The Dark Knight Sags

Watching one of the enjoyably shallow entertainment gossip shows that fill the 7 O'clock hour, I was profoundly unsurprised to see the obligatory piece about how hard Anne Hathaway had to work to fit into her costume for the upcoming Batman movie. I was equally unsurprised to hear the presenter appear to mangle the English language by describing Hathaway's costume as Catwoman-esque. After all if Hathaway is playing Catwoman, presumably her costume is not "Catwoman-esque" but rather just a Catwoman costume. In a rare moment of good-nature, though, I began to wonder if I'd been too quick to dismiss the announcer.

Perhaps said announcer was sharper than I'd give them credit for and, rather than this being yet another example of TV further degrading our marvelous language, there may have been a subtle critique at work. Maybe the term "Catwoman-esque" was a deliberate albeit subtle acknowledgment that Hathaway's costume appears to signify as crappy a portrayal of Catwoman as The Dark Knight Rises in general appears to be a crappy depiction of a Batman story.

Of course, the above is almost certainly not true. Let me rephrase that, the part about the critique is probably not true. The part about Hathaway's costume and the movie in general displaying signs of great crapulence is on the money. Every arch pronouncement and underwritten line uttered through clenched teeth suggests that the makers of The Dark Knight Rises have committed the cardinal sin of filmmakers who earn critical praise for bringing artistic flair to pop-art blockbusters - they started to believe their own hype.

In truth, it was almost inevitable in the wake of the previous film in the series. Never mind that Heath Ledger's performance as a character called The Joker was actually quite boring, his sad pre-release death guaranteed that he and the movie would be deeply overrated. The Oscar nominations (and Ledger's eventual win) simply cemented the view in director Christopher Nolan's mind that he wasn't just slumming but rather turning Batman into Art (with a capital A). This opened the door to the one enemy even the dynamic duo of Batman and a talented filmmaker couldn't beat - pretension.

And even if The Dark Knight Rises ends up being much better than the footage seen so far suggests, I still think it's a very good thing that this is Nolan's last trip to Gotham City. It's time for another vision of Batman, one which recognizes that the troubled "Dark Knight" isn't the only approach to Batman. As the past two decade of animated portrayals have demonstrated, the driven and conflicted crime-fighter who'd give anything to live in a world where he wasn't necessary and the colorful cast of crazy villains can co-exist quite nicely. Looking ahead to Batman's 75th birthday in 2014, that kind of Batman movie would be a terrific birthday present for fans.