A worthy ending to an amazing series...

Rating: 4/10 (20 July 2012)

THE REVIEW DOES NOT CONTAIN SPOILERS REGARDING THE DARK KNIGHT RISES.
As it is with every Nolan film, the film starts off with an impressive mid-air action sequence, doing justice to the proverb: "Well Begun is Half Done". Synonymous to the bank robbery scene, Bane enters the action with a different style clearly showing off how evil he is. The film then slowly settles down showing us what has changed in the past 8 years after Harvey Dent's death. Harvey still is considered as the "White Knight" and Batman as an outlaw vigilante. Bruce is weak and filled with a regret. Then the story takes shape in to the usual good-versus-evil plot in an extremely aggressive environment with a few shocking twists and a great conclusion.
First of all, let's throw light on Bane. Bane is totally perfect. Tom Hardy portrays him extremely powerfully. I was impressed by the amount of dedication he took which clearly can be seen. But we cannot compare Bane with The Joker, who was spectacularly portrayed by Heath Ledger in the The Dark Knight. Bane doesn't possess the sense of humor that Joker possessed, true; but that's just because he's pure evil and wants his job done. He is true to his word and his actions. Tom Hardy is as good as Heath Ledger was.
Then there's other performances to hail. After Bane I thought Alfred, played by the Michael Cain, and Billy, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, were the strongest. Alfred is more than a butler in this film, he is Bruce's guardian. There are many scenes when they both exchange emotions and a part of it was shown in the trailer where Alfred says "I don't Want to Bury you...". Those were seriously well filmed scenes, probably the best in the entire film. Joseph plays a cop who turns out to be another great character. After that the entire ensemble did their job well too with good acting. I had a feeling that Catwoman wasn't gonna work but I was wrong... In other superhero movies, you will find that the Hero is given the most vital spot, his sidekick a little less, the people he loves a little more less and the villain is always portrayed with exaggeration. Nolan however very perfectly places them on the same level. His films are quite natural and down-to-earth, including TDKR, which is what makes his films so special.
Now moving towards the technical aspects of this film, they are brilliant as always but I did not find anything new in them. If you expect it to get better than the technical ingenious of Chris Nolan's Inception, you will be slightly disappointed. The film is actually 70% drama and 30% action. But it is worth it. If you ever get the opportunity, don't miss it on IMAX.
Similar to Batman Begins, the story is quite straightforward. It does not have the beautiful complexity of The Dark Knight because it focuses more on the experience where Nolan is trying to give you that feeling of "Rise". The ending was quite smart but I won't say anything more than that. It totally depends on how YOU take it...
In conclusion, it was a worthy ending to an amazing series. I wouldn't like to compare it to The Dark Knight as this film has it's own different story to tell. So I suggest you watch it with an open mind, making no comparisons to it's predecessor and you might enjoy it more... In case you are too excited to watch it then go to Wikipedia, they have the entire plot there ;)
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