In June of 2005 it had been eight years since the last Batman film had graced the screens. The previous Batman film had been Batman and Robin starring George Clooney as the caped crusader. The film currently stands at 11% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and is the reason there was an eight-year gap between films.
In 2005 in comes Christopher Nolan director of Memento, a mind bending backwards crime thriller that he wrote and directed, to rescue Batman. He removed the outlandish and ridiculous from the most recent Batman films and resurrected a character torn straight from DC’s graphic novels. Batman Begins went on to gross $379 million dollars world-wide and had two sequels that grossed 1.038 and 1.081 billion dollars and excellent reviews as well as an Academy Award for the late Heath Ledger’s performance in The Dark Knight.
Batman may save Gotham City, but there is no question Christopher Nolan saved Batman. The next question is can he save all of cinema with his new film Tenet coming out internationally on August 28th and state-side Labor Day weekend in theaters that are open. Theatre owners, movie studios and the cinema loving public certainly hope so.
For all intents and purposes 2020 has been the worst year for cinema since its inception. There has not been a wide release film in theatres since March 13th. Moviegoers who have been lucky enough to go to the cinema have been relegated to seeing older classics like Jaws, Back to the Future and Jurassic Park. If Covid-19 has calmed down some by Labor Day, can Warner Bros and Nolan excite and entice moviegoers back to the cinemas?
As mentioned in a previous article, moviegoers love to escape and whether it’s Batman, a magician (The Prestige), a thief stealing corporate secrets (Inception), or one of the greatest battles of WWII (Dunkirk), Christopher Nolan is there to bend our minds and take us on a journey. Tenet, like many of Nolan’s films is a mind-bender. We know there is a worldwide crisis, but what is Tenet and what does it mean? Christopher Nolan hopes you will want to find out in September.
Hopefully by next month audiences across the world can once again be reminded of the magic of cinema. I’ll end with a line from the new film: “All I have for you is a word: Tenet. It’ll open the right doors.” Here’s hoping it opens the doors to cinemas when it is safe again.
