By Spence Blazak
Batman has hung up his cinematic cape. He is going to settle down, buy a flat in the suburbs, maybe join a Tuesday night bridge club, but before that, he is putting on the cowl for one last adventure.
The Dark Knight Rises boils down to one question above all else: How do you end one of the top trilogies of all time? It could fall the way of The Matrix Revolutions, as a heavy handed pile of overindulgence, the way of The Godfather III, which would have sullied two of the greatest movies ever made had people not done such a good job of forgetting it, or the way of Toy Story 3, excellence that just might precede its predecessors.
Before I reveal which movie trilogy conclusion that The Dark Knight Rises brings to my mind, I would like to discuss the awesomeness that it is.
The movie opens eight years after the end of The Dark Knight. For the first time in what might be city history, Gothamites are living the high life. Harvey Dent has been dubbed a martyr, and his legacy has been used to get more criminals behind bars, but alas, Batman took Dent’s fall for that whole “holding a gun to a kid’s head and having two faces” incident.
Batman has been gone for almost a decade, and Bruce Wayne has morphed into a gimpy Howard Hughes figure. He is out of touch with the world, Wayne Enterprises is almost bankrupt, and he has lost the fight in him, getting smacked around a little bit by the vivacious Catwoman in an opening scene. He is still under the naïve impression that his love Rachel, who died in the last movie, was going to leave Harvey Dent to be with him, and he has spent the last eight years wallowing in self-pity. Why Bruce Wayne was so enamored with Maggie Gyllenhaal is a mystery that only five more sequels could solve.
Just when all seems well and good in the gentle burg of Gotham, socialism fueled terrorist Bane has hired every mercenary in the area and plans on starting a people’s revolution in the city (isn’t that just always the way?). Batman comes out of retirement, and thus begins the end of one of the best conclusions you could hope for.
The Dark Knight Rises lays out a smorgasbord of characters, with the new additions of Joseph Gordon Levitt as a Gotham police officer, Marion Cotillard as a philanthropist investor in Wayne Enterprises, Anne Hathaway as a cat burglar who wears cat ears that is (to brilliant effect) never called Catwoman, and Tom Hardy as Bane.
JGL and Marion Cotillard factor into the plot very well, getting the most of their roles while cementing The Dark Knight Rises place as a crime drama rather than just a superhero movie. Hathaway’s Catwoman is played the way you want to see it. She purrs her lines, makes a cat pun, and stabs a dude with her stiletto, causing viewers to ask the question: “Why has no one been this good in the role before?” Main villain Bane is the most interesting of the bunch. Tom Hardy is larger than life in the part, causing an immediate fear to strike everyone he comes into contact with. Many critics poo-pooed Bane for not having the grandiose motivations of the Joker, but when you break it down, Bane’s plot is almost as satisfyingly evil as the Joker’s, as he strives to strike another vulnerable part of the human mind: morality in a mob mentality. He makes Gothamites wonder if he really is that wrong…. Granted, its tough to beat a schizophrenic clown that’s ultimate goal is to get Batman to break his one rule and kill him, but it’s a start.
Every member of the cast gives their best performance of the series (with an ensemble cast featuring 4 Oscar winners and 3 nominees), the combo of Nolan’s fluid camera and the morosely gorgeous cinematography give a one-two punch of eye candy, and the story is riveting.
The Dark Knight Rises isn’t without its faults though. The most prominent problems include a few bouts of subpar dialogue, a plot hole or two towards the end, and the always enjoyable unintentional comedy when serious actors act too seriously.
The most important thing to remember is that this isn’t The Dark Knight, it’s meant to end the series with a satisfying bang, and it does just that. As far as endings go, it is very reminiscent of Return of the Jedi: not as good of a movie as the second one, but it couldn’t have ended any other way. All of its shortcomings are easily overlooked when you let go and escape with Batman one last time for an enjoyable 2 hours and 45 minutes.
If Batman Begins is a three star-er, and The Dark Knight is a four star-er, then The Dark Knight Rises is a three-and-a-half star gem.
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