A trilogy to remember

Rating: 8/10 (19 July 2012)

The Godfather series fumbled on the third one, Sam Raimi disappointed in the third Spiderman. LOTR perhaps was one of select few movie trilogies which managed to impress throughout. Three is the tricky number and The Dark Knight Rises aspires to pull it off with panache.
Set 8 years after the events of the last movie, it picks up after peace has descended on Gotham City and Batman has retired. But in the words of Selina Kyle: "There is a storm coming". Enter Bane and havoc reigns in Gotham City. Batman is forced to come out of retirement and face the demons, both - the ones roaming outside and the ones buried inside.
Naming the movie The Dark Knight Rises was a bold step in my opinion. It will constantly remind the people that this is a follow up to the really great The Dark Knight. Expectations will be high. And to a very large extent, Chris Nolan delivers.
The first half of the movie is a tad bit slow and builds up characters, both old and new. The second half moves into the execution of Bane's plans for Gotham and once the excitement picks up it refuses to let you down. I caught myself with an open mouth, goosebumps, edge of the seat etc at various points in the family.
The storyline is riveting and the plan this time is much grander than the The Dark Knight. It is all very exciting to watch it all unfold, culminating into a memorable climax. We explore characters in depth and yet do not feel like that there are too many dull moments. The performances are really good, I especially liked Joseph Gordon-Levitt's performance as a hot headed cop. The others in the cast: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman are pros and deliver their best, as is expected of them. Tom Hardy delivers a very physical performance and perhaps falls just slightly short of the very entertaining Joker of Heath Ledger. Anne Hathway is impressive in a physically demanding role and looks every bit convincing as the femme fatale.
Nolan goes for grand here, and you can see that in the set design, the storyline, the screenplay everything. Hans Zimmer delivers another brilliant score. You cannot help chanting "Deshi Bashara" under your breath along with the film.
The only shortcoming is the slower first half and some(very few) of Bane's dialogues not being quite clear.