Ocean's 12 is often said to be the weakest in the series (it is generally agreed to go like this: 13, 11, with the original Sinatra 11 somewhere here, then 12), with most of the criticism being laid upon the twist, how the entire time they had already stolen the egg and were proceeding to pull the heist anyway because they knew they were under surveillance. The only reason the film was made was so the cast could hang around at George Clooney's lakeside chateau, featured in the film. Or maybe it was Brad Pitt's. But Brad Pitt doesn't really strike you as the "chateau" kind of guy. Huh. Whatever; I'll have to look it up.
Well, my dream was, in the first part, about Ocean's 12 actually having a good (if somewhat arbitrary) twist: instead of the entire thing being a charade, in this version it looks like the only way out is getting caught and jailed forever, losing their freedoms but more importantly their reputations in the process. The question posed to the audience: then why are they going ahead with the plan? The twist comes in the final third of the film, when it turns out that what was going on wasn't what the audience thought. What the audience was seeing was actually two heists being planned and carried out, one right after the other so they share thematic similarities, interspersed together not to be pretentious, the way most arbitrarily nonlinear narratives are (take it, Quentin!) but to show the similarities and differences in the uses of the same tools to pull off different heists and how inventiveness is a major part of the trade. The Twelve were thus never in any real danger, because Cherry Jones is just Matt Damon's mom (this part was in the film, which is why this hypothetical heist film is a replacement for Twelve instead of any of the others.)
On that front, the same dream also inspired me as to what cats may symbolize in Dark Knight Rises, as speculated in this post. Cats are domesticated carnivores, (domesticated in, scholars speculate, Ancient Egypt and/or surrounding locales, where they would control the pest population of local granaries. I think. (I'm digressing a bit here, but remembering that might have been part of the dream.)) Cats are domesticated carnivores who, though domesticated, sometimes still bear their claws and teeth, because they're CARNIVORES. Cats are CARNIVORES! DOMESTICATED CARNIVORES! If we had not domesticated them, they would be a major hazard and threat to the human species, (much like the situation with them in Australia is.) They are nature's perfect predator. It's... scary. Really scary.
(Seals are also carnivores, but we feel less threatened by them because awww. And because the only threat they pose is to fish. But remember that the next time you find yourself thinking about poor little cute little baby fur seals. They're meat-eaters. Not so innocent.)
The symbolism in Dark Knight Rises would (hopefully) thus be this: as all adorable and furry and stuff cats may be on the outside, underneath is a face-eating serial killer. We may have domesticated them, but their core, their essence is the killing machine. That's what the symbolism will be: how adorable kittens are all around us, their true natures unnoticed and forgotten, predators as pets. There's a façade there to make them acceptable, but their fuzziness belies stealth and their taut rippling bodies reveal the muscle tone of a killer.
Cats are the most popular pet in America, outnumbering dogs something like three to one. When the catpocalypse comes, now you'll know what we're up against. I'm not going to be the one who's first up against the wall.
Are you?
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