10 Harsh Truths You Don't Want To Admit About Chris Nolan's Movies

8. Action Doesn't Make Spatial Sense & Is Generically Choreographed

Despite so many of his recent movies revolving around action, Nolan's direction of set-pieces is middling at best. Unquestionably his best action-related work to date is Inception, whereby with the help of editor Lee Smith, he managed to make a surprising amount of sense out of the various events taking place in different dream layers at the same time. Nolan's Dark Knight movies feature at once his most ambitious and troublesome action sequences, usually fantastic ideas for scenes which are hamstrung somewhat by poor spatial reasoning and snappy editing. This article makes a fantastic case for how Nolan doesn't appear to follow much visuo-spatial logic when directing action scenes, instead hoping that quick cuts will mask the peculiar staging he opts for. Then there's the fight choreography, as was a frequently complained about aspect of The Dark Knight Rises: the final fight between Batman and Bane is a crude and unimaginatively-staged fight, and Nolan opts for the most simplistic framing possible, making what should be the most epic moment of the movie curiously "OK" and not much more. Of course, it's still difficult not to get swept up in the spectacle of it all (thanks to some fantastic music in particular), but a director as seemingly intelligent as Nolan should be capable of cleaner, better thought-out action.