Review: The Dark Knight Rises

Seven years ago, Batman Begins shook up the “comic book movie” industry by reinventing the character of Batman, based largely on Frank Miller‘s interpretation from Batman: Year One.  The movie marked a dramatic shift between the mostly despised Batman and Robin (that’s the George Clooney one…), and a much darker, grittier, “realistic” version of Batman (one that doesn’t include the “Batcard“).  2008 marked the release of The Dark Knight, what many critics considered “not just a good super hero movie, but also a really good crime movie.”  This movie continued in its comic inspiration, following the story line that continued from Year One with Batman: The Long Halloween.

As you might imagine, I loved Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.  They both were far closer to the Tim Burton vision of Batman of my youth, one that wasn’t as colorful and campy as the movies had become.  These movies looked at Bruce Wayne and the Batman hero has a flawed hero, one that didn’t have super powers, yet still used knowledge and cunning to protect Gotham City.

Thankfully, unlike the earlier movies in the Batman franchise, Christopher Nolan was kept on as director for all three movies, allowing him to build a trilogy with (mostly) the same actors, the same “feel,” and increasing budget to really bring things together at the end.  And, for the most part, I think he succeeded: The Dark Knight Rises is an excellent movie.  Watching the film, you can tell that certain beats were crafted from the beginning, tying characters and scenes from the first movie back to the third one, and so on.  It shows that the same team has been making all three movies, making this franchise feel more like the Lord of the Rings Trilogy than the Star Wars or Indiana Jones trilogies (anything after those first three movies never really happened, so far as I’m concerned…).  LotR was filmed at the same time, giving it the benefit of saving money, but the added benefit of continuity throughout the three movies.  The same feel as you sit and watch.  Star Wars had different teams involved in the three movies, making each movie feel pretty different.

The Dark Knight Rises is comprised mostly of two key books from the comics: Batman: Knightfall, and The Dark Knight Returns (also by Frank Miller).  The movie opens 8 years after the events of The Dark Knight, with Bruce Wayne now a recluse, Wayne Enterprises hemorrhaging money, and cops taking charge of crime in the city, without the help of Batman.  You can tell that Bruce has had a difficult time of “letting go” of his love, Rachel Dawes, but also of being Batman: a persona he had to give up in order for the (manufactured) legacy of Harvey Dent to survive.  However, when Bane, a mercenary trained by Ra’s al Ghul (from Batman Begins) as a member of the League of Shadows, appears in Gotham City, Bruce knows he’s the only person able to defeat him.  The story navigates a roller coaster, of sorts, with Batman returning to Gotham, his exit from Gotham after Bane “breaks him” (a key moment from Knightfall), and then his “rise” again at the end.  All throughout, we see how the people of Gotham, and the police force specifically, have learned to live without Batman, while still needing his return.

Generally speaking, all the usual suspects were in the movie, and they all did well.  Christian Bale has proven he can do both Bruce Wayne and Batman (no easy task), and Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman and Michael Caine continue to serve in their respective roles masterfully.  This time, Freeman and Caine seem to take something of a “back seat” in the movie, while Oldman steps up, being given quite a bit more to do as Commissioner Gordon.

The rest of the supporting cast, I’ve got a few gripes with, but was mostly pleased.  Firstly, Anne Hathaway did a remarkable job as Catwoman.  She evoked the same sultry “cat like” character from the 60s TV show, as portrayed by Julie Newmar, while also putting her own spin on the character.  That and she was very convincing during the action scenes.  Marion Cotillard and Joseph Gordon-Levitt also do a good job, but I questioned their overall purpose in the film up until the end of the movie.  With them, we’re also starting to add quite a few new characters onto an already large movie.  Matthew Modine‘s character was mostly superfluous, in my opinion.  He served a purpose, but in some ways, it seems like he was in the movie more than Alfred was (which should be a crime…).

Which brings us to Tom Hardy, who plays Bane.  Personally, I think he did a good job in the role, and definitely made it seem like he was a big, big guy.  Very intimidating, very dangerous.  However, we never see his face: it’s always behind the mask.  It’s very difficult to portray emotion when you’re in a situation like that, as you really only have your eyes and arms to try and evoke feeling from the audience.  It’s made even more difficult by the fact that his voice is distorted by the mask (and other effects), which makes it pretty difficult to understand him.  Brooke and I saw the movie at the Moolah, which doesn’t have the greatest sound in all of cinema, but I’m not sure how much of a difference it’ll be in other theaters.  I just think it was a poor choice to distort his voice to that degree, though I understand why they went that route.

As this is long enough, I’ll cut to the chase: the ending was good.  It was appropriate, it was what I wanted without knowing that’s what I wanted.  Everything got tied together in a satisfactory way while leaving enough threads open to give hope to fans that the franchise continues in some manner.

But it’s a clear end to an excellent trilogy.  There are few trilogies that come out like this, where you can safely say that all three movies are good ones, and this is definitely one of them.  I think The Dark Knight is still the best movie of the three, but this one’s still really good.