Nolanesque Brilliance

Rating: 9/10 (25 July 2012)

The Dark Knight rises created an unprecedented buzz leading to its release and rightly so. With such a cast, director and above everything else its predecessor films, viewers expectations were high. The movie didn't fail on any account. But certainly it wasn't the best out of Nolan's Batman series. While Batman begins is an amazing journey of Bruce Wayne discovering his destiny , dark knight was a philosophical dialectic in its own respect, the whole moral dilemma reinforced by one of the greatest negative performances of all time.
But Tom Hardy doesn't disappoint. With his eyes as the sole form of expression apart from that menacing voice, he manages to exude every bit of that gritty arch nemesis like evil which can convincingly turn Gotham into a state of disarrayed anarchy. Being a fanatical Balehead, I can only gush about Christian's performance, but even the most ardent critic will have a tough time finding faults. Effortlessly he portrays a broken and tormented Bruce Wayne who goes back to being the vigilante for his final act of personal redemption. Michael Caine, Freeman, Oldman reprise their roles with the same conviction as the last two movies. Michael Caine as Alfred especially delivers an immensely emotional moment before his exit from the manor. The fresh package is definitely Anne Hathaway who despite her anti- establishment rhetoric is a convincing cat woman, a good choice given the actor's natural cat like gait.The storyline is brilliantly executed, and many previous questions answered. It takes a Nolan to close the loop of an epic series with such detailing. Hans Zimmer's music works in close tandem with the story and makes the movie darker and edgier.
However, the climax involving the entire nuclear weapon being taken to the mid sea and batman perishing with it, and ultimately not; it all felt like a common much exploited narrative, I having last read something very similar in Dan Brown's Angels and Demons. An entire city in U.S.A being held to ransom by a group of terrorists is kind of unbelievable, but then real U.S cities don't have caped superheroes.How do the characters transport between the well in desert and Gotham so quickly, and why don't police men develop beards after being stuck underground for months? These remain inconsequential but yet unanswered loopholes.
I give 9 just because TDK was a better film and I couldn't help compare. I came back home on high of good cinema and tremendously increased respect for one of the most iconic directors of our times. Not to mention, wallpapers on all my devices will be changed to those of Bale's for weeks to come.