A True EPIC!

Rating: 10/10 (19 July 2012)

"The Dark Knight Rises" is an EPIC superhero movie. This in fact could potentially be an unprecedented award-winning superhero movie. The two and a half hours that was needed to tell this huge story were wisely used. The film was absorbing and the details were all vital. The photography, the visual effects, the crowd scenes, the stunts, the Bat vehicles were all AWESOME to watch, and that was only on Digital 2D.
It is a practically an impossible task to compress the span of the complicated screenplay into a single paragraph. The story basically picks up eight years after revered Gotham City District Attorney Harvey Dent was assumed to have been murdered by the Batman. Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) had been leading a hermit existence since then, and the Batman had been unheard of. The arrival of a revolutionary respirator-masked super-villain named Bane (a massive and unrecognizable Tom Hardy) that shattered peace in Gotham City knocks sense into Bruce Wayne/Batman to come out of his retirement. Question is, does he still have what it takes to defeat Bane and save Gotham?
Interwoven into this saga are other very loyal old characters like the Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman), Alfred (Michael Caine), Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), and very interesting new characters like idealistic policeman John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), the enigmatic Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard) and the complicated Selina Kyle/Catwoman (an unexpectedly perfect portrayal by Anne Hathaway). Each of these characters are integral to the main story. In fact, all of these other characters practically spend the same amount of screen time as the main Bat. Yet, no one felt superfluous at all. Even the cameo of Liam Neeson as Ra's Al Ghul was important.
This is indeed the BEST movie I have seen so far in 2012! It would be an injustice if this movie and its visionary director Christopher Nolan would not be nominated come Oscar time. This was worth the wait, the hype and the excitement. Despite the closure, the hint of a sequel makes the already perfect ending that additional punch. This is one helluva kick-ass action film, yet it does not lose the angst, the drama and the heart. The Batman is still the best DC character out there, and this film certainly shows us why!