The Legend Ends with Christopher Nolan's conclusion to the 7 year long, highly acclaimed trilogy. So is this a rise for Batman or must he learn yet again Why we fall?
Starring: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Gary Oldman,
Written by: David S. Goyer, Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan
Music by: Hans Zimmer
What started in 2005 with Batman Begins continued in the Oscar winning and highly acclaimed The Dark Knight (2008). But now Christopher Nolan is ending his Batman trilogy seven years later to let a reboot with a new director with fresh ideas handle the iconic detective. The Dark Knight Rises has a lot of pressure to not only bring the series to a satisfying close, but to top possibly the best comic book movie ever made, The Dark Knight.
The film takes place 8 years after Batman's exile and Harvey Dent's killing spree, and while organized crime is unheard of and Gotham is a peaceful place, Bruce Wayne (Bale) has become a recluse, as he is trying to get over Rachel's death and come back to the real world. But it becomes harder for Bruce to let go of the cape with the arrival of jewel thief, Selina Kyle (Hathaway) and the masked terrorist, Bane (Hardy) who has come to full-fill the "destiny" of Ra's Al Ghul in Begins.
The film's script has drawn away from The Dark Knight's really simple script that made the film so effective. And has now gone for a script that has lots of twists and turns. While most of the time, the twists work, but the other half draw in more questions than answers. But one of them involving John Blake (Gordon-Levitt) and Wayne brings such a lack of believability, that will have audiences wondering if this is the same world that was brilliantly introduced in Begins and Dark Knight.
Christian Bale gives the best Bruce Wayne performance, but not the best Batman one, Michael Caine keeps you emotionally attached with his heart-breaking delivery. Tom Hardy gives a lot of emotion just through his eyes, although his voice isn't very intimidating, it does feel like a teacher which gives it more of a unique approach, Anne Hathaway gives the strongest female performance in the trilogy, her switch from very distraught to seductive was Oscar worthy.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard both turn in okay performances, but there twists over-shadow their actual acting talents. Gary Oldman captures the "8 years later" feel amazingly, Morgan Freeman replaces Alfred (Caine) as the resourceful one.
Christopher Nolan shoots the action incredibly well, although the lighting is exceptional, the cinematography lacks any memorable set pieces apart from the pit which is deliberately reminiscent of the well in the first film. The Dark Knight Rises is the longest Batman film standing at 165 minutes, but as it flies by an extra 30 minutes should've been paying attention to Bruce's time in the pit so that we had the feel of his 5 month mental journey.
But one of the more successful themes takes place in the pit when a fellow blind prisoner says when you have the fear of death, you have something to survive for and it's an incredible thing that if the movie had more moments like these, then it would've topped The Dark Knight, because when you have fear you want to get over that fear, so without fear, you have nothing to build towards.
While Rises fails to top Begins and Rises, it succeeds in bringing the greatest super-hero series to a close and makes a successful point of how to move on from dramatic events and that with the right motivation, you can change the world. While Christopher Nolan didn't do what most people would've wanted after a 4 year wait, he didn't make the whole film just explosions.
I'm Giving The Dark Knight Rises 8/10
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