Movie Review: The Dark Knight Rises
I’ve been eagerly anticipating The Dark Knight Rises (and secretly dreading it) ever since the release of Batman Begins. The anticipation came from wanting to see what Christopher Nolan did next and the dread came from knowing this was it. Well, the time has come for the final installment in Nolan’s treatment of the Batman universe, and without spoiling anything, this Bat-geek loved it. The Dark Knight Rises isn’t perfect, but it’s a welcome addition – and ending – to the current incarnation of Batman.
Eight years after Batman takes the fall for the death of Harvey Dent, Gotham is a much safer place. Batman is seen as a criminal, and a law has been passed to keep members of organized crime in prison. In this time of peace, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) has hung up the cowl in exchange for a cane, a limp, and a self-imposed exile. A new kind of evil is lurking within the sewers of Gotham though, with the masked-terrorist Bane (Tom Hardy) at the head of the movement. Our first glimpse of Bane comes in the opening minutes of the film where we see him and his cronies hijack an airplane in mid-air and kidnap a doctor. The scene was absolutely thrilling – almost Bondesque perhaps – and delivers a sense of the menace Bane is capable of. Seeing this scene in IMAX (and the other hour of the movie Nolan filmed with IMAX film) was absolutely breathtaking. If you have a true IMAX theatre in your area (not one of those converted screens some theatres do), it’s worth seeing The Dark Knight Rises there. From the establishing shots, to the main fight sequences, every IMAX shot adds to the grandiose feel of The Dark Knight Rises. From there, Bane’s mission becomes similar to the Occupy Wall Street movement, but he takes it one step further and launches an attack on the Stock Exchange which concludes with a motorcycle chase through the streets of Gotham against a returning Batman. From there, The Dark Knight Rises begins to play with the themes of economic and social class inequality (at one point in the film, Bruce Wayne loses his entire fortune for instance), terrorism, and the more general theme of truth vs. deception (and the effects people’s lies have on themselves and others).
Going further with the plot would require me to offer up some spoilers. I went into this movie purposely avoiding anything about it because I wanted to experience it with fresh eyes, so I want to offer that same courtesy. Instead, I think it’s important to speak about the tone of this film. Of the trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises is the bleakest of the three movies. There are points in the film where I questioned if Nolan could make the situations direr, and sure enough, he did. The entire film elicits an almost uncomfortable response because for the first time, you’re not quite sure things will be okay in the end. Bane has successfully turned Gotham into a militaristic police state with his army, and the citizens of Gotham – including Batman – are virtually helpless against him. To me, the stakes felt higher in this than in the other two films, and I think that’s partly because of the way Bane is portrayed. Contrary to Joel Schumacher’s portrayal of the character, Bane is actually an incredibly intelligent and calculating adversary, and unlike Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight, who seemed to want chaos for the sake of chaos, Bane has a motive and the determination to see his goals achieved.
When I heard Bane was going to be the main villain in the movie, I have to admit that I was a bit underwhelmed. I know the importance of the Bane character to the comic’s canon, but for some reason, he just didn’t quite seem like main villain material. To be honest, I wanted the Riddler, but after seeing The Dark Knight Rises, I’m perfectly fine with Bane as the main antagonist. I was also lukewarm about Ledger as Joker, but after seeing his game-changing performance on the big screen, I have learned to trust Nolan with his casting choices. When you look at The Dark Knight Rises as a part of the larger story, Bane makes perfect sense. Also, looking at Nolan’s decision to play this whole trilogy as a superhero grounded with gritty realism, the decision to include one of the more outlandish Batman heels would be inappropriate and would do a great disservice to the complete story Nolan has woven for his audience.
Christian Bale in “The Dark Knight Rises.” © 2012 – Warner Bros. Pictures.
Joining Bale and Hardy for the fun is Anne Hathaway as Catwoman and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as an idealistic beat cop turned detective named Blake. Both offer up amazing performances. I didn’t think I would say this going into The Dark Knight Rises, but I think Anne Hathaway out-Catwomans Michelle Pfeiffer (which breaks my teenage heart to say). Her Catwoman is like a Robin Hood with attitude…and razor sharp high-heels. It’s also been fun to watch Levitt morph from the young kid in 3rd Rock from the Sun into the amazing actor he is now. Unfortunately, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, and Michael Caine have more limited roles in this film, but when they’re onscreen they shine, especially Caine.
I mentioned earlier that The Dark Knight Rises isn’t perfect, but fortunately the parts of the movie that bothered me the most are easy to overlook. For one thing, at times Bane is hard to understand, and there are one or two scenes that include Bane and Batman where between Bane’s ventilator and Batman’s gravelly tone, you’ll be lucky to catch everything they say. Also, even though it’s an amazing score, Hans Zimmer’s music becomes distracting and jarring in several scenes in the movie. Whether this was a function of the theatre’s sound system, or a decision Nolan made, it was still a distraction. Also, some folks may have a big problem with how dark and bleak this film gets, especially for a summer blockbuster. Also, as a stand-alone movie, this one could be a bit harder to digest for the casual viewer because it really serves the purpose of tying up all the loose ends Nolan has left in the first two movies (except what happened to the Joker who is completely forgotten in The Dark Knight Rises), but I’m on the side of thinking the tone, pace, and plot of the movie was the perfect ending to three of the best superhero movies ever made. I’m of the opinion that the nearly three hours of screen time aren’t wasted. In fact, I actually wanted about another 15-20 minutes more.
With Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises, Nolan took me on a wild ride with lots of twists and turns and I loved every minute of it, even though he made me get misty-eyed twice during the new movie. Batman has always held a special place in my heart, and Christopher Nolan’s trilogy is now the gold standard.
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