The Dark Knight Rises – A Spoiler Free Review

Batman has had the honor of living through several different incarnations for the better part of a century, from comic book pages to TV, animated shows to film. Christopher Nolan’s take on the Batman has been a unique one grounded in semi-reality which exists at the complete opposite end of the spectrum to the Schumacher-nipples-on-the-batsuit-Arny-as-doctor-freeze-seriously-are-you-kidding-me debacle.

Movie reviews by critics and fans alike, along with a hefty box office take for the previous movies, leave little doubt that Nolan’s Batman is the most successful yet. This weekend sees the final entry in Nolan’s Batman Trilogy with The Dark Knight Rises. I’m keeping this relatively spoiler free for a change. In the immortal words of Heath Ledger’s Joker, “And here we go…”

Written once again by the Nolan brothers and David S. Goyer (story only) The Dark Knight Rises promised to end the journey of the caped crusader that started in 2005’s Batman Begins. The story takes place 8 years after the events of the previous movie and thanks to ‘The Dent Act’, a criminal bill named after former DA Harvey Dent, organized crime has been banished from the streets of Gotham. The Batman (Christian Bale) hasn’t shown himself since the night he took the blame for the murders that were actually committed by Two Face. The entire foundation of the crime free society is built around a lie, the guilt of which sits heavily with an ageing Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman).

Bruce Wayne himself has become a recluse who, with the death of Rachel Dawes (the scary looking Maggie Gyllenhaal) in the last movie, no longer feels he has anything to live for. He’s in his forties and no longer in prime condition, mostly thanks to his crime fighting days. The introduction of Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) and, later, the film’s main villain, Bane (Tom Hardy), cause Batman to dust off the cape and cowl and take the Bat Pod for another spin around the block along with a few other nifty gadgets. That’s as much story as I can give without ruining it.

The film lends heavily from well known comic storylines like No Man’s Land and the Knightfall series. The only liberties that are taken by Nolan & Co are with the character’s origins. Bane is a super villain who gains power through his venom-powered super strength and intellect in the comics but appears in Rises as a terrorist with a breathing issue and a vendetta against Gotham.

The movie comes with some significant twists and turns throughout that would come as a surprise to anyone not familiar with the comics. Anyone familiar with Batman lore may be able to see them coming a mile away. Either way it’s still a dream come true to see Batman represented on the big screen once again.

THE GOOD – While this isn’t the best entry in the trilogy it is still an excellent movie. Bale is still the best version of Bruce Wayne/Batman since Michael Keaton and portrays both roles with such wonderfully separate personalities making it believable that most people would never guess the connection between the two. While I had reservations about Hathaway as Catwoman she took the character and made it her own. While it didn’t have the quirks of Michelle Pfeiffer’s sexy cat burglar, she still appeared as a force to be reckoned with often playing on female stereotypes where needed in order to get what she wants.

Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Gary Oldman reprise their roles as Alfred, Lucius Fox, and Commissioner Gordon respectively and don’t fail to impress.

In my opinion the star of the show ended up being Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Detective John Blake. His character is a strong believer in the Batman and is himself a younger version of Bruce Wayne without all the money. Levitt plays a very prominent part
in the story and proves once again that he’s come a long way since 3^rd Rock from the Sun. He’s also the best part of the film’s finale… (See that? I could have ruined it for you, but I didn’t. You’re welcome)

THE BAD – I like Bane as a character and I thought the change in origin story was quite good, including the reason behind the mask. However it felt like Bane could have been portrayed by any bald guy with a ton of muscles as the mask obscured most facial features making him a hard character to relate to. I have no doubt of Tom Hardy’s acting ability but he was underutilized here.

As for story points there were two things that struck me: Firstly, at times, it felt as if the story was struggling to get itself heard. Batman Begins and The Dark Knight both had very clean cut stories. The audience understood the risks and the problems that needed solving. In Rises it’s not as clean cut. At what appears to be the crescendo of Bane’s master plan it wasn’t even clear what the threat was and could have used some tightening up. Secondly, and in a complete flip of the previous point, there were some scenes that were so obvious that it pulled you out of the film completely. Around the halfway point you practically discover how everything’s going to end for our beloved dark knight (that’s right, he opens a florist).

THE UGLY – I’m one of the few people who hasn’t cared in the least about Bale’s weird gravelly-nasal voice he uses when portraying Batman. I actually thought it was genius to do that because it almost left no doubt that the soft spoken Bruce Wayne and the Batman were two completely different people. Bane’s voice on the other hand irritated the hell out of me. The mask obscured a lot of his dialogue and I’m going to have to watch it again to decipher what he was saying in some places. He sounded a lot like an old McDonald’s drive-thru speaker box that has wires sticking out of it. This was the only really annoying point for me as I like to know what the villain is saying because, ya know, it might be important.

Overall I still loved the movie. Was it the best we could have got for the final installment? Probably not. But it was extremely close. With such high expectation from the previous entries it was practically impossible to raise the bar anymore.

Nolan caps the story with a fitting end, and leaves it open for a certain amount of interpretation and possible sequel/spinoff. Although that in itself seems unlikely as Nolan and Bale have both gone on record to say this was their last outing.

This trilogy will likely stand as the definitive movie version of Batman for a long time to come. Or at least until next year when Hollywood decides to reboot/remake it.

I give The Dark Knight Rises 8.5 nipples on the bat suit out of 10.