Is it just me that thinks Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises is basically a Bond film in the Batman universe, and on a superhero scale????
With the superhero-scale comes more of a dichotomy between good and bad - or rather, with Nolan's batman series, the characters can appear morally ambiguous and yet they are still either good guys or bad guys. You could say the earlier Bond films had this same light and dark dichotomy whilst maintaining some moral ambiguity of characters - the bad guys were exaggerated and their evil manifested externally either via a scar, bionic hand, name, accent etc It has been said by many that Bane in TDKR sounds not unlike a 'Bond-villain', meaning specifically that Bane probably sounds abit like Goldfinger - indeed you could almost expect Bane to erupt saying 'I expect you to die Mr Bond'. Just look at Bane's best quotes from TDKR and they sound like a Bond villain should be saying them haha
Lest we also mention Bane's evil megalomaniacal plans that are not so different to that of the likes of Blofeld, Drax etc Bane wished to purge Gotham of it's 'sin' by blowing it the hell up. Bane even has somewhat of a makeshift underground layer that he makes for himself with his 'henchmen'- as well as co-opting gadgets of his own. For Bane read; Blofeld with more terrorist leanings, Jaws' menacing physicality, and Goldfingers' eccentricities.
Further - what some would call - more 'tenuous' links I see between TDKR and Bond; 1) Wayne has his gadgets, new ones for each movie, presented by his very own Q in the shape of god himself Morgan Freeman - including one in TDKR they should nick for the next Bond film i.e. a device that sets your leg straight if its broke lol 2) there are 2 Bond girls in a Bond film tradionally, would talia and selina kyle not count as femme fetales to rival equivicable Bond girls!? 3) Finally - there's a bomb that must be taken care of lol ala Goldfinger.
Comments
Batman universe; superhero scale... so not like Bond at all. Right.
Seriously though.. yes there are similarities. But was it intentional.. no. The 'hijacking a plane mid-air' I think was a wink from Nolan, but beyond that I think they're two distinctive franchises, with different intentions and stories.
It's also shown in the stories, Bond faces supervillains, but they're 'human' in the sense that they have flaws and are very often motivated by greed. Much like Nolan's Batman villains (except for Bane).
Nolan's Batman films and Bond - especially Dalton's and Craig's Bonds - do have a lot of similarities. I really do think it's their 'humanity'.
Dead wrong.
Really? I don't see it. I mean, of course the characters are somehow complex, but at the end they follow the areté (virtue) instead of following their passions (or hubris). For me is very clear in TDKR (by doing his duty) and Bond in QOS (by not killing Yussef). And of course, Luke Skywalker by throwing away the lightsaber when facing the Emperor!
Is that questionable for Bond or for you? Because in the moral code of Bond and MI6 I don't think they are (by the way, they are questionable for me!)
Morgan Freeman was basically Q, the plane hijacking was right out of a Bond film, etc.
But a Nolan film that is more like Bond is Inception.
And I would cry for mercy if Zimmer should ever score Bond.
\m/
I guess I also hoped others would acknowledge Nolan’s nods to Bond – whether they are intention or not, or maybe added by Nolan via inspiration and creative subconscious. I do know Nolan has said OHMSS is his favorite Bond movie - maybe the whole snow base attack sequence in Inception was somekind of subliminal ode to that? I also think there are several aspects of TDKR especially that remind me of Bond - if not in plot then in filmic direction or devices. And as I said initially - what struck me most of all was coming away thinking of Bane as sort of a Bond villain, and how cool it would be to see Bane vs Bond haha
PS
I’d also class Bond as an anti-hero – he’s portrayed as a cold killer by Fleming in my opinion, who has a love affair with women and the conquest of women, but can drop a lover easily too.
PS PS
I personally would love Zimmer to score a Bond film!
And the man has now been given "Man of Steel". I wonder what Williams will think of that?
His style of music has its place, it worked on films like Inception and some of his earlier scores are great, but thematic continuity is not his strongpoint, definitely.
Which is why, straight off the bat, I know his score will have no chance of topping Williams' original efforts for Superman. It probably won't even top Ottman's stuff for Superman Returns, which was a very underrated score.
Not bad except I think M should be played by Michael Caine or Gary Oldman. Cillian Murphy would play Q, and Marion Cotillard not Kelly Brook would be the Bond Girl. Other Bond girl that Chris Nolan may put: Anne Hathaway (The Dark Knight rises), Piper Perabo (from The Prestige).
I think the obvious choice would be Marion Cotillard. But Hathaway could work..
Yes, I was thinking of the same.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Felix Leiter.
But: Nolan's trilogy was inspired in part by James Bond, and Nolan's favourite 007-flick is OHMSS.