A definite epic with unexpected twists yet "philosophical" in nature.

Rating: 10/10 (19 July 2012)

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES is definitely epic in scale and its storyline was nothing short of chaotic as the antagonists wreaked havoc on Gotham City. Yet somehow, this one is slightly different from the second film in that it takes a "philosophical" stand on Batman's back story in which it is almost similar to the first one. We also get to know the history of Bane and here is where the interesting twist begins to unveil as we're shown how his past life intermingled with that of Batman's.
This year seems like movies are coming full circle in terms of their characters. For example, in MEN IN BLACK III we were given retrospective stories behind the true relationship between Agent K and Agent J. THE DARK KNIGHT RISES also gave the same effect of giving the audience a link between Batman's past and his present.
The female roles in this one are equally compelling as well. They're not about to become the damsels in distress. I believe this is part of Christopher Nolan's charm as a director and co- writer in which he gave great empowerments to his female characters whereby they feature strong roles in his past films. Even in the last THE DARK KNIGHT, the character of Rachel Dawes (played by Maggie Gyllenhaal) displayed strong appeal to the audience as she was not about to take crap from anyone even in her most vulnerable scenes as Heath Ledger's The Joker confronted her in the Bruce Wayne's benefit party scene and as a kidnapped victim. In THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, Nolan's female characters are again given strong roles and empowerments as they were not to be messed with.
Oh, have I mentioned twists earlier? And yes, I mean it in its plural sense. There are several twists in the film. The two female leads, namely Anne Hathaway's "Selina Kyle/Catwoman" and Marion Cotillard's "Miranda Tate", give the audience truly unexpected twists in their characters. I, myself, was caught off-guard as their reversal of roles took a 180-turn from what I'd expected them to be.
Without giving too much spoilers, I'd say that it was quite refreshing and brilliant move that Nolan refuse to include Batman's sidekick, Robin, in any of his Batman franchise. Instead, he capitalized Catwoman as a potential protagonists. And damn, Hathaway gave feisty performances in all of her scenes in her own stunts. From the moment, she appeared on screen I was totally captivated by stunning performance. For one thing, forget about all that you've ever known or seen about Catwoman or Selina Kyle from past movies especially that of Michelle Pfeiffer's in the Tim Burton's version. In this one, Nolan decided to give her an edge that anyone who's ever familiar with the comics would feel like their heads are turned around.
This film is also nothing short of cameos throughout from Matthew Modine to Liam Neeson. There was even a scene where a particular villain that appeared in the first two films made an appearance in this one. However, you really have to be really attentive enough to spot who it is actually. Let me give you hint: he had quite a substantial part in BATMAN BEGINS and a short scene in the earlier part of THE DARK KNIGHT.
But regretfully I was pretty disappointed that Morgan Freeman's Lucius Fox was not given more screen time as he did in his strong supporting role on the last film. Nevertheless, Freeman gave a fine performance no matter how trivial his role might be.
Like I said earlier, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES takes a "philosophical" stand which might not be as appealing to some audiences. They might find some scenes to be draggy or even boring as I heard yawnings at the back of the theater and some audience members even switching on their phones. Granted that I myself did find those scenes little bit too dry but that doesn't give license to these imbeciles to be inconsiderate to others the theater.
Anyway as for the tagline, "The legend ends" I would beg the differ in that the ending somehow did not feel that way at all. There's a slight hint of the appearance of "Robin" despite Nolan's strong persistence against the sidekick's appearance.
All in all, I feel like there's a certain disconnection between the last film and this one other than reminiscing on Harvey Dent's death.
The verdict is that I'm definitely going to see THE DARK KNIGHT RISES again this weekend after Ramadhan's Iftar.