Breath-taking, thrilling, emotional

Rating: 9/10 (21 July 2012)

As was expected, TDKR falls behind TDK tremendously in terms of the menacing nature of the antagonist (obviously). I take this opportunity to re-iterate how truly awesome Heath Ledger was as the Joker, who drove home a very scary spectacle of chaos and madness making the Batman almost crack up! Yes, the Bane is scary too, mind you. And his motives are genuine, his strategies almost always work and his strange pain-numbing mask does help to add more menace to the already bulging incredibly strong Bane. But it is nowhere near the Joker! Hey it is a good thing- there is and always will remain only one Joker for us and that is Heath Ledger (RIP). So this time the villain is this character who has met equal suffering and is also a friend of the dark- just like our dark knight the Batman. And guess what, he can give even the Batman a run for his money. In a thrilling hand to hand combat he shows how futile Bruce Wayne's attempts were to try to stop Bane. A battered bruised more injured than before and broken Bruce Wayne lands himself into Bane's prison. It is his soul first that Bane will kill, then will come his body! It is enough to send chills down anyone's spine. The villain's agenda is first unleashing all the evils which Gordon and Batman had worked so hard to keep locked up and then spreading the word of the League of Shadows to the general crowd. It all brings to mind the logic which Ra'as Ghul proposed in Batman Begins and Bane is horribly close to implementing Ra'as' plan to fruition. Almost all spirits broken, the public has submitted themselves to this new crazed development, what with all the policemen trapped or being killed on sight or strange court rulings passing swift judgments dictator style- all being watched over by Bane. The situation is at best, hopeless. But Bruce Wayne is not an easy man to break. In a thrilling sequence of events, the man recuperates and extracts strength and courage from the innermost of his heart and miraculously strives to escape Bane's hell-hole depicting the most classic example of will at work! It is here you realize that you don't mess with the Batman. His role as the super-hero savior and morale-booster of the Gotham people is complete. With a single Bat shaped blaze burning over a building, he is able to turn the tide in a situation full of despair as the public demonstrates surprising courage in helping themselves and wrest the power from the crazed fanatics. To add to the zing and style, there is the BAT to take over from the tumbler; the Catwoman who is sketched so well in the script she seems totally real and a development of a major mentor-mentee relation between Batman and Detective Blake as a signal of Bruce Wayne ready to hang his boots and return to normal life.Cinematography is excellent, dialogues are simply too good and enough moments are present in which you cannot help but hoot and applaud. The scene in which Batman returns after a hiatus is especially well shot. Some scenes with the Catwoman are very intelligent and well-written. Bane does impress bringing astounding credibility to a troubled man dealing with pain and loss but standing resolute toward his goal. He is completely audible and perfect in delivery of his lines, which not many people agree with. They are mad- they were not very attentive IMO! Christian Bale is the one who steals the show in this! What an excellent performance! He brings out all sides of the Batman in one movie- the resignation and loss in the beginning, to a determined stance, to a broken man and finally to the height of his emotional, mental and physical self in a thumping reply to the League of Shadows. It is not for nothing he is the most revered actor in recent times. Michael Caine lends some very dramatic lines and here you truly see how frightened he is all the time Bruce is risking his life out there and know that Alfred is Bruces's parent- to hell with biology! Character development for Bane, the Catwoman and Det. Blake is very good. Special effects are top notch. A haunting score even surpasses that of TDK- kudos! Some complaints are in order which don't make the movie a 10/10 in my book. Lots and lots of drama- going over-the-top in some sequences. But i guess this was what Nolan meant it to be. Also I disliked how the scenes cut from one to another disregarding the time factor for one character to be in a distant place in such short time and asking us to believe the scene were taking place almost immediately after the previous. There were instances like Bruce after escaping conveniently finding Catwoman (the one person he needed) on that bridge in the whole wide city; Batman present in one sequence with Gordon and next sequence with Blake who is probably miles apart; Blake conveniently discovering Bane's plan through an accidental encounter with one of Bane's henchmen again, etc. But the movie is a work of art, overall. Not perfect but near-perfect. Chris Nolan is now my favorite director, Christian Bale is one of my favorite actor and I will be seeing more of Tom Hardy's work from now on. Don't miss this movie!