The circle is complete

Rating: 9/10 (24 July 2012)

Batman Begins took me off guard a few years ago, I just thought that OK, here's another Batman movie, but it was very good, especially when I didn't have much expectations towards it. The Dark Knight was hyped very much, and because Batman Begins was so good, the expectations were pretty high. But again, that movie took the story so much further and it was nicely different from the first movie that I was again positively surprised. Heath Ledgers performance as Joker was one of those surprises and the fact that Joker was now the first famous super villain in the trilogy made a big deal.
And now, 4 years after The Dark Knight the hunger for the third movie had grown pretty much and that's why I was afraid to go see this because my expectations for this film were unreasonably high due to all the hype and the greatness of the last two Batman movies. Did The Dark Knight Rises live up to it's hype? I would say it succeeded very nicely in ending this massive trilogy. Not excellently, but very nicely.
The Dark Knight left the story in an interesting position. Joker in a mental prison, Harvey Dent/Two Face dead and Batman branded as Gothams enemy number 1. 8 years have passed since Dents death, Batman has retired and Gotham is a nice city to live in. But then a new threat rises in the form of Bane and eventually all hell breaks loose again and Batman must once again be the shield between evil and Gotham.
Sounds pretty usual, but the movie is certainly not that simple, there are many layers that make the characters more grey than black and white. Batman is hated, the "Catwoman" is both villain and hero, and Bane has some sense in his actions, unlike Joker who was pure madness and caused destruction just for fun. Okey, Bane is a monster and his actions are ruthless, and his motives are not made so clear as I had hoped, but still, you can in some way understand his reasons.
The story develops nicely, as the beginning does the philosophical part and the end the action part. The battle in the end is massive, but maybe a little too long, although I think the movie must be watched more than once to decide that. First I seemed the ending would be a little lame, but then the surprising developments in the story made it excellent. Didn't see a few things coming, you'll be surprised.
As for the characters, Batman was even darker than before which was nice, and Bane was better than I expected, Tom Hardy made a ghastly performance, a very good main villain with a good story background as how he became what he was now. Anne Hathaway was very good as Catwoman (though the name catwoman was never mentioned, she just was a woman that looked like catwoman) and her character was very interesting, so it's a shame Nolan didn't give more time to reveal her personality. More depth in the character and she could have stolen the show.
Overall, this was a very good ending to this hyped trilogy. The Dark Knight Rises gave much more depth to the whole trilogy all the way back to Batman Begins, because the story of Ra's Al Ghul had such a huge relevance in this movie and thus in the whole story. The circle was truly completed, and The Dark Knight Rises was the darkest movie of the three. I am pleased, finally we have an excellent whole story to the Legend of Batman in the form of movie art.
Points to all three movies:
Batman Begins: 8½/10 The Dark Knight: 9/10 The Dark Knight Rises: 9-/10