An audacious and potent ending to The Dark Knight saga

Rating: 8/10 (20 July 2012)

In 2005, Memento and Insomnia director Christopher Nolan graced us with a new Batman. A new Batman for a new generation, a Batman with more depth and grit than the previous attempts, a Batman we had been yearning for, for so long. Batman Begins was a solid origins story, that we appreciate much more now knowing what it lead to. In 2008 Nolan returned once again with the second installment: The Dark Knight. A film that set the bar for comic book adapations, featuring an Oscar-winning performance from Heath Ledger. The Dark Knight was the perfect superhero movie. In 2012, Nolan returned for The Dark Knight Rises. I went into this film with my expectations soring through the roof. It's predecessors had set it an almost impossible bar to fulfill, and with the anticipation so high, it had to deliver. And it did, just about. The Dark Knight Rises is an audacious and potent action film, that uses and capitilizes on elements from Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and it's cousin Inception. It's a film that has testosterone and balls, resulting in the trilogy ending in a bang, a bang that was just loud enough. It uses the development and depth that Batman Begins introduced, giving us a deep insight to the character of Bruce Wayne and backing off just a little bit from the mask and cape. It uses the menace and intelligence from The Dark Knight, giving us a villain that is even more threatening than The Joker and is most certainly Batman's match. And finally it uses the anarchy and destruction that Nolan introduced in 2010's Inception. The special effects that weren't present so much in The Dark Knight that makes Gotham City face the apocalypse. Christian Bale has consistently been a solid Bruce Wayne/Batman, and it is present again here. He wears the mask less in this film, but still delivers a convincing performance. We see more of Bruce Wayne, we see him at his very lowest point and at his most vulnerable. Now with Batman being absent for most of the film, this is not necessarily a bad thing, because when he does put the mask on, it feels more exhillirating and exciting. Newcomer Tom Hardy does a solid job as Bane, but not fantastic, and not oscarworthy. He has the psyhique and look that makes Bane's appearance menacing and threatening, but he isn't executed particularly good. The main reason being the voice. Despite the fact you can't hear him most of the time, the voice is very far-fetched and doesn't fit the character of Bane at all. But despite that, Hardy does a decent job and deserves some praise, as Bane is a fiend and gives the plot an edginess as Gotham comes crashing down. There are solid performances from Gary Oldman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Morgan Freeman, but the person who really steals the show is Anne Hathaway. She portrays Catwoman in a sexy and delicious way that the character truly deserves and lacked in the 2004 abomonination. She truly fits the role perfectly, delivering witty one-liners and very well choreographed fight scenes that make her look seductive yet lethal and aggressive. I wasn't a big fan of Hathaway before this, but she really does give the performance of her career and I can't wait to see her in the film adaption of Les Miserables in 2013. Now, the film does have its flaws. Despite it being extremely potent and ambitious, this takes away the rich suspense and viseceralness that The Dark Knight had. It uses the conventions of blockbusters to give average movie-goers the popcorn entertainment they love, but leaves the audience that want something a little bit more clever a tad empty. Overall, The Dark Knight Rises is a satisfying end to the best superhero trilogy of all time, it ends with a bang leaving a huge ambiguous hole. It isn't as good as The Dark Knight because it traded in the glossy, sleek thrills for the big, explosive ones, but it still succeeds in that department, just in a different way. But it is better than Batman Begins, because it delves into the character of Bruce Wayne in much more detail and still fleshes out an exciting plot with intriguing characters. It's a must see that any Batman fan will appreciate.
5/5