Despite the horrific events in the early morning, I decided to go see the movie to spite the shooter’s desire to instill fear in people. I also did it so I could be a proxy for the people who waited with such fervent desire to see the film, but were permanently denied the chance to. So I dedicate this review to the victims in Aurora.
Super hero film series have a bad tendency to go south in the third installment for some strange reason. Batman Forever, Spider-Man 3, and X-3 all were terrible disappointments. So the question of whether Christopher Nolan could deliver was very valid to ask.
The good news is he delivered a worthy conclusion to the trilogy that is at once familiar, yet very different than the previous movies. Duality has been a theme throughout, so that is fitting. The Dark Knight Rises is a more emotion driven piece that explores how people handle things in a worst case scenario. While neither Batman Begins or The Dark Knight were cheerful, this is a story about losing hope and trying to find it again in an utterly grim setting.
Yes, there are impressive action sequences, but they feel like window dressing. The real heart of the movie is the characters and the challenges they face, which are plentiful and often painful. What do you do when society fails and mob rule takes over? What do you do when taken out of the game? What do you do when watching someone you love destroy themself? How do you find redemption?
The cast is excellent and I want to single out two of the newcomers to the franchise for special praise.
Ann Hathaway is the best Selina Kyle to grace the screen yet, which is not something I expected to type. Her performance catches the mixed emotions the cat burglar has every time she deals with Batman perfectly. Oh and the critics of the costume are officially morons, in my opinion. It manages to fit the style of the movies while being a very nice call back to the Julie Newmar outfits of the 1960’s TV series.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt becomes the heart of the movie as police officer John Blake and in some ways takes over that from Gordon and Alfred. Groomed by Commissioner Gordon, his presence grows steadily as the story progresses. I cannot say more without giving away too much.
Bane was well handled and is simply a brutal force snapping necks just like in the comic books. His bemused and superior arrogance leads makes him lecture through that bizarre mask at nearly every turn. His back story unspools gradually in the film. Tom Hardy managed to give a good performance using just his eyes and voice.
The newest gadget, the Bat, looked unimpressive in stills and bystander videos from filming. But up on screen, it looked amazing and makes me wish there was a model kit of it.
Like the preceding films, this one was beautifully lensed and makes full use of a big screen. The script is smart and literate with a more obvious social commentary than even The Dark Knight. One of the main messages of the movie is self reliance and not trusting the government to protect or help you.
It has been written that it is an attack on OWS, but it was written before that movement ever began. What it does do is attack mob rule and class warfare. It takes its cues from the horrors of the French Revolution rather than the protests of last year. In fact, it is very overt about this and how anyone with any knowledge of history misses that is beyond me.
So is it a right wing film? Well, it is not a left wing film, that is for sure.
I would call it a very human film, since it depicts humans in all their cowardice and heroics, shame and pride, despair and hope. The latter is the big duality theme for the movie. There is a great deal of despair portrayed and a lot of hope talked about.
The ending was fantastic and just what I wanted to see. I really can’t say anymore without hinting at spoilers, but I will say I am impressed with the way Nolan ratcheted up the tension in the final act.
While there are a lot of deaths, there is hardly any blood and quick cuts do not linger on them. There is a seduction scene, but this is a solidly PG-13 movie that might be closer to PG than the previous movies. I think kids in the double digits can handle it, not just teens.
It is hard to rate the movie within the trilogy, having only seen it once. I would hazard that The Dark Knight is the superior film, but this one is more rewarding. Go see it.
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