An entertaining end to a majestic saga

Rating: 6/10 (21 July 2012)

The Dark Knight Rises is an entertaining action movie. The almost unceasing action comes because the story demands it. You know Gotham cannot survive the mayhem by hordes of thugs unless there is so much action, and it almost doesn't survive.
It does though courtesy a physically and emotionally wounded billionaire, who puts everything personal behind to 'Rise' to the crisis. The emotional anguish of Bruce Wayne/Batman is anguish of a man who doesn't have a choice but to stick to the code book he has written for himself. This come-what-may-but-I-will-do-only-this approach which makes Bruce Wayne so predictable also leaves him vulnerable against anyone who cares to take him down.
The Dark Knight Rises is more a story of conflicts, crises, weaknesses, strengths,despairs and victory of Bruce Wayne than Batman. It's Bruce Wayne who is tricked and deceived, its its Bruce Wayne who suffers loss of fortune and pride, Bruce Wayne who forces himself into an emotional exile, and Bruce Wayne who finally emerges from the depth of hopelessness in the final showdown between the good and the bad. Batman is just a costumed Bruce Wayne, wearing the suit to give himself some combat mileages.
Christian Bale once again shows how good actor he is with so much screen time at his disposal. We see the actor who gave those flawless performances in 3:10 to Yuma and The Machinist. Nothing much can be written about Michael Cain that has not already been said. He is one of those actors who always fool you into believing that their character is a real person.Morgan Freeman is as stylish and irreproachable as ever, although I felt his character is largely a prisoner of circumstances in the final version of trilogy. Gary Old-man turns out another stellar performance of a cop who believes in hope and his ideals.
On the other side, Anna Hathaway as the Cat-woman is charming but wholly dispensable in the entire scheme of story and Marian Cotillard about manages to delivery what's expected out of her.Almost.
So that's about it. Or did I miss out on something? No I did not, cause missing out on Bane means nothing. This purported nemesis of Batman turns out to be a tall, muscular, deep voiced thug who can lift batman up and break his spine and has a character as deep as an inverted spoon, and exactly as much interesting.
Don't even think of expecting to see anything even remotely close to the wiry, twitchy, grungy maniac who wouldn't dare touch Batman until he was down on his knees, but such an evil genius that it was a shame Batman even managed to survive to rise again is . Yes Gentlemen, some phenomena appear perhaps only once in a life time. And it's only 4 years to that majestic, unsurpassed, mystic, and foreboding phenomena called the Joker.