Dazzling as expected, The Dark Knight Rises again

Rating: 9/10 (23 July 2012)

The third (and final from Christopher Nolan) Batman movie might be the best yet. It's mysterious, exciting fun. I can't put it more elegantly. There's mountains of tension, ulterior motives galore, and once again some of the finest supporting acting in the business.
Some time has passed since the events of The Dark Knight. Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) spends his days brooding as only Batman can. He's taken the fall for the misdeeds of Harvey Dent and has therefore stayed out of the spotlight. But when a new supervillain takes Gotham by terroristic storm, the Bat must come out of his, er, cave and right some wrongs - some much more psychological than others.
Bane (Tom Hardy) is a giant of a man who wears what looks like a cross between Darth Vader's helmet and a WW II gas mask. Apparently he needs it to breathe. What's more important is that he's out to destroy Gotham. Why? Well, it's just one of the tidbits you discover during the film that fit into the larger puzzle. Bane has a destiny to fulfill, as does Batman.
On a lower level, the new DA Foley (striving for commissioner) is knocking heads with the perpetually in-danger Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) while being upstaged by the tyro cop Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Plus there's a cat burglar (meow) named Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway), who makes Michelle Pfeiffer's version seem like Little Lulu from the comics (ask your grandparents).
Wayne Enterprises isn't doing so well, either, not with its wonderboy in seclusion. It does, however, have a huge energy-saving device, destined to change the world. The device, designed by one Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard), is shut down by Bruce, once he learns that it could be weaponized. That would be bad, as it has a nuclear core.
The plot is full of twists, the good kind. I don't like it much when something unexpected happens that simply doesn't make a lot of sense or is obviously shoehorned into the plot for no good reason. Surprises are great, as long as they're plausible, and this one has then by the bat-load. Well, a lot of bat-loads.
Of course, there's plenty of action, and any time there's a woman in a tight catsuit riding a motorcycle, I think you have a winner. Helps when that woman is Anne Hathaway. Anyway, some great set pieces, particularly one on a football field that's already been seen by everyone who watched the trailer, but it still rocks.
Standouts abound among the cast: Hathaway is cunning and sexy; Cotillard is elusive, handy, compassionate. Hardy is as his name indicates; he's a monster of a man with more than a touch of intellect and cleverness. He looks like a circus strongman but with the showmanship of a magician and the sense of forensic psychologist. Oldman, Morgan Freeman, and especially Michael Caine turn in some of the very best work.
Christian Bale is Christian Bale. Never liked him much in the first two in this Bat-series, but he is improved this time around. Good thing, because there's more to Batman than simply punching people in the eye. He's supposed to be the crafty type. He should be a good actor, what with being Bruce Wayne as well. Bale, who really is a terrific actor anyway, raises his Batman level a couple of notches and should be lauded.
I mentioned there were twists. I won't explain them here, but I did love how those twists dovetailed logically with events from the previous two films. That's good writing. Sometimes a twist is thrown in just to mess with the audience. Here the twists confirm foreshadowing or even introduce exposition where it's sorely needed.
The ending is a nice touch. It's bittersweet, playing the audience for keeps, and it works splendidly. The Dark Knight Rises is a brilliant coda to a troika of uneven films. It is perhaps the most humanistic of the three. Batman is, more than ever, a human with some special abilities, but even he cannot survive happily without the family and friends he's made along the way. Nolan (and his brother Jonathan) have done a typically fantastic job.