Better Than The Original!

Rating: 9/10 (22 June 2013)

'The Dark knight rises' really exceeded my expectations to become one of the best trilogies in cinema history. The previous installments of Nolan's batman introduced to the modern audience the concepts that comic-book heroes could represent and 'The Dark Knight rises' continues this brilliant pathway of what batman represents to society and concludes the character study of Bruce Wayne. TDKR provides the character of batman as a symbol of hope against the backdrop of an American society.
The third installment traces Bruce Wayne eight years after he blamed Harvey dents deaths on himself, hidden and exiled, Bruce most again don the cape to stop the terrorist bane.
Believe the hype, TDKR is simply epic, a brilliant character closure to the story arc of Bruce Wayne, following his fall and rise through the embracement of his fear to provide hope for a city. TDKR, as previous to tdk, also embeds themes of social commentary towards the American society dealing with issues raising from terrorism to the occupy movement, it's quite evident to see the influence Nolan gained from 'metropolis' for the use of the setting to metaphorical represents the state of civilization, and this is where Nolan's batman's film succeeds from others, they provide the broadest scope of what superheroes can represent, they are not just people who dress up to fight injustice, but rather represent a sense of hope for a decaying society, thus providing the ambitious sense of imagination grounded through the presence of an alarming reality.
As the previous installments did, TDKR once again provides great acting. Most definitely Christian bale best performance as the tormented hero, conveying the fall of a man and the pain that he inhabits physically and mentally. Tom hardy was simply sensational as the villain Bane. Bane is the first (imo) villain in the Nolan universe that makes you fear for batman safety, the scene where bane and batman first encounter each other is brutal to watch, they fight in silence while Bane continues to deliver he's evil monologue while beating batman to a pulp, it was brilliant to watch in imax as the use of low angle shots of tom hardy presented him as such a towering figure, furthermore, when not being brutal, hardy was brilliant in conveying his emotional statues just through his eyes, especially a scene towards the end that evoked a sense of poignancy and humanization. As many, i was also skeptical of Anne Hathaway as Catwoman, an while i'm still not a fan of her costume, her performance captured the essence of Selina kyle by creating a balance between innocence, eroticism and a sense of mischief.
Also like the previous installment there are many breathtaking set pieces, such as the amazing introduction and the football sequence and while the film moves at a furious pace it's still able to establish the emotional touches, furthermore each scene is heighten in it's spectacle factor by other contributors, notably by wally pfister cinematography and Hans Zimmer score. While i felt that the film lacked the tightness of TDK and contained such an anti climatic send-off to a brilliant villain, TDKR most certainly redeems itself from it's ambition in presenting a film that evokes the nature of traditional epics while embedding culturally important themes. Tdkr completes the story arc of Bruce Wayne in amazing fashion, by providing a sensational ending that concludes an amazing trilogy but leaves you wanting more, and hopefully this exactly what we get.