The Dark Knight Rises Review

So. All good things must come to an end, and sadly now too must Nolan’s reimagining of the Goddamn Batman franchise.

Sitting as a trilogy of films which made us rethink what a caped crusader punching people in the face for justice could really be – dark, thoughtful, realistic and mature.

To summarise TDKR is a good film. A good film. It is epic in the full cinematic sense – something that you’d take for granted considering it’s a Christopher Nolan film, with A-list actors and a two hundred and fifty million dollar budget (mostly shot in crisp Imax). 

Of course you’re at a loss if you haven’t seen the first two films, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight – Begins giving a realistic depiction of Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) with the loss of his parents, leading to taking on the Batman persona to clean up Gotham City. It was mature and believable escaping all of the corny self-aware slapstick of the earlier films. And just general terribleness.

I mean... Whose idea was this?

The Dark Knight gave us a true battle between chaos and order. One of the greatest performances I’ve ever seen with Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker.

Basically, if you haven’t seen it. You have not lived. In a film sense.

"what?"

TDKR calls back to both with the return of the League of Shadows from Begins, where Wayne/Batman was mentored by Raz Al’Gul and learned to be a badass but turned against them disagreeing with their morals about killing criminals (leading to him killing all of them anyway, but… whatever.) and the death of Rachel Dawes whose cockteasing antics have left Wayne depressed and living the life of a Hermit whilst Gotham has rested in relative peace from criminal activity thanks to the ‘Dent Act’ leading to the harsh trialling and imprisonment of someone so much as farting in the direction of unlawful behaviour. The true demise of Dent has been covered up by the Batman and Commissioner Gordon which pushed through the act in his memory, a truth we see that Gordon is struggling to come to terms with. 

The real action ensues with Gotham’s new villain Bane. Played by Thomas Hardy he is a hulk of a man both vicious and ingenious leading his team of mercenaries in a plot to destroy Gotham.

The problem with being the main villain in the final leg of this trilogy is of course the comparison between Bane and his predecessor the Joker, luckily we don’t see Nolan going for more of the same by simply giving us a slightly different chaotic villain set within the similar ideals of the Joker. In fact we see the opposite. Bane is closer to Batman than is comfortable, he rules by fear and brute strength. Himself an ex member of the League of Shadows he knows Batman all too well and most importantly knows his methods. A lynchpin in the first direct fight between Bane and Batman which is gripping to say the least.

A lot of criticism has been aimed at Bane and his accent. Or more, his lack of accent - as some people have struggled to understand what he is saying through his mask. I could argue for either side – admittedly during the film I actually failed to understand some of what he said;

“Schwoon yoush shall blisargh garsgle”

"I know you're about to kill me but seriously could you repeat that?"

But I didn’t find it detrimental at all to the character. In fact it actually added. He is a mysterious force just like Batman  – well shit I wouldn’t want to fight him. Not without a Batgun or some shit. Bat-Bane-Spray anyone?

Also we see the introduction of Catwoman, she is never called Catwoman but, come on, you know who I’m talking about, she has cat ear goggle things and steals shit.

"I will straight up steal your shit and look good while doing it."

Anne Hathaway is actually a stand out actress in the film, she is feisty and sexy and all the things you’d expect Catwoman to be, she’s also a pretty grounded character despite the kicking ass and stealing diamonds portrayal. Understand the only film I’ve seen Hathaway in was The Princess Diaries, which I’d never say is terrible - although I have terrible guilt admitting I’ve watched it several times - I never thought I’d be watching her as Catwoman in a Nolan film. And being really fucking good.

Also introduced is John Blake played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt becoming a sort of double shifted side kick to both Batman and Commissioner Gordon. 

He’s an eager go getting cop which is so grounded in reality that it’s actually refreshing from the rest of the spectacle that is TDKR as he pieces together main points of the plot for us in believable circumstances.

Also my girlfriend likes him so I can't say anything bad.

Michael Caine is back as Alfred but seemingly turned up to 11 for drama and not much else. I’m used to seeing Alfred as a sort of comedic relief character with a few wise words of wisdom but in this he is either crying or getting really angry or Googling things for Batman. Which fits the story being told; he is obviously being pushed between his frustration at Batman/Bruce Wayne actions and the dedication he feels he should serve to both Wayne and his parents.

Is? Is he smiling?

The pacing is a bit out of place however. I wouldn’t say I was bored, more confused. I sat thinking wait… what’s going to happen now? So he’s in a hole? Great, what now? So they’re in a hole? Okay. Actually the more I think about it there’s a lot of shit about being trapped underground in these films. 

I get it.

Of course with any movie we can presume that the protagonist isn’t going to fail, when our protagonist is the Batman even more so, the fun of the Batman films is seeing how he overcomes these problems, hence the need for a strong villain. The characters really aren’t the problem here - it’s the set pieces and plot. In the film the Batman rises twice, leaving you wondering what the fuck was the point with the first rise? It’s a long film which isn’t something that bothers me but I definitely think either it could have been edited down either in the cutting room or way back with the script.

That is a pretty personal view however, many of my friends said they were gripped from start to finish. Which is nice for them. Dicks.

Also it all gets a bit teary at the end. Awkwardly teary.

TDKR ties the trilogy together fairly neatly, despite Nolan saying he won’t make another one he damn sure left plenty of sequel fodder. Which is odd. Either he is purposely leaving the franchise for someone else to continue or maybe Hollywood and its blank cheques may just be enough to tease him back.

I have a number of issues with TDKR which I didn’t bring up here due to the number of spoilers but I’ll follow up in another article fairly soon, but to summarise - go see the damn film.

The Goddamn Film.