A worthy ending.

Rating: 9/10 (23 July 2012)

The Dark Knight Rises, unfortunately (not hopefully) the last film of Nolan's Batman Trilogy, is a worthy conclusion. It lacks a better villain, but doesn't need one. Bane is a perfect choice, and the only choice they have if they want to keep this film realistic and in a different tone from the last one. Batman's villains are mostly twisted and insane, but Bane maybe twisted but not really insane, all other villains are colorful and weak physically (we've already seen the wits of The Joker just to watch another ingenious villain such as The Riddler or any other Arkham Asylum freaks) and they won't fit this massive conclusion to the Batman legend. Bane lacks charisma, he's not as entertainingly good as The Joker, but he is as physically strong as Batman. Now, the center stage in this film is not for the epic battle of the hero and the villain, in fact there isn't any epic battle between them, it will be for the hero's inner battle between his will to save the city he loves, the hero's rise from the fall he took and the legend he will forever leave to us.
This film is not as heavy as the last film, heavy in terms of its core, its heart and its story. But it easily penetrates us, it draws emotion we've never experienced in the first two films, but basically because it's the conclusion. But Nolan made a difficult task to try to equal The Dark Knight, usually the third installment of a superhero movie or any movie series are trying to double the excitement and action but end up doubling the disappointment. The Dark Knight Rises is in no way a disappointment. But there are few things that kept me from equaling this film from the two other films, I'm not as impressed in the plot as of the previous films. It's challenging but the first part aren't really clear to me, at times I was behind, it was a little bit too complicated, I agree with Roger Ebert about the plot. The writing is a little bit lesser and not as powerful, there are just a few memorable quotes, dialogue is very important, but I'm not saying the script wasn't that great, just a little less great. The first half felt slow but not boring and uninteresting. Batman Begins and The Dark Knight kept me in a rush every minute. Though the second half was excellent and the ending was superb. Well, I was expecting a fresh story in this film, but was a little bit in disagree to find out that it still roots to the first film, but it's not a big deal as long as it fits the film, maybe this one sums it all up.
Bale has lesser scenes in costume, a clear indication that this was his best performance in the trilogy, which was surprising too because there wasn't a lot of Batman. Tom hardy played Bane, he speaks in a strange funny voice that you would expect to hear from an old man and not from a huge brute, you'll see his face in not more than five seconds. Anne Hathaway as the sneaky Catwoman, though she wasn't really referred to in that name. Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Blake, the heroic and newly promoted detective, who really believes in The Batman. And the beautiful Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate. Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, and Morgan Freeman reprised their roles.
This final chapter still delivers hard though not as exciting and exhilarating as the Dark Knight, but it has the emotional chill that The Dark Knight doesn't have. So now let me ask again why do we feel so affected by the characters in this film? And how many times did we feel that way about a character on a comic book? That is the reason why Nolan is different from other directors of this popular genre, he engages us with these characters so effectively, he gave depth to them and then build us so that we feel affected by their situations, we appreciate Lucius Fox's helpful hand, we trust Alfred so much, we care so much about Commissioner Gordon, we sympathize for our hero, The Batman and Bruce Wayne. We look back in their past, how their relationships change in every film, and how their characters transform, different from the last time we've seen them, changed by the situations they're in. At the final scenes of the film, I realized how affected I was about its hero, because I've never cried over a superhero film before, it was truly beautiful, Nolan made a thought provoking ending to his trilogy. I'd like to differ good from great, The Avengers for example, is not very deep but was so enjoyable, I was even surprised because it was what I wanted it to be, but the feeling was different, so much different from this film. This film made me want to lower my rank of The Avengers, we'll see. I will definitely need a re-watch.
Christopher Nolan deserves a standing ovation, for he had given as a powerful experience, a greater appreciation for the Batman, he rescued this franchise from the hands of Joel Schumacher. He gave us more than what we deserve as film-goers. He gave us a legend. And I hate the fact that there will be another Batman reboot (will they ever end?) in the future, and it may be already underway. I can't imagine a new Batman after Bale's performance and a new director, well I can't even imagine the guts of the person who will try to fill Nolan's shoes, that would be a hard and scary job to do. I'm sure that reboot won't be even close to Nolan's version, well at least don't make it as bad as Schumacher's version.
This is a dieted version of my review, because of the "1,000 words" rule.