A dignified finale

Rating: 8/10 (5 December 2012)

After it's prequel "The Dark Knight" did not live up to my high expectations due to a confusing, overladen plot, I was positively surprised by Christopher Nolan's conclusion of his Batman trilogy "The Dark Knight Rises".
While it's not my personal best comic book (graphic novel!) adaptation ever, since masterpieces like "Watchmen" or "V for Vendetta", "Spider-Man 2" and, I have to admit, even "Marvel's: The Avengers" simply thrilled me a great deal more, TDKR is certainly a great action film to enjoy, and as far as I'm concerned, better than the previous one. The nearly three hours it took quickly passed by which is always a good sign and I never had the feeling that the story had no real direction as with TDK. What I liked the most was the villain: Bane
Bane just got me. He's dangerous and he's evil. Even The Joker would have payed him respect if he had done such things at all. A lot of critics compared Bane to Hannibal Lecter because of the martial mouth mask he's wearing, but I'd like to compare him to Darth Vader and Darth Vader is cool. There is a scene near the end of TDKR (those who saw will know) that could have been directly derived from a similar scene in "Star Wars: Episode 6", and of course there is this heavily breathing, electronically enhanced voice of his that reminded me the most of the dark lord. Above that, Bane is also a tragic figure who has a heart somewhere beneath all the bull-like muscle mass.The melee between him and Batman belonged to my personal highlights of the entire film although I was somewhat surprised that Batman somehow seemed to have forgotten how to use his utility belt and only relied on the power of his fists which did not really pay off. As a mercenary, Bane commands a huge army of heavily armed mercenary soldiers. Why they're following him and even willing to die for him, unfortunately is left for guessing. Nolan, as often is the case, fails to give a deeper meaning, a deeper understanding to the motivations of his characters, some reason beyond the sheer urge to simply create chaos and destruction. The same goes with Selina Kyle/Catwoman.
Catwoman is an attractive, professional thief with some martial arts skills who is looking for a way out of the criminal milieu and thus comes in touch with Batman. Where she is from, how she has become Catwoman,why she is steeling and the reason for her change of mind remains again unclear. Apart from this, I liked the way she interacted with Batman. Her dialogues were very witty and teasing, you could feel a certain sizzling between them. I find it interesting to draw a comparison to Tim Burton's version of Catwoman and I come to the conclusion that, to me, Michelle Pfeiffer's performance is much more fascinating, much darker and grittier than that of Anne Hathaway who is certainly a very good actress.
Then there is another new character: Joseph Gordon-Levitt as police officer John Blake. Blake is seemingly the most intelligent, most righteous policeman of all the other ones including commissioner James Gordon who is put to shadow by Blake's investigative skills even outshining Batman formerly known as the world's greatest detective who always needed someone to explain him what's going on which does not do him justice. Blake was the driving force while Bruce wallowed in self-pity.
By the way, where was Batman all the time? It's quite remarkable how little screen time the actual main figure had in his own film apart from some fist fights and a few minor action scenes where he was making some cool stunts on his bike or flying around in an aircraft that looked rather like an iron turtle. Instead, Nolan focused on his true identity: Bruce Wayne, an, in the meantime, tired and decrepit shadow of a former glamorous billionaire who is living isolated in his manor like a hermit still mourning the loss of his love Rachel and seemingly deprived of any purpose in life since his initiated "Dent-law" freed the city from organized crime. Even his butler and father substitute Alfred sees no good in this inaction and loneliness. What's his proposed cure? Yes, of course, it's a woman. A fact leading to a somewhat clichéd Hollywood-friendly ending.
Nolan is an undoubtedly great director whose approach to present Batman in a more realistic setting and thus being able to address (or rather broach) subjects like the economical crisis, the gab between the rich and poor, environmental issues etc. at the latest, stands on no solid ground as soon as words as "League of Shadows" come into play. The circumstance that The Dark Knight is a comic hero after all firstly cannot be ignored and secondly always leads to a tension with the ambitious epic seriousness of the plot which Nolan does not consequently solve. The film is sometimes to serious to be taken seriously, an epos with flaws.