蝙蝠俠 The Dark Knight Rises! 黎明升起

The Dark Knight Rises 蝙蝠俠: 黎明昇起

BY ROGER EBERT / July 17, 2012

昏昏欲睡的週五早上，上了芝加哥太陽報Chicago Sun Times網站看了我最喜歡的影評人Roger Ebert的影評專欄，總算感覺清醒了一點。大家要知道，影評人的文字功力都十分了得，Roger Ebert之前在美國主持電影評論節目的時候，我就是忠實觀眾了，時間匆匆過了十七年，幾年前他癌病痊癒，靠著老婆的愛與先進的醫學科技活了下來。我希望Roger 繼續活著，這樣我才能一直有好影評可看。當初Roger Ebert的好搭檔Gene Siskle因病驟逝之後，我就覺得難過了好久。這兩人一搭一唱，每年在奧斯卡頒獎典禮前夕預測大獎得主，內容精采萬分。本來以為胖胖的Roger健康狀況會比較不好，沒想到Gene因病先走一步。這兩人過去主持節目時經常意見相左，看他們為自己喜歡的電影爭辯不休是我最期待的事情。英文裡面的two-thumbs up就是這兩人發明的。一部電影如果Roger跟Gene都說好，兩人都豎起大拇指，就是兩根拇指，就是好電影的最佳保證。Roger的文筆非常好，看他寫影評，經常讓我精神為之一振。

千呼萬喚使出來，鬼才導演Christopher Nolan的蝙蝠俠三部曲最終章終於登場。看過之前他執導過的電影，相信大家都對他的風格非常清楚。蝙蝠俠系列片，到了Nolan手中，早已不是復仇者聯盟那種調調。所有的超能力彷彿瞬間變成詛咒，看他的片子會覺得當一個有特異功能的人真是命苦啊。這部片同樣對人性的黑暗面，人性的貪婪無知與人類的脆弱有非常深刻的描述。按照Roger的看法，這部片唯一美中不足之處在於野心太強，導演想要處理太多的東西，以致於許多關係與前因後果交代不清楚。不過好在影片後半段漸入佳境，最後結局更是有意外轉折。

大家去電影院前不妨看看下面這篇影評，我將比較難的句型或是單字標出中文註解，希望大家多多閱讀好的文章。暑假上部落格看英文影評，也是一種edutainment. 啥是edutainment? 這個字是由education 與entertainment組合而來的，我覺得這個字最好的翻譯就是寓教於樂。

"The Dark Knight Rises" leaves the fanciful early days of the superhero genre超人系far behind, and moves into a doom-shrouded瀰漫著末日氣氛, apocalyptic future世界即將被毀滅的(完全沒有希望的未來) that seems uncomfortably close to today's headlines. (這一段影評人表示，此片跟所有之前的英雄動漫片不同，因為這是一部非常貼近現實狀況的電影。全片沒有超級英雄那種雄壯威武克敵制勝的氛圍，而是瀰漫著無助的末日氣氛) As urban terrorism都會型的恐怖攻擊 and class warfare階級的對立與爭鬥 envelop壟罩著 Gotham and its infrastructure is ripped apart整個城市的基礎正在崩壞瓦解, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) emerges reluctantly非自願的/勉強的 from years of seclusion孤立/隱居 in Wayne Manor and faces a soulless villain毫無靈魂的壞人 as powerful as he is. The film begins slowly with a murky plot黑暗與陰鬱的劇情and too many new characters, but builds to a sensational climax.精采絕倫的高潮(指非常精采的結尾). 我一直覺得Nolan片中的蝙蝠俠有點悲劇性格，是典型的A型血型英雄。自閉且壓抑，但是心地善良，不喜歡炫技，愛搞神秘，欲擒故縱但最後終將面對命運的挑戰…嗄…



