The Dark Knight Rises: In Support of the Nolan Method

Everyone for the last year or so has been asking whether this year would be “won” by The Avengers or The Dark Knight Rises. And while The Avengers will walk away with the box office title not just out of the two films, but for the whole year, it’s likely that most critics will ultimately side with The Dark Knight Rises, a smart and dense film by one of Hollywood’s most beloved directors.The larger question, though, as Nolan wraps his trilogy and Warner Brothers launches a DC Entertainment Universe on film leading up to their planned Justice League movie, is to what extent, if any, the Christopher Nolan method of superhero filmmaking will impact the industry moving forward. My guess? Not very much. My hope? Quite a bit.I love comics as much as the next guy, but I also love cinema and I can accept that the two media are different. There are some similarities, though, and they’re illuminating.The Marvel style of making superhero films, where everything is interconnected like the comics and nothing is ever resolved becuase they’re all part of a big corporate franchise that can never die, is a bit like the serialized, monthly comics that dominate the direct market and set the tone for the comics universes we all love. To me as a movie fan and as a reviewer, who has to think about the kind of technical details most people don’t particularly care about, the Marvel method is is not as appealing as the Nolan method of doing “his take” on a character and then moving on.