Over Hyped Action-Movie

Rating: 5/10 (29 July 2012)

The Dark Knight (2008) is probably one of my favourite movies of all time. IMDb gave this new batman film, The Dark Knight Rises a 9, placing it in the top four greatest movies of all time. This was more disappointing than Prometheus and I was close to playing a game of solitaire on my phone for the last hour of the movie.
I think what plays an important role in determining the quality of batman films, and other super-hero films, is the villain. The Joker (Heath Ledger) was terrifying because he really had no motives for his actions, he just enjoyed putting people in situations with impossible decisions. He also had personality and wasn't physically superior so he had to turn to alternative methods to create terror and chaos. This meant that you didn't have your stock-standard fist fight every batman scene.
Bane (Tom Hardy) is a very menacing looking guy and appeared to look like a very good villain. However, upon watching the movie, I discovered that his actions really had no motives. I found it extremely difficult to follow what he was trying to accomplish. At first he was a mercenary, then he turned into some sort of martyr for freedom and liberty but controlled the city through means of a dictatorship.The twist at the end with Miranda (Marion Cotillard) where it was revealed she was the child that escaped the prison was cringeful and silly, because neither me or the audience really cared about this character.
On to the prison, where is it exactly? And this League of Shadows? Perhaps it's some contextual thing from the comics but should be explained. Bane justifies his actions by saying he's returning power to the people. He does this by releasing a thousand criminals and arming them with automatic rifles. So no one in Gotham decides to take action against this guy? Seemed like the residents weren't having a great time under this new regime.
A nuclear bomb? Wow that's incredibly original stuff from the Nolan brothersAlso the police of Gotham use their tactical skills to run into a hundred or so guys armed with guns. Luckily for them though, this tactic paid off because Bane's private army decided to have a punch-up instead. Hopefully this movie doesn't inspire people to raid the stock exchange, it seemed all too easy to bankrupt a huge company.
Some positives
Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) was a welcome surprise and wasn't just Batman's apprentice, she actually had her own agendas. Batmans new fly mobile was cool and the special effects all round were good. The soundtrack was quality and fit the action sequences well.
Overall I think this movie deserves a 5/10 pretty much because of all the weird stuff the come on screen. The final battle went on for too long and this prison thing was just plain random. I can't see why people would think this was one of the greatest batman or even eclipses the quality of The Dark Knight (2008).