This review is dedicated to the lives lost at Aurora, Colarado. If you or someone you loved has been affected by this devastating event, you are in my thoughts and prayers.
This review contains MAJOR SPOILERS.
How to tackle something like The Dark Knight Rises? The sequel to the greatest superhero movie of all time, the finale to the greatest superhero trilogy of all time and one of the most anticipated movies of 2012? How does the great director Christopher Nolan tackle it? One thing is for certain…the movie will be in discussion for years to come thanks to its amazing action, thought-provoking situations and glaring plot holes.
Christian Bale as Batman is…interesting to say the least. He’s the perfect Bruce Wayne, commanding the screen with his acting chops and the way he embodies questions that plague anyone who has great purpose; how can I protect the ones I love? Am I truly doing everything I can? In this area, Christian knocks it out of the park. As Batman though, we never get a real feeling of who’s behind the mask. Even in The Dark Knight, Batman plays out as a separate entity, a smart idea, but Batman should also carry some of Bruce Wayne’s characteristics so that we can see that, even in the biggest battles, there’s still a guy in that Batsuit. Instead, Batman sort of plays out like an animal, one that you can’t quite grasp and who doesn’t get to show much emotion beyond “Grrr!! There’s Bane!” In Iron Man, Spider-Man and even Captain America, you could tell it was Tony Stark or Peter Parker in that suit just because their personalities were still inside those superhero identities, but in the Dark Knight universe, Batman is so separate from Bruce Wayne, it’s hard to really connect the two, and thus, the emotional plights of both protagonists are slighted. Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne is amazing, but as Batman he feels a bit weak.
On the other hand, new addition Catwoman is handled beautifully in the movie. What Heath Ledger did to The Joker, Anne Hathaway does to Catwoman. She plays the ultimate con woman, able to manipulate anyone to fulfill her whims, always having a backup plan and always getting what she wants. Anne and Christian have good chemistry and she plays a nice opposite to Bruce, being the poor girl who does this whole “don a costume” biz for herself. Their romance also plays well and realistically, though I didn’t buy their ending resolution (more on that in a minute). Series regulars, Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) and Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Caine) are phenomenal, though I felt the handling of Gordon’s family was clunky to say the least. Still, Gary Oldman plays the character wonderfully and he really comes to life in the flick, and I felt the final revelation (that Batman IS Bruce Wayne) was perfect, harking back to a great moment in Batman Begins to tug at the heartstrings. Alfred Pennyworth is also given some great acting, and I genuinely wonder if Michael could get an Oscar nomination for his stunning work on display here. He plays the patriarch of Bruce Wayne, the last father-figure he has, who is grappling with the idea of losing Bruce once and for all. Michael gives the role real gravitas and plays the gig masterfully.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt does a great job as John Blake, a new cop who turns out to know Batman’s secret identity. While I found his reason for knowing Bruce was Batman beyond stupid (seriously? You recognize that look or whatever?), John’s one of the best things about the movie. He embodies the morals and ideals Bruce once stood up for, and he winds up being a guy you root for, despite being just introduced into the saga. He works really well, and, along with Catwoman, is probably one of the best additions to the film.
As for our baddies, Bane (Tom Hardy) is amazing, another great addition to the pantheon of Batman’s antagonists. His body language doing wonders, his physicality being done sensationally and he and Batman’s first fistfight is brutal to say the least. Batman’s slow realization that he can’t beat this guy is genuinely scary, especially when Bane breaks his back, a classic image from the comics brought to wondrous life to the silver screen.
However, there’s three problems with this guy…first off, because he wore a gigantic mask on set, Tom Hardy had to record his lines in post-production, meaning his lines can be a little off-sync with his body work. Secondly, there’s his voice. It sounds like Patrick Stewart with a cloth over his mouth, and it kind of stifles his presence, as the juxtaposition of a man with the body of a pro wrestler with the voice of Jean-Luc Picard seems like more of a gag on Family Guy than a deadly-serious antagonist in a $250 million summer blockbuster. Finally, the big reveal in the end, that plucky investor Miranda Tate (Marrion Collitard) is actually…TALIA AL GOUL!! (du du duuuuummm!) In all seriousness, the twist is a poor one, mainly because it doesn’t work to comic book fans (who all know that Ra’s Al Goul DID have a child…it was Talia, not Bane like the movie tries to say) and for casual moviegoers, there’s no setup, so it just feels like the writers are grappling at straws to keep the dramatic tension going. A poor choice, especially since it makes Bane less of a threatening fellow (voice aside, the amount of necks he breaks and his awesome costume more than make up for it) and more of a lackey who just does the heavy lifting for a girl he has a crush on (and even after all that, Talia still puts him In the friend zone) Bane’s a great baddie, but Talia still leaves so much to be desired, thanks mainly to the fact that he reasons for being bad are flimsy.
The action sequences in the movie are dazzling, showing just how great Christopher Nolan is at staging this kind of stuff. A set piece involving a football field is beautiful, especially the haunting imagery of Bane’s silhouette casually watching the event from a close distance. Similarly, the opening involving the destruction of a CIA plane is something to marvel at, the way they pace the sequence is stupendous. The best though, is the climax, which is fantastic and has a real sense of grandness to it. Kudos to Christopher Nolan for staging. These integral scenes so perfectly, easily elevating the movie to brilliant heights, though admittedly the movies lacking a singular moment that leaves the entire audience gasping and giddy, such as The Avengers’ Hulk vs. Loki scene or the Dark Knights’ flipped over semi moment.
The script is filled with great dialogue and some moments (like Bane’s epic speech in the middle) gave me goose bumps, just how well-written and well thought it is. Still, a few minor plot holes (How did Bruce get back to Gotham?) do sink in, lessening the otherwise marvelous screenplay’s impact. One big problem I had though, was the ending, which feels forced, especially in a Christopher Nolan movie. So, let me get this straight…Bruce not only escaped an atomic blast (with 5 seconds to spare to boot), got to Italy, got Catwoman to come to Italy, they become a couple and Alfred happens to come across them in a café…just like in his little dream. I don’t mean to be rude (the audience around me loved the finale scene), but that just doesn’t fly with me, so tidy and coincidental in a series that has belittled chance and even made the idea of it evil (hi Two-Face!) seems cliché and even betraying the aesthetics of the whole movie trilogy. Bruce Wayne should die, so John Blake can take up the mantle of Batman, which he does regardless, but it loses a bit of it’s impact with Bruce alive and well.. What a way to end a movie that desperately need a great finale to match it’s fantastic, if slightly flawed, first and second acts.
There are so many things that don’t work in The Dark Knight Rises (the whole sequence in the pit, “Robin” John Blake, Bane’s death) and so much that works (everything else about John Blake, the action, the beautiful score) that it makes it a difficult movie to review. It’s not quite the lengths of The Avengers, but it does do enough right to probably earn the status of modern-day classics. Maybe there are a few plot holes, but the movie is just so great at times it makes it easy to forgive those missteps. Maybe an extra rewrite would’ve brought it to Dark Knight levels of perfection, but The Dark Knight Rises does do enough right on it’s own to warrant a high level of recommendation. Oh, and see it in IMAX! You won’t regret it!
