Starring: Christian Bale (as Bruce Wayne/Batman), Tom Hardy (as Bane), Anne Hathaway (as Selina Kyle), Michael Caine (as Alfred),
Gary Oldman (as Commissioner Gordon), Morgan Freeman (as Lucius Fox), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (John Blake)
Director: Christopher Nolan
Studio: Warner Bros.
Genre: Action / Adventure / Comic Book
Rating: NR
“Deh-Shay, Deh-Shay, Bah Sah Rah. Bah Sah Rah.”
“What does that mean?”
"Rise."
Christopher Nolan’s final installment in the Batman Nolanverse Trilogy has come full circle with The Dark
Knight Rises. It begins eight years after the events of The Dark Knight, Bruce Wayne has hung up his
cape and hobbles around his “Fortress of Solitude” (wait… that’s the other guy) stately Wayne Manor.
Gotham City on the other hand has prospered without the Batman, even if it is all built on a lie. Bruce
Wayne content being a social recluse until a chance meeting with cat burglar Selina Kyle along with
rumblings of a new menace in the form of Bane, forces him to don the cowl once again to save Gotham
from its impending threat.
The Dark Knight Rises with a runtime of about 2 hours and 45 minutes is a lengthy, some would
say excessively prolonged movie. The film would have benefited significantly with another trip to the
editing room. It gave the impression that it could have been two separate movies, or at the very least a
two part miniseries. Yet the parts seemed like night and day when compared to each other.
“Oh, you think darkness is your ally. You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it.
I didn’t see the light until I was already a man. By then, it was nothing to me but blinding!”
The first half takes place primarily in the cover of night or below the streets of Gotham, and in the
darkness the flaws of the film are relegated to the shadows. The direction feels much more streamlined
and fluid. It moves at a steady pace presenting the characters and setting up the initial confrontation
with Bane. At this point in the movie where The Batman is broken, the script itself seemed damaged
and never fully recovers. It carries on with a noticeable limp to its storytelling. The second half is
predominantly set during the day, and in the cold light of day, the films imperfections become much
more visible.
“Theatricality and deception are powerful agents to the uninitiated. But we are initiated, aren't we?”
The cast that was brought together for The Dark Knight Rises is nothing short of an embarrassment of
riches. The acting is top notch all around considering the material they were given to work with. It’s the
new faces to the Batman Nolanverse that bring their “A” game. Anne Hathaway as Selina (don’t call her
Catwoman) Kyle, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as idealistic rookie cop John Blake and Tom Hardy as the
formidable and menacing (at least until the twist) Bane. For the Nolanverse veteran’s, Michael Caine is
the standout as Alfred. It’s just too bad he wasn’t given anything better to do than monologue, cry
and walk away.
A persistent issue I have is with the score. The first time Hans Zimmer’s score is used to focus on a
deeply emotional moment, it felt larger-than-life. Every time after that its affect was overbearing
and felt like you were being bludgeoned over the head with it.
Most of the blame has to fall on the maestro himself. Nolan fails to incorporate the twists and reveals
with the individual story pieces established earlier in the film efficiently, to give them an acceptable
payoff. He trades in his trademark stylistic realism for illogical and ridiculous and asks you to suspend
your disbelief in a way that looking back on the film doesn’t work very well. The most egregious being
when the end game is made known, it feels like it was ripped right out of the James Bond villain
handbook. The reveals offered up to the fans come off as shoehorned in consolation prizes.
”Maybe it’s time we stop trying to outsmart the Truth and let it have its day…”
I did my best to be objective going in and wanted to love the movie. I won’t say that it is an awful movie.
Even with its problems, The Dark Knight Rises proves to be a sufficient enough ending to the
Batman Nolanverse Trilogy. It is a definite cinematic experience just not as epic as I had hoped it would
be. Not the movie we deserved but maybe the movie we needed if for nothing else a little bit of closure.
Final Score – 3.25 out of 5