Review: The Dark Knight Rises

Premise

Eight years have passed since The Joker spread anarchy and terror across Gotham. Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) has retired from being Batman, living as a hermit in his mansion, nearly crippled from his days as a crime-fighter. The city is free of organised crime thanks to the "Dent Act", named after Harvey Dent/Two-Face, the deceased District Attorney. Batman is seen as a murderous vigilante by the people of the city, a lie which is begrudgingly kept alive by Police Commissioner Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman). Whilst Bruce is helped by his faithful butler, Alfred (Michael Caine), his business is undergoing changes thanks to mysterious entrepreneur, Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard). However, after an encounter with a thief named Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) and hearing of the arrival of the beast-like mercenary, Bane (Tom Hardy), in Gotham City, Bruce once again dons the cape and cowl to become the hero Gotham both needs and deserves. With the help of young beat cop, John Blake (Joseph Gordon Levitt) and the trustworthy President of Wayne Enterprises, Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), can Batman bring an end to Bane's destructive plans?

The Good

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Wow

Maybe I should actually write something here...

....

Wow

Okay, so it's good. Really good. Like, ridiculously good. Let's not beat around the bush. Everyone wondered which would be better, The Dark Knight Rises or The Avengers. I say this with no reservations (and I'm not being biased, read my Avengers review); This film blows every other film of 2012 out of the water. We've got a strong storyline, once again written by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer, with Jonathan Nolan working with his brother on the screenplay, giving us some extremely memorable lines (some that, in my opinion, rival some of Jokers dialogue in The Dark Knight). The cast is fantastic, as usual. I've never really had a problem with Bale as Batman. The voice has always been a source of controversy between fans of the series. Personally, I find it appropriate. I understand why people dislike it, but take a look at this:

Really? The guy in the bat costume is out of his mind? Y'THINK?

In some comics and graphic novels, it's been described as a low growl, almost a whisper. Bale has utilized the growl and the bad Eastwood impersonation, and I, for one, think it works. One of my problems with the Burton/Schumacher series (other than, you know, all of the films existing) is that Batman always spoke with Bruce Wayne's voice. Sure, it was maybe a semi-tone lower or it was hushed, but there was no effort to disguise it. Wouldn't someone eventually think "This guy hanging me off this roof upside-down sure sounds like that famous billionaire I've seen on TV"? Anyway, we're off topic here!

Anne Hathaway and Tom Hardy are the two newcomers in costume, so let's talk about them for a while, before moving on to Joseph Gordon Levitt and Marion Cotillard. Remember when Heath Ledger was announced as The Joker? I do. Well, apparently none of the fucking idiots who argued against his casting learned their lesson when he did a spectacular job. So this time, they singled out Anne Hathaway. I've seen it all in the past year. That she's a talentless bitch, how did she become an actress, she's ugly, she's shit, she's generally a terrible person all round. I, of course, ignored this nonsense, because the internet is full of idiots (Just put that there for good measure). If anyone said to me now, after seeing this film, that Anne Hathaway was a terrible Catwoman, I would happily curb-stomp them until they saw sense. Her performance was better than any attempt at the character I have ever seen. This technically isn't difficult, since 1. Saying "purrrrrrfect" doesn't make a good Catwoman, 2. Being killed, then brought back to life by cats doesn't make a good Catwoman, and 3. Being Halle Berry doesn't make a good Catwoman. As such, it should be noted here that Miss Hathaway stole the show. Ironic, no? (She's a thief in the film....so...so she stole...AH, forget it!)

*Insert cat related pun here*

Now, Tom Hardy. He play's Bane, though honestly, you wouldn't know by watching the film that it was Tom Hardy. Yeah, he's behind a mask, but so are most actors in this genre of film. What is amazing, though, is that Hardy is able to act purely by showing emotion through his eyes. I know this sounds simple, but it's really a sight to behold. I doubt many actors could do it as well as he did. Hardy disappears into this role, just as scarily as Heath did with The Joker. However, this is the only similarity between the two characters. Whilst Joker gave us anarchy and destruction worsened by his unpredictable nature, Bane gives us cold, calculated plans, backed up by brute force and fearsome power. This is the ultimate challenge for the Batman we've grown accustomed to for Nolan's last two films. When it comes down to it, Batman's foes have been schemers (even if Joker didn't want to admit it). They were good at throwing together a plan, and yet they were equally good at taking a good right hook to the jaw. This is not the case for Bane. The mask he wears is constantly pumping anaesthetic gas into his system to hold back pain from an injury he received prior to the events of the film. Unfortunately, this means the guy could, hypothetically, take a bus to the face and still keep fighting. Assuming his face hasn't sort of caved in or anything. Fights between Bane and Batman are brutal, leaving me breathless both times I saw it.

