The Dark Knight Rises: 20 Mistakes Nolan Should Have Avoided

1. The Editing

There's no denying it: though it has some incredible moments, The Dark Knight Rises feels technically undercooked, and rather unthinkably, the chief problem of all the technical issues is the editing - something Nolan fans would scarcely imagine possible. The problem here seems to have been timing, and the itching urge to shoe-horn in as much as possible without a cost to the finer points of the narrative. In all honesty, The Dark Knight Rises could have been four hours long, and you get the feeling that if it wasn't for the assistance of the bomb and it's ticking clock, Nolan could well have gone on forever. He pulled the same trick in The Dark Knight, bringing in an enforced time-frame to wrap up the film and escalate tension just when we were all having fun spending time with the characters, and hoping it might continue. But unlike The Dark Knight, which, as I have already said was an accomplished edit, The Dark Knight Rises stumbles through expositional scenes, especially in the first third, transmitting just enough information to get by before jump-cutting away. The mark of good editing is not being able to see the transitions between shots, to imply progression without the audience being aware of the mechanics, and it just wasn't the case with The Dark Knight Rises. Hopefully that might be sorted with a Director's Cut, but it's going to have to be considerably longer to fix the issues.
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