The Dark Knight Rises. Camera Too Heavy?

[Jeffrey T. Morgan]

So... Impossibly huge Batman fan here. My camera's name shirked the tradition of having a womans name, I called it The Dark Knight. Why? Because Batman is f*cking awesome.

So the new movie is out, I saw it, I enjoyed my time, and am also very glad Nolan is (supposedly) done. I think Harry Knowles did a great job with his critique on AintItCool.com, and I will leave all the story and tone parts to him. But here I want to pose a question to you all about visuals.

How lazy was the shooting in Dark Knight Rises!?

There is so little coverage, so few engaging shots, such lazy uninspired choreography, such passe terrorism ( I know, a couple cool moments. But a couple in a $250 million movie is lame. ) I think there are a few factors, but I think it really FEELS like a 100 lb IMAX camera, while producing arguably the prettiest footage possible, might have been a part of the equation for lazy shooting.

I mean, tell me one great reveal shot in the whole movie? Where was the great moving reveal of Batman, Catwoman, The Bat (the flying machine), Gotham, or almost anything!? Any tracking shot of battles? a great big "not really there".

Thoughts?

[Gavin Greenwalt]

Nolan is a great director. Nolan's fight and action choreography though has always been abysmal. Go back and watch Batman Begins. The fight scenes are laughable. He made Batman an engaging and interesting story--but never really seemed to be interested or comfortable framing martial arts.

[Bob Gundu]

Please tell me you saw it IMAX? Also, I was actually very satisfied with the camera work. I felt the shots were very well composed. I would hardly call any of those shots Lazy. I witnessed someone in control of the camera.

[Jason Murphy]

Less camera movement because of large heavy cameras != lazy filmmaking.

Still, the movie didn't do all that much for me besides the IMAX cinematography. Seriously, 15-perf IMAX made the anamorphic 35mm look just terrible by comparison.

[BigLu]

One great factor to why the EPIC DRAGON will become such a well accepted and appreciated camera sensor combination.
The POWER OF IMAX in the Palm of you hand.

LUIS

[Sergio Perez]

Epic Dragon...I like the sound of that!

[Brad Webb]

Yeah I really hate it when the camera doesn't jerk around all crazy during action scenes so I can't see anything.

I don't think anything about TDKR is lazy. This is Christopher Nolan you're talking about, not Brett Ratner.

[Jeffrey T. Morgan]

I totally agree that the images, as stills, were beautiful. What was missing was the motion of the motion picture, for me.

Staging fights where two people basically take turns hitting each other is tiresome.

But really, trying to keep this beyond the way I FEEL it should be shot, it seemed like basic cinema language was being ignored. This was starting to feel a little bit like a Woody Allen flick in that you set one pretty frame and let things happen inside for as long as possible. All fine and good for a stage-like experience, but Batman?

This is kind of the inverse Michael Bay, Transformers 3 effect. I thought shooting 3D finally slowed Bay down enough to compose beautiful shots with great editing / pacing in the 3rd Transformers. Still didn't save the story, lol.




I guess overall I feel there is an overwhelming coldness to Nolans work. Like he has to fight himself really hard to put any truly meaningful moments of human emotion. Look at the first movie when his parents die. That is such a neutered scene, and it is literally the single motivation for the characters entire life!




That is why I started this talk, because people are all over the map on this movie, and I find intelligent discourse entertaining, especially re: Batman. :-)

[Jeffrey T. Morgan]

Imax is amazing, and the Bank Robbery scene that opens The Dark Knight is amazingly crafted. This movie just had so little of that grandeur.

[Jeffrey T. Morgan]

I wonder why the action was so satisfying in Inception, but not TDKR?