Christopher Nolan certainly had his work cut out for him following the unbelievable box office and critical success of “The Dark Knight” in 2008. He is also working with the pressure that three-quels– especially in the super hero genre– hardly ever work. Incredibly with “The Dark Knight Rises”, he is able to deliver a fitting, even if bloated, final act to his “Dark Knight trilogy” that is sure to set one hell of a bar for the remainder of the DC Comics family to try and live up to.
“The Dark Knight Rises” takes place eight years following the events of the second film. Gotham is seemingly free of organized crime, thanks in part to the lie created by Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) and Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman), who blamed all the wrong doings of Two Face on Batman, preserving the deceased Harvey Dent as a hero. Of course, that peace could only last for so long.
Enter the masked mad man Bane, a barely audible Tom Hardy, who leads his team of mercenaries into Gotham with the goal of destroying the city, avenging the death of Ra’s al Gul (Liam Neeson’s character from “Batman Begins”) and breaking the Batman. He has help too, in the form of the sexy Selina Kyle aka Catwoman (Anne Hathaway). Bane represents a more physical threat than Batman has ever faced. The only problem is that Wayne is beaten down from years serving as Gotham’s protector and after eight years in retirement, isn’t exactly physically ready to just jump right in when the shit hits the fan.
Joining the cast this time around is Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Gotham City cop John Blake, Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate, a Wayne Enterprises supporter. Both characters add to the mystery, especially Gordon-Levitt’s Blake, who holds a secret that should have been the introduction to the next series of films– but DC doesn’t have the stone to follow up on the promise his character suggests. Hathaway is fine as Catwoman, although her character isn’t developed enough to truly warrant her inclusion into the series this late in the game.
Nolan has done a remarkable job of creating the dark, gritty and realistic Batman that fits his vision for the character. The beauty of the series is that for the most part, you can take the cowl and cape of Batman and the ridiculous masks of the villains and you are still left with engrossing detective stories. Unfortunately, what Nolan does best is also what hurts “The Dark Knight Rises” as a comic book movie. He ignores the supernatural elements the liven up the comics in order to keep his movies firmly grounded in reality.
As good as “The Dark Knight Rises” is at times, it also suffers from several lapses in logic that neglect the intelligence of the rest of the movie. At nearly two hours and forty-five minutes is far too long. In an effort to give the movie a truly epic feel, Nolan could have easily cut about 30 minutes out of the movie and delivered a much tighter product.
“The Dark Knight Rises” is a fine ending to a terrific series of films and will make it very difficult for the next filmmaker to deliver an equal Batman movie. Even though it fails to make logical sense at times and goes on for far too long, it is the Batman movie that Nolan’s fans wanted.
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