The result, in Christopher Nolan's conclusion to his Batman trilogy, is an ambitious superhero movie with two surprises: It isn't very much fun, and it doesn't have very much Batman這部片有兩個特色：第一，這不是一部開心電影。第二，此片主角雖然是蝙蝠俠，但大多時候他好像是個憂鬱的天才，少了披著黑斗篷那種英雄的色彩 I'm thinking of the over-the-top action sequences of the earlier films這讓影評想起早些年那些超級動漫英雄片中，誇張且神乎其技的動作鋪陳 that had a sub-current of humor暗藏的幽默, and the exhilarating令人精神為之一振 performance of Heath Ledger 此人已故，之前在蝙蝠俠影片中扮演小丑的那個as the Joker. This movie is all serious drama這部片是很嚴肅的劇情片, with a villain named Bane whose Hannibal Lecterish face-muzzle一種蓋住口鼻的面具 robs him of personality因為劇中的壞人帶著這種面具，讓人無法看清他真正的性格(面具模糊了壞人角色的人性特質). And although we see a good deal of Bruce Wayne, his alter-ego Batman(蝙蝠俠的男主角有兩個身份，一個是低調企業家有錢人Bruce Wayne，另外一個身分是蝙蝠俠，所以Batman是他的第二個面貌alter ego) makes only a few brief appearances before the all-out climax這邊作者是說，儘管此片打的是蝙蝠俠的旗幟，可是男主角沒什麼炫技之處，所以這不是一部典型的好萊塢英雄片，導演顛覆的意味非常濃厚. (要看真正的英雄壞人對決，要耐心等到最後)

Bane, played by Tom Hardy in a performance evoking a homicidal pro wrestler壞人的外型讓人想起擁有摔角手身材的殺人魔, is a mystery because it's hard to say what motivates動機 him壞人的角色是一個謎。是什麼動機讓這個人要如此堅決地去這樣摧殘一個城市？徹底消滅人類?這個點導演模糊帶過，並沒有交代清楚He releases thousands of Gotham's criminals in a scenario resembling the storming of the Bastille壞人在片中將大批罪犯釋放出來的時候，感覺很像當年巴黎的巴士底監獄。大家曉得這個典故嗎? 1789年7月14日，法國軍隊和民眾攻陷巴士底監獄，法國大革命爆發. As they(囚犯) face off against most of the city police force in street warfare囚犯與大批警力展開街頭戰, Bane's goal seems to be the overthrow of the ruling classes片中壞人放出大量監獄囚犯的目的，在於徹底革命，打倒特權階級(腐敗的官僚與有錢人). But this would prove little if his other plan (the nuclear annihilation用核戰摧毀一切 of the city) succeeds. 最後一句話的意思是，如果最終手段是要用核武摧毀一切，那何必那麼麻煩放壞人出來亂?有點多此一舉)

壞人在片中的目的就是要徹底摧毀這個腐敗貪婪的社會，這是唯一讓權力重新洗牌的方式。所以不惜一切手段，這就是亡命之徒可怕的地方。導演設定的善惡對論也很弔詭，絕對不是黑白二分的邏輯。比方說，壞人真的很壞嗎?美國真正的恐怖份子其實哪裡是賓拉登(已經被槍決了)?真正的恐怖份子是貪婪的人類與腐敗的官僚，這兩種惡勢力才會讓人萬劫不復(以上言論是克蘿伊個人看法)

Bane stages two other sensational set pieces, involving destroying the Stock Exchange證券交易所 and blowing up a football stadium, that seemed aimed at our society's twin gods of money and pro sports這句話說得真好。讓美國人徹底淪喪墮落的兩大來源就是股票市場與足球場啊，影評人說這是the society’s twin gods太巧妙。大家要知道，股市與球賽都是對地球無益的東西，這兩件事情只會讓人變得貪婪，憤怒與變得懶惰，所以壞人想要摧毀. No attempt is made to account for Bane's funding and resources壞人哪來的資源?這邊導演沒交代, and when it finally comes down to Bane and Batman going mano-a-mano (這個字非常好，英文裡面充斥著大量的外來語言，大家要學起來，mano- a-mano源自西班牙文，是hand to hand的意思，中文意思是徒手。此字一開始用在兩個鬥牛士two matadors 為了爭取觀眾的喝彩而徒手爭鬥)during a street fight, it involves an anticlimactic fist-fight.影片則是描述了最後蝙蝠俠與壞人對決的時刻

