Best of the bunch, but hardly Citizen Kane

Rating: 6/10 (7 September 2012)

Yes, 'The Dark Knight Rises' is probably the best of the Marvel Comics adaptations, but let's not get carried away by big budget, CGI and a portentous script - it is good but not anywhere near the overpraise it has received. It does try to be a bit serious (but far too portentous and over the top 'America the Brave'), looking at post 9/11 USA nightmares; it tries to use a lot of dialogue rather than pure action ( but it is far too pompous, shallow characterisation, repetitive), but the Jesus Christ resurrection parallel makes it overblown; the action is spectacular (but has mostly been seen before), but how many times do aliens/terrorists have to run amoke on Manhattan (Avengers Assemble?)? There are the usual gaping Nolan holes in the plot (as per Inception) - why do the terrorists keep 3,000 policemen alive below ground when they merrily butcher anyone who gets in their way above ground!!!? Nolan sneaks in French Terror/Bolshevik 1917 trial of bad citizens as a warning to USA, but absolutely cops out of showing New Yorkers/Gothamites run riot in anarchy. In fact, it is rather pleasant living under the terrorists who take over Gotham City so easily after a ludicrous plot line with exploding cement and a fusion device that becomes a nuclear weapon inside ten seconds!!!! Ah well, you are bowled along at a good pace with some visual flair, good men doing decent things, and Bruce Wayne/Batman suffering enormously but recovering to lead his people back to the promised land of inequality and huge wealth for a few. The acting is rightly serious, as the script makes them feel as if this is the summit of human feeling and experience - a sort of El Cid combined with King of Kings, only it is comic book heroics with the usual failings of people doing horrendous things to one another, but two seconds later getting up and walking away! At least Christian Bale has had his deep throat rasp cured in this movie! No, an enjoyable romp that ticks a few boxes, but fades rapidly as soon as you leave the cinema, but apart from several longeurs in the sagging middle, it does entertain.