*By the way, even though this movie has been out for a while, I'm still going to do my best to avoid spoilers. I'll be sure not to mention any major twists, plot turns, or character reveals, but based on what I write, you may or may not be able to infer some of what happens. Take that as you will. That said, I'm going to reveal major details from the previous two films.
The Dark Knight Rises takes place eight years after the events of the previous film. Shortly after Batman (Christian Bale) took the fall for Harvey Dent's aka Two-Face's crimes, he was branded a fugitive and went into exile. Dent's death (with him branded a hero) led to the passing of the Harvey Dent act, an initiative that put an end to organized crime in the city of Gotham. Police Commissioner Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) has been presiding over a mostly peaceful city, but the knowledge that the peace stems from a lie has left him troubled. Bruce Wayne, now spending most of his time secluded and holed up in Wayne Manor after giving up the Batman mantle, has grown increasingly depressed and isolated. His interests are peaked, however, when he is robbed by a mysterious cat burglar named Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway). Kyle's antics lead Wayne to pursue the mysterious woman. Meanwhile, trouble in Gotham has been brewing. A new threat to the city arrives in the form of Bane (Tom Hardy), a mask-wearing terrorist with genius-level intelligence and incredible strength. Not only is Bane arguably Gotham's most terrifying threat, but he may or may not have ties to the League of Shadows, the group of ninja assassins once led by Ra's Al Ghul that trained Bruce Wayne to become Batman. Realizing the threat imposed by Bane, Bruce Wayne once again suits up as Batman to take on his most imposing foe yet.
Right up front, I'll answer what I think of the movie. Is it as good as The Dark Knight... no. Is it as good as Batman Begins... not quite. Is it a good movie... definitely. Is it a great movie... for the most part, yes... somewhat. It definitely did not blow me away like it's predecessor managed to do, but overall I left feeling very happy over what I had watched. It's not every day that we get a third entry to a series that almost manages to live up to the films that came before it.
Let's be frank folks, making a movie is a challenge, making a sequel that lives up to the first is even more difficult, and if your sequel is able to not only repeat the success of a first entry but actually surpass it, the expectations set of the third film are damn near impossible to meet. So, the fact that the film isn't as solid as The Dark Knight doesn't really bother me that much, since the film is still pretty awesome. Ask yourselves, how many great threequels have you seen? Toy Story 3 is one, Return of the King is another, and The Good The Bad and The Ugly is pretty damn close to perfect. The Dark Knight Rises, in many ways, is very similar to Return of the Jedi. Both have a few problems and don't quite live up to their successors, but they are nonetheless very exciting movies on their own right that wraps up the story and provides a fitting end to an awesome trilogy. I mention all of this so you can keep in mind, that regardless of whatever critiques I may or may not point out, that overall I was very happy with the movie and left more than satisfied.Once again, Nolan's take on the Batman mythos scores big thanks to the efforts of an uber-talented cast. The absence of Heath Ledger's commanding presence of the Joker is sorely missed, but the rest of the cast nonetheless does a solid job elevating the movie. Christian Bale takes on the cape one last time and he still kills as The Dark Knight, despite the fact that he still hasn't let up on that scratchy Batman voice. Gary Oldman is still among the best of the ensemble as Commissioner Gordon, bringing his natural talent to a role he's clear become all to comfortable playing. Michael Caine spends a good deal of time absent from the film, though when he's on screen, his performance is arguably his best of the series, this time giving way to some real sincere emotions. Morgan Freeman can't help but do his usual good job as Lucius Fox, Wayne Enterprises CEO and Batman's personal armorer. I also have to mention that Cillian Murphy makes a cameo as Jonathan Crane aka The Scarecrow, that was pretty neat. There's really not much more I can say about the returning cast members that I haven't mentioned already in the previous reviews. They're all great, what more can I say?
The newcomers are all pretty awesome too! The standout is hands down Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle aka Catwoman (okay, she's never actually called Catwoman on screen, but I don't care... SHE'S CATWOMAN DAMMIT!). Her character is a total cipher, and Hathaway really does keep you guessing. That's the interesting thing about the character, in previous incarnations she's been portrayed as a villain, hero, anti-hero, and everything in between. I won't spoil exactly how she's portrayed here, but I will say that Hathaway's natural talent made her hell of a lot of fun to watch.