Bane is the least charismatic of the Batman villains這次蝙蝠俠影片中的壞人，是最沒有魅力的一個, but comes close to matching Bruce Wayne and Batman in screen time但是戲份卻超多(screen time指的是出現在銀幕的時間). The film also supplies a heroic young cop (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), two potential romantic partners for Wayne, and lots of screen time for series regulars過去影片中的班底 Alfred the Butler管家 (Michael Caine,, Commissioner Gordon政府長官 (Gary Oldman) and the genius inventor Lucius Fox發明家 (Morgan Freeman)這些原班人馬也都會出現.

接下來談片中的兩名女主角
One of the women is the always enigmatic謎樣的 Catwoman (Anne Hathaway), and the other is Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard), a millionaire who may be able to rescue Wayne Enterprises after Bane's stock market mischief wipes out一掃而空 Wayne financially因為壞人毀了證券交易所，讓男主角股市中的錢都人間蒸發. Catwoman is a freelance burglar傭兵型的神偷 who's always looking out for number one只要有錢就會去犯案, and Miranda is a do-gooder environmentalist行善的環保人士(有錢有道德良心的女人); both are drawn irresistibly to 情不自禁的被…吸引Bruce, who is not only still a bachelor單身漢 but has spent the last eight years as a hermit隱居生活, walled up in Wayne Manor with the loyal Alfred. (兩個女主角簡直是天秤的兩端，個性與價值觀完全不同的女人，卻都愛上了蝙蝠俠…

All of these characters and their activities produce stretches提供了很多讓劇情發展的空間 in the first half of the film during which, frankly, I was not entirely sure who was doing what and with which and to whom角色與關係複雜到搞不清楚什麼是什麼. The movie settles in 定調for its sensational second half後半部的影片終於定調，劇情開始明朗緊湊起來, however, although not everybody will be able to precisely explain the deep stone well非常深的石井 where Bane imprisons Bruce Wayne. The circular walls of this well represent a deadly climbing wall by which anyone can try to reach freedom, but few succeed.片中的拍攝地點 The actual location is in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India印度的拉賈斯坦, and we get a glimpse of some zigzagging stairs彎彎曲曲的樓梯 that are unforgettably shown in "Baraka." (這部電影是部非常知名的紀錄片， Baraka是一個古代伊斯蘭蘇非派單詞，含義是“祝福’”)片中有個場景令人印象深刻，這個場景曾出現在過去一部知名的紀錄片中Turns out Bane was held there as a child.

This is a dark and heavy film黑暗且沉重的影片; it tests the weight a superhero movie can bear挑戰超級英雄類型電影的底限. That Nolan is able to combine civil anarchy無政府狀態, mass destruction大規模毀滅 and a Batcycle with exercise-ball tires有著球狀輪胎的蝙蝠車 is remarkable. That he does it without using 3D is admirable. That much of it was shot in the 70mm IMAX format allows it to make that giant screen its own影評人認為，導演這回沒選擇用好萊塢主流3D拍攝法，而採IMAX這個決定也是明智之舉. That it concludes the trilogy三部曲is inevitable; how much deeper can Nolan dig? It lacks the near-perfection of "The Dark Knight" (2008), it needs more clarity and a better villain, but it's an honorable finale. 作者最後表示，此片是三部曲的最終回，雖然並沒有四年前的那部蝙蝠俠黑暗騎士那麼接近完美，不過導演的企圖心、風格與敘事手法再一次獲得影評人肯定，所以結尾給了一個honorable 的形容詞，這也算是一個非常不錯的評價了。

蝙蝠俠叱吒銀幕多年，如今終於可以光榮下檔了。大家去戲院捧場，也為美好回憶畫下一個句點。