10 Stupid Moments In Christopher Nolan Films

7. Bane's Mercenaries vs. Gotham PD (The Dark Knight Rises)

The Dark Knight Rises One of my biggest bugbears about the largely stellar The Dark Knight Rises is that the film so often feels like it should have been R-rated, even if it's easy to see why from a business perspective it wasn't. This is apparent no more so than in the final stand-off between Bane's mercenaries and the Gotham City Police Department's officers, who have just resurfaced from being trapped underground for several months. Largely without firearms and no doubt suffering from a severe vitamin deficiency, they nevertheless run towards the mercs at full speed, instigating what should be an epic, violent clash of two sides. However, the whole way the scene is directed makes it difficult to buy this; only the occasional police officer drops to the floor dead, while Bane's mercenaries appear to have graduated from the Stormtrooper School of Shooting, because the vast majority of their bullets seem to just ricochet off the floor. In reality, the ground battle would have been over in seconds, with Bane's men shooting dead all of the cops with total ease; instead we get this oddly neutered, bloodless showdown which just seems sort of silly in retrospect, even if the other elements of the scene - the scale, the vehicular mayhem, the bomb - all work superbly.
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Contributor

Frequently sleep-deprived film addict and video game obsessive who spends more time than is healthy in darkened London screening rooms. Follow his twitter on @ShaunMunroFilm or e-mail him at shaneo632 [at] gmail.com.