Joseph Gordon Levitt is another standout as a rookie cop named John Blake. He's a young recruit with an idealistic mind similar to the optimistic nature of Wayne and Gordon prior to the events of The Dark Knight. Levitt is a solid actor whose quickly climbing the ladder of super stardom, and I imagine this film might help that. Marion Cotillard stars as Miranda Tate, a Wayne Enterprises board member and friend to Bruce Wayne. I've only seen a few things starring Cotillard, but every time I've seen her, I've always been impressed by her acting ability, and I dug her performance here too. Finally, we come to Tom Hardy as Bane. Now, there's actually a lot I have to say about the character here, but a lot of that will come later when I discuss the script. Tom Hardy himself took on a very challenging role, acting as a character who wears a mask for the whole film is not easy. That said, Hardy has a very commanding presence as Bane, acting mostly with just his eyes. He's a very threatening villain, to say the least, and for the most part is kind of compelling. I admit it's kind of weird to have this giant brute speaking with this Irish/Welsh sounding accent. It actually reminded me a bit of Gert Fröbe's voice from Goldfinger. It was strange I admit, but to be honest, I kind of dug it. I can't really explain why, but it was just different, and for that I was interested. So yeah, no Heath Ledger caliber performances, but the cast did a commendable job and made the movie work.The story for this movie is easily the series' most ambitious attempt and also the most flawed. The film runs at 2 hours and 45 minutes, making it the longest film in the Batman film series. That certainly gives it something of an epic feel, but unfortunately, that extended runtime might have been a little more than the filmmakers should have taken, as the film suffers from some noticeable narrative and pacing issues. Most of the time, something interesting or engaging is happening, but there are more than a few spots where the story just drags. There are a few scenes involving the stock market and the class discrepancies of Gotham's citizens that feel like were attempts to include some current event subtext to the movie.
The ideas are interesting, but none really feel completely relevant to the main plot, nor do they give the movie any significant weight. Say what you will about the previous movies, but while those didn't have particularly poignant stories, they nonetheless included some interesting tidbits and themes that felt relevant to the main plots at hand. Here, the hinted subplots feel like the writers needing to cram in some relevant socio-political subtext that feels fairly out of place to the plot at hand. They didn't take away too much from the film itself, but just kind felt irrelevant. It also doesn't help that the film has a few minor gaps in logic and a few near-gaping plot holes that either don't gel with the gritty realism aesthetic that's driven this trilogy or just leaves you saying, "Wait, that doesn't make sense." To reveal which scenes I'm speaking about and how they play out would be revealing some spoilers, but you'll probably know most of them when you see the movie.The main plot, when it's not branching out to include it's half-assed attempt at social commentary, is mostly quite good. The main plot is centered around Wayne attempting to once again get back into the swing of things as The Caped Crusader. He still feels guilty over his failure with Harvey Dent and how Gotham's salvation came at the cost of a lie. Seeing him fight through that guilt, plus his attempts to overcome the physical and mental challenges put upon him keep the movie interesting. The strong hero/villain dynamic and interactions between Batman and the Joker from the last film are sorely missed, here replaced by a rather underwhelming dynamic between him and Bane. The latter poses a great physical challenge and even with an element of their past the two have in common, they're rivalry feels more on the nose rather than dynamic. It's not terrible, don't get me wrong, but I was hoping for more. Fortunately, the scenes between Bruce and Selina give the script a bit of an edge. It's certainly a more character driven script, for Bruce at least, so for that I give props.
The character of Bane is kind of an interesting one to analyze. While I already mentioned that Tom Hardy did a solid job playing the character, the way which the villain was portrayed was not what I expected. He barely shares a resemblance to his comic book counterpart, though seeing as most of the trilogy's villains haven taken considerable liberties with the source material, that's hardly a surprise. On the surface, he's a cool character... super strong and extremely intelligent, and arguably The Caped Crusader's most challenging foe so far. Beneath the surface, however, there's just not too much to his character.
Let's compare Bane to the two previous villains. Ra's Al Ghul was a well-intentioned psychopath, despite having a hatred for criminals and corruption, his methods were flat out evil, and even with his good ideals he was really just as evil as the people he was fighting against. That's pretty interesting, and it poses some questions for thought, when does one's actions, whether of good or evil intentions, cross a line into evil in itself? The Joker was an antithesis to Batman, who not only matched Batman in wit and theatricality but proved that such chaotic acts have equally strong opposite effects. Bane feels like the leftovers of those two villains. A formidable foe for sure, but beneath the muscles, he's just a vengeful psychopathic mastermind... cool but not as interesting. The story overall is well intentioned and benefits from some good ideas and mostly good characters, but it just can't support it's ambitious as well as it clearly wanted to. I'll also throw this out, the film is chock full of little tidbits, throwbacks, and references to some of Batman's most notable comic moments that made my inner geek very happy.I've spent so much time bashing the script that you probably think I disliked the movie, but that's not true. Christopher Nolan's spot on direction continues to serve this series well. The movie, once again, looks fantastic. The gorgeous camerawork, incredible action scenes, and Oscar-worthy editing and sound design make for a movie that's all but guaranteed to entertain. It was cool to see Batman take to the air in the Batwing (well, in this film it was called just "The Bat," but I'm calling it the Batwing instead because it sounds much cooler), and show off some sweet aerial battles and stunts. Once again, I have to give props to the filmmakers of this series for finding a near-perfect balance of real stunts and cgi. With so many cgi-laden films overflowing the Hollywood blockbusters these days, Nolan's Batman utilizes real effects when it can to create some eye-popping action scenes and using cgi only when necessary. At the very least, the film looks great, has some awesome action, and is overall a hell of a lot of fun to watch.
So yeah, that's The Dark Knight Rises, the final installment in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy. While it doesn't quite live up to the previous flicks, it nonetheless ends the series on a more than satisfying note and is about everything you could want in an awesome summer blockbuster. If you, by some chance, haven't seen this movie, definitely check it out!
My Score: 4 out of 5!
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