Satisfying Conclusion

Rating: 9/10 (17 April 2014)

The third and final instalment of Christopher Nolan's, Jonathon Nolan's and David S. Goyer's legendary trilogy is my least favourite, but is by no means bad. The problem I have found with 'The Dark Knight Rises' is its loss of realism. 'Batman Begins', the first instalment, was extremely realistic and somehow still faithful to the comics. That was what made the film so amazing, in my opinion. 'The Dark Knight' loses the realism and the faithfulness to a degree, but that wasn't a bad thing. The tension, story, ideas and genuinely scary villains of the second instalment made it not just better than the first instalment, but possibly better than any other superhero film ever made.
The conclusion to this nigh perfect trilogy doesn't come close to the first two, but still satisfies. The realism, possibly the best thing about this trilogy, is gone. There is more than one scene or concept where you may think "Well that's just plain stupid!" On realism, it could have been much better. You'll know what scenes and concepts I am speaking of when you see them. Is this film faithful to the comics? No, it's even less faithful than 'The Dark Knight', but this isn't necessarily a bad thing. It means even fans of the comics are in for big, Nolan twists. I believe that it is faithful enough for most fans to enjoy it, but much less faithful than the two previous films.
The writing of this film is much like the last two. It's very Nolan; intelligent but somewhat confusing. I think the problem with this instalment is that the writers tried too hard to make it the biggest and the best. This is part of the reason the film fails to live up to the previous two. The writing is certainly the worst of the three films, but is definitely not bad writing. It still seems dark and mysterious. I think they relied too much on shocks and scary villain scenes than on adding tension and genuinely terrifying, slow scenes. The Joker had many of these scenes in the previous film, seeming unpredictable and adding tension. Due to no more Joker, the humour is gone. This was necessary, but takes away some enjoyment for me.
The directing of this film is much like the previous two. Nolan uses the same style throughout all three instalments. The directing again takes away realism with the action not being realistic. I believe that if the age certificate was bumped up they could have made the film much more terrifying and realistic. The action in the film goes back to relying on fighting usually like in 'Batman Begins', not tension like 'The Dark Knight'. However, there are still tense scenes with Bane (Tom Hardy) that match some of the previous film's Joker scenes. The shots and action scenes are fantastically done, like the previous two, but as I have said, Tim Burton's Gothic look is more preferable to me.
The characters in this are amazing. Hardly any of them seem like their comic book selves, but this can be great, adding a fresh, unique feeling to the film. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is brilliant as Blake, who I do believe adds to the film, unlike others. I also loved the controversial twist with Blake. If it were done any other way it'd probably take away the darker side to the film. The way it was done was very unique and interesting. I loved Cillian Murphy's cameo as Scarecrow again. I always love some Cillian Murphy in a film, and his rather insane Scarecrow adds a lot, in my opinion.
Christian Bale plays a brilliant Batman/Bruce Wayne yet again. I love the dark edge to his character rough voice he uses as Batman. Tom Hardy was terrifying as Bane. He is the opposite of the Joker, thinking out a large scale plan and being calmly menacing. Very different to the comic book Bane in lots of ways, but I do enjoy different takes on characters, instead of the same thing in each remake. Anne Hathaway played an interesting Selina Kyle. She doesn't seem to be into the alter ego thing.. I don't think anyone calls her Catwoman throughout the entire film. Her settling down with Bruce Wayne doesn't appeal to me, as it isn't in character enough.
James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer did an excellent job with the music yet again. All of the tracks are unique and are great additions. The soundtrack is very different to the previous films. The first two instalments use dragged out, slow music to create tension most of the time. This film does that, but to a much lesser degree. What I loved about the series' music in the first two was the tense, slow, metallic music that suits Batman and isn't like the usual exciting, blasting music. This music, while unique, is exciting and blasting usually. It takes the tension away again, which is one of the best things about this trilogy. As a standalone soundtrack, I absolutely love this, but as a part of this trilogy I'm not too fund of it. I much prefer the tense, slow tracks.
Overall, I believe that this is a brilliant last instalment of a genius trilogy. I loved most of it. It is very different from the previous two, which is both good and bad. It felt very exciting and tense at times, and the overall story is excellent, if unrealistic. It is an amazing film, but is not close to as good as the previous two. I find it surprising that this ranks higher than Batman Begins on the Top 250 films. This finale doesn't disappoint. It is a genius conclusion for a genius trilogy. It's not as good as the other two instalments, but beating them would be an absolutely huge achievement. I expected a brilliant film to conclude the series, and that's what I got. Couldn't be happier.