Now the voice. Yes, yes, yes, there's been some complaining about the voice. Some say they can't hear it, some say they can hear it just fine. I fit into the latter group of people. His voice came through clear as day, having been enhanced in post-production. Amazingly, I have read a number of reviews complaining that due to the enhancement, his voice sounds out of place, which brings me to ask "WHAT DO YOU PEOPLE WANT?" I mean, come on, you can't hear him, so you complain. Then they fix it. Oh, it's too out of place now, so you complain!

...

Anyway, there is no problem with the voice. I understood everything, which is lucky really, since Bane has some of the best and most intimidating lines of the trilogy.

It's like Trading Places, but with less Eddie Murphy, and more death

Joseph Gordon Levitt, playing new cop on the block, John Blake, is a welcome new addition to the franchise. Blake has the idealism that Bruce had when he first put on his cape and growled "Rargh, I'm Batman" into his mirror. This is an important part of the characters story, particularly after Bane put his plan into effect. Marion Cotillard is another new addition to the series, as Miranda Tate, a board member at Wayne Enterprises. Her character is responsible for funding a (now defunct) Wayne Enterprises fusion reactor project, one which would create a clean, renewable energy source. For reasons unknown at the start of the film, Bruce has cancelled the project. Miranda becomes important to the business when Wayne is the victim of fraud and loses his position at the company, and becomes even MORE important later in the film, but I won't say why, even though anyone reading this is probably aware of what happens.

One picture. Both characters. Thanks internet!

Of course, we have our usual gang of father figures, such as Michael Caine playing Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce's butler, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, President of Wayne Enterprises and creator of all of Batman's wonderful toys and last, but not least, Gary Oldman as Commissioner James Gordon, the one man in Gotham who still doesn't know who Batman is. You can expect the usual from each of these characters as before. Alfred provides the heart, talking to Bruce about moving on from being Batman and living his life, Lucius offers tactical advice and offers business information and Gordon provides a much needed ally for Batman and a leader for the resistance against Bane. All three of them are brilliant as usual.

I had to make this one myself. Fuck you internet!

The Bad

Alright, I do have a couple of issues with what could have been a perfect end to the trilogy. The opening twenty or thirty minutes feels unnecessarily rushed. If Nolan is okay with giving us nearly three hours of film, he could spend more than half an hour on development. It's great beyond that point, but the audience is sort of thrown in the deep end. I managed to comprehend most of it as I'm familiar with the comics, the characters, so on, so forth. I do feel bad for anyone that's going in nearly blind, having only seen the Tim Burton/Joel Schumacher films and the first two Nolan films.

Pictured: A haunted AND cursed virus on humanity

Due to the rushed opening thirty minutes, characters like Miranda Tate have little to no purpose. Speaking of Miranda in particular, there's a scene where she and Bruce kiss and have sex after she comes to meet him at his home. If there had been some build up to this as a relationship, then I'd have no problem, but there was literally no build up. They meet once at a party, then once more at another location that contains a fucking huge spoiler, so I won't say anything about it. That's two meetings. TWO. It's not like they were drunk and 16 years old!

I'd also like to throw in that I loathe that there is no mention whatsoever of The Joker. None. I mean, okay, I don't want a cameo, but what's so wrong about, say, having a scene where Bane has the option to release him upon Gotham and declines, knowing what he's capable of. Damn it Nolan! DAMN IT!

The Ugly

I've dug myself a hole here, since there's not really any ugliness about this film, be it a character or story element. So I'm shit out of luck here.

For those who skipped to the end...

This is a brilliant film let down by what is obviously a constricted running time, which is rather impressive, considering it's two hours and forty five minutes long! Batman is good, Bane is brilliant, Catwoman steals it and shit goes down in Gotham as usual.

9.8/10