The Dark Knight Rises

Rating: 7/10 (10 August 2012)

The first film was a great revamping of the series, the second film was a critical success with a superb posthumous Oscar winning performance from Heath Ledger as the Joker, and this third film in the trilogy was set to be a big finale, from director Christopher Nolan (Memento, Insomnia). Basically it's been eight years since the events of The Dark Knight, where Harvey Dent died, but the Dent Act is continuing, despite Commissioner James 'Jim' Gordon (Gary Oldman) hiding the secret of Dent murdering some people and Batman aka Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) taking the blame, but violent and organised crime is lowering. Gordon writes a confession letter to inform the people of the truth, but it doesn't seem the right time to read it, and it falls into the hands of masked terrorist Bane (Bronson's Tom Hardy), police officer John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) takes Gordon to hospital to recover from a gunshot. Batman has disappeared for eight years, and Wayne is a recluse, and as a result of this, and investing in the clean energy project from board member Miranda Tate (La Vie en Rose's Marion Cotillard), Wayne Enterprises is near bankrupt, it was discovered that the fusion powered harness could be modified and the core could become a nuclear weapon. Blake concludes that Bruce is Batman, he and Gordon implore the caped crusader to return to Gotham City, but Bruce is forced to relinquish his family's company when Bane attacks the stock exchange and bankrupts him, control goes to rival businessman John Daggett (Ben Mendelsohn), but he is killed by Bane and he gets his construction empire. Faithful butler Alfred Pennyworth (Sir Michael Caine) confesses to Bruce he burned the letter Rachel wrote before she was killed, about being engaged to Dent, and he says the seven years he was gone, in Batman Begins, he hoped he would never return, and Alfred leaves him. It's revealed to Batman that Bane took over the League of Shadows, after Ra's Al Ghul (Liam Neeson) died, and he is lead to him by cat burglar Selina Kyle aka Catwoman (Anne Hathaway), but the masked mastermind beats Batman very harshly, fracturing his back, and he goes to the impossible to escape foreign prison. Bane as a child is believed to be the only person to have escaped the prison, he has almost completely taken over Gotham, trapping all police underground, using stolen weapons from Wayne Enterprises, and collapsing all routes out of the city, anyone seen escaping may set off the converted nuclear bomb the terrorist has his hands on. To make matters worse, the letter that Gordon wrote is read out for all of the citizens to hear, proving corruption comes not just from criminals, all prisoners arrested under the Dent Act are released and free to roam the city, and rich and powerful individuals are put to trial by "judge" Dr. Jonathan Crane aka Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy) to face exile or death. Five months pass, and Bruce is recovering from his injuries and ready to return to the city, and after a couple of failed attempts and his back strengthened he is successful jumping the impossible feat, without safety stuff, and he recruits Selina, Gordon, Blake, Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) and Tate to help save the city from the bomb. Batman battles his way to get to Bane and manages to fight and seemingly defeat him, but then Tate shows up and reveals that it was not Bane that escaped the foreign prison, it was her, she is actually Talia, the daughter of Ra's Al Ghul, and with her father they rescued Bane who helped her out, so she is the one who plans revenge for her father's death and achieve his goal of destroying Gotham City. While Selina kills Bane, and Gordon manages to destroy the detonator to the bomb, Batman tries to direct the container truck towards the location of the fusion chamber where the weapon can be stabilised, but the chamber is flooded, and she crashes the truck, and before dying taunts the Dark Knight that the bomb will still explode. Batman decides that the only way to save the city is to sacrifice himself, by hauling the bomb out of city limits flying it away with the aircraft developed by Fox, and it does explode over the ocean, seemingly killing the hero. With Gotham saved Batman is no longer seen as a threat, he is praised as the hero who saved everyone, getting a monument statue, and Bruce is assumed dead after being in the riots, Gordon reminds Blake that he should not reveal Batman's identity to the world to let hope stand, and the bat-signal is repaired. The Wayne estate is left to the orphanage that Blake grew up in, and the rest of the fortune and so forth goes to Alfred, who is devastated that he let Bruce's parents down, but Fox discovers that the aircraft was put on autopilot months ago, and Alfred is happy in Italy to see Selina and Bruce alive, and Blake – real name revealed as Robin, enters the Batcave. Also starring Matthew Modine as Foley, Atonement's Juno Temple as Jen, Nestor Carbonell as Mayor Anthony Garcia, Burn Gorman as Stryver, Tom Conti as Prisoner, Tomas Arana as Wayne's Lawyer, Aidan Gillen as CIA Op, Desmond Harrington as Uniform and William Devane as President. Bale, who won his Oscar for The Fighter earlier in the year, is still a great choice being rough and ready, Hardy (with a dubbed deep voice) is really malicious and beefed up, Hathaway is surprisingly good as a sexy no-nonsense thief, and all the supporting cast members do well also. This instalment is certainly the biggest in terms of destruction from the villain, the special effects create some spectacular scenes of the city collapsing and during chases and fights, this is well paced and exciting to watch, and a good story to go with it, a fantastic action fantasy. Very good!