Bruce Wayne Rises

Rating: 7/10 (8 August 2012)

There has been disappointment for me this summer. The Avengers was early on and a very very enjoyable film, but Prometheus with a high rating on IMDb was a flawed let down, and the new Spiderman was pointless. I had hoped for more this summer and I hope Bourne Legacy is half decent.
I wasn't going to watch The Dark Knight Rises. I wasn't impressed with the trailer and the previous film, The Dark Knight, was so much to live up to.
I still have a friend who hasn't seen The Dark Knight. I keep telling him to watch it, and he asks 'Is it really that good?', and I keep replying 'Yes! It is amazing!' But then I saw on IMDb that The Dark Knight Rises has (at time of writing) a rating of 8.9 so I thought. 'I must be wrong. This film must be amazing too!' Like Prometheus, I think some people went to the movie so hyped from the idea of the film that they over-rated it.
This film is a nice end to the Nolan trilogy. Nothing more.
It is not about Batman. Batman is physically done in after his encounter with the Joker and Batman isn't much of a Batman any more. That explains the lack of Batman acrobatics, but it doesn't explain the lack of interesting action sequences in this film. Even the opening plane sequence didn't do much for me.
This film is all about Bruce Wayne, not Batman. It should be called 'Bruce Wayne Rises'. The most interesting aspect of this film for me was that it was more about the characters that were already established in the previous two movies, and what happens to them in the end.
Anne Hathaway does a very good job as a believable Catwoman. Bane on the other hand is menacing but characterless. By the end of the film everything interesting about Bane has been taken away.
It was nice to see how they brought in the stories from the previous two films in order to tie up the trilogy, but unfortunately the story had nothing spectacular about it. It was just a good yarn.
I didn't get bored and it was enjoyable to watch (like Prometheus), but also like Prometheus, after I watched the film, I saw some unforgivable plot holes. One being when Bane takes Bruce to a prison far away, and then Bruce comes back, despite the main plot point being that Gotham is blockaded so that no one can get in or out.
What is the point of the blood sequence at the beginning in the plane too? It served no purpose that I could see. Was it just to make us cringe a bit? If it wasn't for the high rating on IMDb, I wouldn't have watched this film until it came out on DVD, and that would have been the better choice. It doesn't need to be seen on the big screen.
The ending was the most interesting. There has been a lot of discussion about whether or not the ending was a dream sequence or not. Is it just wishful thinking from Alfred and Commissioner Gordon or not? In my opinion, the ending is supposed to be open to interpretation. It is not supposed to be clear.
A lot of people seem to have missed the point of the final moment in the film when Robin is introduced too. This is not the beginning of Robin because Robin already is Robin. This is about who will take over from Batman because Batman can be anyone. As the floor rises, the film title appears - The Dark Knight Rises.
It seems the ending has not only created discussion but also some confusion. I am all for films that make you think, but all in all I think I would probably have preferred if the dream sequence wasn't used to create a potential 'happy end' and the film hadn't been left open for a sequel. Though these are minor points.
The major problem with this film is that it is not 'amazing'. It is just 'good', and we expected more from the man who brought us Memento, Inception and The Dark Knight.
I give The Dark Knight 9.5 out of 10
I give The Dark Knight Rises 7.5 out of 10