A disappointingly underwhelming conclusion to an otherwise overwhelmingly stunning trilogy

Rating: 5/10 (21 July 2012)

Granted, it's not easy to generate a sequel that lives up to an epic prequel, particularly a prequel like The Dark Knight. Francis Ford Coppola did it once, the sequel to the Godfather was, according to many, even better. Satyajit Ray did it twice, with Aparajito and Apur Sansar setting the bars higher consecutively. Sadly, not only does Nolan not reproduce such heights, he falls several notches short.
Set as an aftermath to The Dark Knight, with an epic character of Joker portrayed to frightening perfection by the late Heath Ledger, Bane was always going to be pitted against him. None of Batman's enemies match the charisma of Joker, so it was fair to surmise that Bane will be as sinister as Joker, minus the dark charisma, perhaps. But the character was to be, in effect, THE essence of the movie, the character the movie would revolve around, the character that would frighten, if not quite mesmerize, us. Such a character, however, requires a solid backdrop, a potent script. Unfortunately, the movie has neither. A has-been superhero, who has gone into self-recluse for 7 years, severing all connections with everybody concerned, would need ample reason to resurge. However, what we find here is that all it requires is a heist job in a bank by a semi-masked man, and some 'Storm is coming' kind of soothsaying by a semi-masked woman to jerk him into action. Such heist jobs occur in untold numbers every day, everywhere, so were it the reason, he wouldn't have been a recluse even for a day, let alone 7 years. Alfred Pennyworth displays a wide range of emotions throughout the movie, but it is never quite clear what he actually wants, whether Batman should stay put, or come out of his shell and fight the evil, or whatever. A torrid one-night stand with Cottilard hardly adds any value, except may be disgracing the fond memories the audience has of the duo of Batman and Rachel. Cillian Murphy appears out of nowhere, and pronounces judgement on people, in what capacity, God only knows. Robin spends a substantial amount of the second half in just shoving a bunch of people into the bus and shoving them again after they come out. Gordon, a pivotal character in the earlier movies, spends the majority of the movie either in hospital bed, or just running around. Each and every character in the earlier movies were meticulously planned, their purposes clearly defined, most characters in this movie lack substance and look more like fillers than characters. An unbiased judgement would tell us that the CatWoman character was totally redundant, her only role was to create an illusion of two-facedness, that, alas, turns out to be disarmingly straight-forward. Even the 'twist' in the later part of the movie fails to leave an impression, and is a fundamental cheat, the twists in The Prestige, or The Sixth Sense, all leave trails for the audience to do some guess work, that's what which makes the twist so endearing, here it looks like a twist for a twist's sake, and adds another layer of superficial-ness to the movie.
And of course, none of the flaws are as disappointing as Bane. Even when not pitted against Joker, he fails to impress at any level at all, be it visceral or psychological. A movie is as good as its villain is bad - since when a thug and mercenary has become synonymous with bad? A character without any resolution (in fact even his death is poorly scripted, as if the director did not know how to finish him off), he is no different than a thug who leads a pack of weaker thugs who naturally gravitate towards someone who can show them newer levels of badness. He wears a mask that ruins half the effect, and the other half is ruined when he opens his mouth, it is difficult to figure out whether he is reciting passages from Macbeth or delivering supposedly evil lines, each and every line he utters, is grossly dramatic in both its substance and delivery, and one cannot but remember the crisp, terrifying and thought-provoking lines from Joker. He goes all out to destroy Gotham with an atom bomb, and after seeing thousands of movies relishing on this idea, one can't but say "Been there, seen that". Again, this reminds us of the brilliant social experiment Joker perpetrates towards the end of The Dark Knight.
Most ordinary movies provide at least a couple of interesting moments, moments one can later recall and marvel at, or laugh oneself silly, or ponder over. Unfortunately, while The Dark Knight provides a surfeit of those, its sequel hardly provides any. Not a single line, or scene stands out, and it has nothing to recommend a re-watch. A disappointing conclusion to an epic saga, thankfully it won't be able to undo what the previous two movies have done, and when we fondly recall the saga later, it will always be the charisma of The Joker, the menace of Ras-Al-Ghoul or the steel of Batman.