The Dark Knight Rises: 10 Ways It Didn’t Live Up To The Hype

By Stuart W. Bedford /

8. Clumsy Exposition

For a film that has such prestige behind it, that a world of critics has deemed is worth a near perfect 9.2 IMDb rating, I shouldn€™t realise that I€™m being given information about the back-story; it should be expertly and stealthily snuck into the imagery as if it were Batman himself. That€™s often so far from the case in TDKR that Nolan would practically just as well have imposed a subtitle reading €˜*Catwoman is looking for a computer programme that will erase her criminal record€™ rather than his chosen method of having a no-name character describe it to her in illusion-shattering detail. Don€™t get me wrong, when TDKR works, it works. But I€™ve heard it described as outstanding, incredible and even flawless. That is most definitely not the case, and the clumsy way in which new details are established and details from The Dark Knight are re-established throughout TDKR€™s opening act is simply one of the scraps of evidence.