowhere, there's nothing here that elevates the film above most other mindless cinema garbage, making the selected screenshot indistinguishable from a Transformers film or the currently blasted DC universe.
The showdown is so dispassionate that there's not even a moment of excited anticipation when Batman and Catwoman team up to take down the bomb truck being guarded by two Camo Bat Mobiles. One fires on The Bat, but we don't see what gets hit. Batman doesn't alter his course until the missiles. There's no geography to show Catwoman closing in on the convoy. The turns with the rotating tires look CG this time, much like most of the shots with The Bat. When the truck drops to the lower road it comes as a relief to finally see some on set action again. And again, it's not like this is unusual for a superhero film, but it's extremely unusual for Christopher Nolan. Even when he goes for epic scale, he often prefers it to look real.
You can have all the debate about Bruce refusing to kill Bane because of his code, but here he opens fire on the truck, killing the driver. You can't even make an argument for him aiming in a way to not kill the driver or Miranda because it's not possible. He kills the driver and sends the truck plunging into the road below.
...oh, and this is all done with Gordon in the back of the truck, not knowing what's happening, so he's not braced for the impact of the truck falling, but he emerges unscathed. To paraphrase an internet troll, how was this all allowed to happen? What led Nolan to come up with and decide to carry out this sequence as the climax of his trilogy?
Rating: * *