A Flawed Movie That Rises Above To Shine

Rating: 9/10 (17 January 2019)

21 July 2012. The Dark Knight Rises joins There Will Be Blood (2007) as one of the extremely few flawed movies to rise above its slight annoyances to almost completely overshadow any lingering irritating oversights or logical flaws to become by the end a genuinely satisfying and qualitative, substantive action thriller movie, which only speaks to its strengths and integrity. As for the flaws that are sizeable in number, the stolen necklace that is so easily traced and for Catwoman to be so easily caught the second time; Batman's camouflage of his flying Bataeroflighter of flimsy army stock instead of invisible car used in Die Another Day (2002); just leaving Bane of the roof in which of course the whole movie would have ended perhaps; the overly too convenient angle of the road barriers allowing the criminals to just ride over them from their escape of the Stock Market; and even Batman's own escape using a similar ramp he created; the fusion bomb being so easily armed without a failsafe and the more likely decision in reality of doing using one, an almost unlikely mob scene of good and bad fighting sequences (unlike even what would be an even more authentic Civil War battle of hand to hand combat) and the absence of the better direction and choreography of the jumping in the hell hole scene. The martial arts scenes have been vastly improved for their clarity and visual impact since the first of the three movies in Batman Begins (2005). Nevertheless for all these apparently convenient script devices or oversights, The Dark Knight Rises is aptly named and the darker serious thread as well as the humanity both bad and good that arises sometimes in the same character is so riveting and dramatically authentic that it strikes at the universal themes of the lives of almost everyone watching the movie. The more controversial element of the movie is whether one can make a statement about the movie as being an indictment of our existing capitalist system in America or whether it can be a more subtle endorsement of the present system of structure and political law enforcement in our society. It is fascinating that there is some ways a resemblance to themes that can be found in the epic romantic drama Dr. Zhivago (1965) shot against the background of the Russian Revolution where the masses revolted against the rich elite. The Dark Night Rises is edited, even though a few scenes seem too short (except for considering the overall length of the movie) in a nicely timed way, the characters are both hated and loved, quality of the substance of the deeper dialogue of human, existential being is offered up and the energy and tension, keeps increasing and the audience angst and anguish at the pull of good versus evil and martyrdom of many characters both good and and in this movie continues to build until the end which has its own nicely wrapped, enfolded conclusion as if there was any doubt.