The Dark Knight 'Rises' on the Wings of Nolan's Untamed Imagination!

Rating: 10/10 (2 April 2015)

The Dark Knight Rises arrived in cinemas on the back of deafening hype. The astronomical expectations seemed insurmountable for even a visionary of Christopher Nolan's caliber. So does Nolan deliver? Absolutely! Bold and unflinching, Nolan's operatic style makes The Dark Knight Rises an art piece of boundless spectacle and an epic of never-seen-before scope and scale. It visually obliterates the modern blockbuster with a story of daring boldness, taking your inner child on a savage ride.
The final chapter of Nolan's trilogy kicks off exactly eight years after the end of The Dark Knight. The streets of Gotham have been cleaned up but as we soon find out, all that means is that the criminals have moved underground. Having taken the fall for the death of Harvey Dent, Bruce Wayne, the tycoon behind the cowl, now lives like a specter hobbling about the recesses of his fancy mansion while his faithful butler Alfred frets over him like a gawking mother goose. But something is stirring deep beneath Gotham's streets, and it is not long before Wayne once again finds himself staring into the heart of human darkness. When a hulking, masked psycho named Bane lays siege to his financial empire and plants a series of strategically placed explosives beneath the city, intending to cut off the isle's citizenry from the outside world, he hauls the bat-suit out of storage.
From there, the movie unfolds with the carefully measured pacing of an epic, that rare sequel that endeavors to deepen and expand upon what has come before rather than merely repackaging it. It returns us to Gotham and its denizens, taking its time, gradually showing us the lay of the land. And once the cogs start whirring and the machine starts to warm up, The Dark Knight Rises takes off like a rocket – with Hans Zimmer's propulsive score as its fuel. And when it fires on all cylinders, it enters classic territory.
The pedigree of the cast imparts automatic gravitas to the movie. Christian Bale gives us a Batman with a haunted quality, showing Wayne broken, rising, and risen in perfect succession. Gary Oldman retains his quiet dignity as Commissioner Gordon. Michael Caine's Alfred continues to class up the joint. Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle, is sexy, confident, and offers a great balance of humor. As Officer John Blake, Joseph Gordon-Levitt musters an interesting blend of earnestness and intensity. Both Marion Cotillard and Morgan Freeman execute their parts with precision. And Hardy is sensational as the diabolical antagonist Bane. He bites into his character's motivations and transcends the movie to a place that is darker and more malicious.
Nolan gives us an intellectual, heart-pounding movie that grips like a vice from minute one and never lets go, capping off the trilogy with passion and dignity and with slam-bang entertainment. The Dark Knight Rises is both the conclusion the franchise needs and the conclusion it deserves!