Kyle Evan Reviews

I won’t lie I was skeptical going in purely because of all of the talk this film had when it came out and still has today and now that I’ve seen it, I completely get it  because this thing is confusing as hell. Time travel on its own is already a mind bender but give it to Nolan and this is what you get, something that comes across as ambitious but ultimately lacks any point whatsoever other than to give you a lots of amazing moments full of spectacle. That sounds incredibly harsh but I found this film so frustrating on so many levels, yes it’s a cool idea but beyond that there isn’t really anything worth exploring. I think this might be Nolan’s worst script tbh, every line feels like exposition and like it’s trying to explain itself away but never actually ends up achieving it. The characters aren’t characters, they’re more like hollow devices to get the film in motion and the plot itself is so demanding of a rewatch that it’s almost impossible to even get a grasp on it the first time around. It has entertaining sequences, sure. The hand to hand combat and overall action is very exciting and really cool to see how they achieved certain things but that’s it. It’s just mind bending action for the sake of being mind bending action other than giving us some great visuals, it really hasn’t got anything to offer. I respect the ambition, I really do but this film highlights pretty much every complaint I’ve had with his films up until this point. It’s nowhere close to being considered “bad” Nolan is too good of a filmmaker for that but he got lost in the sauce here, big time. Maybe I’m just a idiot who didn’t get it, but this just wasn’t it imo

Fuck, dude. Where do you even begin with a film like this. The whole thing is just a masterclass in storytelling, from the directing, the writing, the editing, the acting. I could go on. The whole thing feels like one whole 3 hour sequence, not separate scenes that make up an entire film and it is absolutely mesmerising while also being deeply existential and thought provoking. This is my 2nd time watching it now and I think I came away even more affected than I did the first time. This is Nolan’s best film and it’s not even close, it’s a culmination of everything he’s experimented with in non linear storytelling that feels like it’s at his peak while also being a deep, heavy and almost unsettling character study on one of the most interesting and complex people who’s ever lived and I think that’s what separates this so much for me from Nolan’s other work, it really dives into the mind of a character until it’s completely picked apart and yet even with doing that it still feels impossible to understand completely. Loud ass movie too lol I remember when I was working in a cinema when this came out and during the scene where they drop the bomb it literally blew out one of our speakers 🤣. Even though this is a film with dudes just talking physics, it is filmed in a way that feels like action scenes and it is so anxiety inducing. This is also what feels like Cillian Murphy’s definitive performance, he is giving such a complex performance with unlimited range and emotion and he manages to humanise someone who feels so out of reach to understand. Nolan has never made something that feels both so thematically and emotionally rich while also being absolutely glorious to look at. It’s his masterpiece and it’s the film that made me fall in love with him as a filmmaker. Perfection.

I would actually consider this a solid remake. It’s definitely stronger in its first half when it’s setting everything up but even with its weaker second half I still had fun with this. It does lean very hard on its CGI which is to be expected from a film from this era, but at the same time I would’ve loved to see at least a few things practical just because how good the originals was. It does set the whole thing up in a way that feels fresh but does slowly fall into being a shot for shot remake that isn’t as exciting as it’s original, BUT when you’ve got someone like Colin Farrell playing your main vampire it is pretty hard not to be invested because he is so good at it. He’s campy, sinister and charismatic. He just seems like he’s having the time of his life lol. David Tennant too, ridiculous as he was he was so much fun to watch. I’m ngl I wouldn’t argue my case that strongly if someone said this was bad, but I had fun with it and it’s definitely better than a lot of horror remakes that I’ve seen. It’s bloody, silly and fun, which is everything the original is to me. So in that regard I reckon they did a good job. I liked this.

Following something like the Dark Knight was always going to be a challenge, while this is a good film and is far from bad it has its issues that make it the obvious candidate for the worst in the trilogy. The story is epic and large scale but it is quite disjointed and feels very stitched together and I can’t help but feel like there were too many ideas thrown into this. Not bad ideas just too much to make the whole thing work as best as it could. It feels very muddled. Which is a shame because with the previous two even if I didn’t like everything they were doing, there was a very clear focus on what they were. This is just trying to hard to be a finale and not everything sticks unfortunately. That said, this is a Nolan film so there are some absolutely amazing moments that can trump 90% of blockbusters, there is just so much in between that it feels like it loses itself. Tom Hardy is great with what he does as Bane but I’m not totally convinced on certain choices for his character, the voice being a pretty big one. Idk if it was the right choice and can come off campy, which I assume is the opposite effect it was supposed to have. He had some amazing moments and his character isn’t really the issue it’s just he wasn’t imposing as the film thought he was because of the voice, it lets down some standout moments for me. Even though I’ve just listed all of those things and you may assume I think this is a terrible movie, this still has loads going for it, it unfortunately does have quite a bit going in the other direction too. It’s a movie with some phenomenal moments, a little bit of a mess but still a good film. Just would’ve been better if we had something more consistent.