[FILM ANALYSIS] The Dark Knight Rises (opening scene)

Analyse how the opening of The Dark Knight Rises establishes Superhero action-thriller genre conventions and reaches the target audience through technical codes, characterisation and narrative.

"The Dark Knight Rises" is a superhero action/thriller film, directed by Christopher Nolan. It is the third film in the Nolan Batman trilogy, and tells the story of Bruce Wayne, a masked vigilante who fights crime under the moniker of Batman, faces off against masked villain Bane, who tries to destroy the fictional city of Gotham in order to complete the work of the villain from Batman Begins, Ra's al Ghoul. The film had an estimated budget of $250,000,000, and has been nominated for a number of film awards.

The opening of the film "The Dark Knight Rises" makes use of a number of classic conventions of superhero action/thriller movies, through different movie techniques.

THEMES

Films such as The Dark Knight Rises always have a theme of good and evil, and the balance between the two. This is shown in The Dark Knight Rises through the characters of Batman, Commissioner Gordon and Bane. Occasionally in superhero movies, there will also be a theme of romance, with the main protagonist finding a love interest during the film. This is present in The Dark Knight Rises, as well as the Nolan Batman trilogy, through the characters of Rachel Dawes (Batman Begins, the Dark Knight) and Selina Kyle/Catwoman (The Dark Knight Rises).

Throughout The Dark Knight Rises, there is also the idea of the superhero (Batman) being faced with a race against time to save the city, which is common in other Superhero films such as the earlier Nolan Batman movies and the Spiderman trilogy. This theme adds tension to the film through the idea that the protagonist does not have a lot of time to save the city, adding to the thrill of the film.

MISE-EN-SCENE

Costumes play a large role in superhero films. For example, most characters are seen wearing some sort of facial accessory, such as a mask or glasses. These could mean different things; Commissioner Gordon's glasses could represent his dependence on others, as he requires the glasses to see, while Batman's mask allows him to hide his true identity. The use of the colour black in the costumes of Batman and Catwoman, as well as Selina Kyle's ordinary clothes, also suggest the desire of the characters to go unnoticed.

Use of props throughout the film are also important; during one of the opening scenes, Selina Kyle breaks into Wayne Manor and steals Bruce Wayne's mother's pearl necklace. The necklace represents his attachment to his parents and shows his sadness over their death. A photo of Rachel Dawes - who died in the previous movie - again showing his attachment to another character from the series.

The locations and sets from The Dark Knight Rises also play a key role. The opening scene takes place on an aircraft carrying prisoners, before moving to Wayne Manor. However, a majority of the movie takes place in the fictional city of Gotham, in locations such as a football field (shown left). Each of these locations are quite large, epic locations, with lots of action. This is necessary for a superhero film, as space is needed to have large fight scenes and action sequences, which are common in superhero films.

CAMERAS AND EDITING

The opening titles for The Dark Knight Rises shows the Batman logo made from CGI effects to look like cracked glass or ice (shown below). This scene has made use of CGI (computer generated imagery) in order to create this effect.  This same method was used in the other films in the Nolan Batman trilogy as well, with a short CGI clip showing the Batman logo before going straight into the film.

The film makes use of CGI in some of the action scenes in the film itself. However, Christoper Nolan prefers to use live-action stunts and special effects over CGI effects, meaning these are used more frequently in the film. Both CGI and live-action special effects are key factors of thriller and superhero films, although these vary depending on the film and producer. For example, The Dark Knight Rises uses live-action stunts, but Marvel's The Avengers uses mostly CGI effects as most of the events and characters are impossible to do in real life.

AUDIO

The main theme song for The Dark Knight Rises makes use of orchestral instruments such as string and brass, which play a very dark-sounding theme. The theme has a pounding drumbeat in the background, and a lot of use of snares and trumpets are used, giving the song a military feel. This is common in thriller films, as it shows the conflict in the film.

The soundtrack in The Dark Knight Rises also has a returning musical motif that plays repeatedly throughout the soundtrack. The musical motif used here is the chant "deshi deshi  basara basara" and the rhythm from the chant. The rhythm is present in most songs, with the chant itself also appearing commonly.

CONCLUSION
Films from the Action-Thriller genre, such as Superhero films, make use of different film techniques to thrill the viewer and keep the tension high throughout the film. They may make use of other features such as comedy or romance, but the underlying theme of the film will always have some sort of danger for the main protagonist to stop, making "The Dark Knight Rises" - and the Nolan Batman trilogy in general - a key example of the conventions of an Action-Thriller film.