Wonderful

Rating: 9/10 (10 March 2019)

I saw this movie in theatres 7 years ago when it came out. At the time I think there was so much anticipation, and the memory of The Dark Knight and Heath Ledger's legendary performance as Joker was so fresh that the final instalment had an impossible bar to live up to.
I walked out of that theatre with mixed feelings, thinking the movie was the weakest of the Nolan Trilogy.
This weekend another Marvel movie was released. The 78th one this week. I'm so jaded by current year superhero movies. I loved them 10 years ago but today I can't sit through them. Last night I tried watching the sequel to Guardians of the Galaxy on Netflix and got 45 minutes before I turned it off.
Tonight I put on The Dark Knight Rises and, despite having seen it already and thinking it was the weakest in it's trilogy, I sat through the entire 2 hours and 45 minutes without pausing once, without picking up my laptop, without leaving the edge of my seat once.
Judging the movie on it's own merits - without comparing to Batman Begins or The Dark Knight, without comparing Bane to Joker ... it is a masterpiece of cinema and it is everything that superhero movies should be.
Anne Hathaway is my favourite Catwoman of all time.
Every single character has a rich backstory and develops.
Bruce Wayne begins the movie a broken man and Alfred wants desperately to save him but doesn't know how. The story is as much Bruce's inner journey as it is fighting the bad guy - which is so important to good story telling. This is what today's movies are lacking.
Commissioner Gordon struggles to cope with a morally questionable decision that he has to live with.
The villains are relatable and you can understand why they do what they do - which is the test of a good bad guy (the heroes in their own story). And boy do they ever raise the stakes!
Everything about this movie is spot on and I desperately miss superhero movies like this.