The Dark Knight Rises: Ironically at the Bottom of the Trilogy

Rating: 9/10 (4 December 2012)

I have always been a massive fan of the Batman comics, ever since I was a child I was asking for the Batmobile for Christmas, and even though it's terrible I'm still a fan of the Tim Burton reboot. (Now you really know I'm a die-hard fan) But with all that said, there was something about The Dark Knight Rises that didn't feel right to me.
Having seen it 4 times now I feel like I have a strong grasp on the entire film, and there are definitely some flaws that need pointing out, even though the majority of the film did leave me in awe. First of all I want to say that out of the trilogy; Batman Begins is my favourite. I love The Dark Knight, but it almost feels like 'filler' between Batman Begins and Dark Knight Rises, in that there's no real story to it, it's just what Batman did for about a month that lead to Rachel dying. I loved Batman Begins because although it showed Bruce over a long period of time, it didn't really miss out any details. There were no stones left unturned, every story arc had an ending, every Christopher Nolan placed cheesy joke had it's minute, and even the ending wasn't as clichéd as it sounds on paper, even if I do hate it for making me wait 3 years to meet the Joker. But with all the hype leading up to 'Rises, I feel like an unobtainable greatness was expected by me and a lot of other fans, and so it would always seem worse than the previous two. That's nothing against Nolan though, 'Rises is a fantastic film that I thoroughly enjoyed, but the only ending to a trilogy I have ever fully appreciated was Return of the King, but that's because it's such a masterpiece that the earlier films were dwarfed in comparison. So based on that 'Rises was destined to fail in my eyes.
That said, there were still parts of 'Rises that are truly awesome. Bane, for instance, is one of the best villains I have seen in any film, game, book, TV show, advert, comic or dental commercial ever. He's just so bad-ass, even with the ridiculous voice and perfectly smooth head; Tom Hardy manages to present this 'don' of a character that even Samurai-flipping-Jack would be frightened of, and he does it all with the majority of his face covered up. Anne Hathaway as Catwoman also deserves much credit. The 'Halle Berry Catwoman' was bitter sweet for me and much of the DC fan base, it no-doubt was a very, very poor film, but it was sexy as hell, and this is where I saw Anne Hathaway going wrong; I thought she'd try too hard to make a better character than Berry and end up making a Catwoman that pasty teenagers around the globe couldn't "enjoy". But rest assured universe; she ticked both boxes. Hathaway ended up creating a character with such a sense of mystique around her that I think we all ended up wanting her to have more screen time, just so we could work her out, well that and her uh..'delectable posterior' (to put it nicely). On top of that, there are so many moments in this film that have you on the edge of your seat, making involuntary "phwwoaaaaarrr"-like noises. The bat-pods, for instance, are so much cooler than ever before, with the rolling-sideways-wheels and smashing into and through buildings. The collection of all 5 tumblers also had me giggling like a little girl, and even the small references to 'Killer Croc' made me grin uncontrollably.
There are, however, some faults with The Dark Knight Rises that I feel need to be covered. A couple of them are just nit-picking; such as how in hell didn't the football player realise the ground had collapsed behind him? and how did Batman survive the nuclear blast if two seconds from detonation we saw him pushing the throttle forward?! Even if he had ejected immediately after he would have been able to avoid the blast radius. Some of the faults are more substantial though. For example I feel like bringing Ra's Al Ghul back into the picture with his daughter ruined things a tad, having Bane, the man exiled from the league of shadows for being too extreme is enough I think, as they don't really deal with Talia after she escapes, they just kill Bane and dispose of the bomb. Secondly, I feel there were a few too many plot twists for the story to flow properly, I mean come on Nolan; It's the end of the best Batman trilogy ever made; you don't have to keep throwing in changes to make sure we don't get bored. Hell, the majority of us are going to love it even if it's awful.
Overall though it's extremely important to remember that this movie is the 'cat's pyjamas', and will probably go in for an Oscar or two if the academy don't act like idiots (again). Bane is one of the best written, most quotable character's of any film I've ever seen, and Bale really comes into his own as both Batman and Bruce in this third and final instalment (he tones down the Batman grumble, and doesn't make Bruce look like such a pansy anymore). So really disregard what I've said above, it's a fantastic film and I'm sure it will be a lot of people's favourite of the trilogy, just not mine. Go out and make your own opinion on it, because it's another of these films that come around once in a while where a review or general rating isn't able to truly determine how great it really is. (9/10)

James Asker