The final installment of Chris Nolan’s Batman trilogy, ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ has grander scope and epic than it’s predecessors, but that doesn’t mean it’s better than the previous two. The second installment, ‘The Dark Knight’ with Heath Ledger’s powerhouse performance as the Joker, was as close to movie perfection as one can get, so in fairness, how does one improve upon that? Director Chris Nolan (and let’s not forget his brother Jonathon Nolan who writes these incredible scripts) is probably the finest film maker today. Every one of his films are visually beautiful with complex and riveting story lines. Truly an impressive artist.
Nolan’s gift is taking something as outlandish as a superhero and making it seem completely plausible. He takes epic sized story lines and completely suspends our disbelief. We are too caught up trying to keep up with the intricacies and weaves of his story telling that we forget the impossibilities of what we are seeing. It is an intellectual mind blowing exercise with each one of his films and we leave the theatre feeling that we just got off a mental roller coaster ride.
'The Dark Knight Rises' is ambitious to be sure. There are inevitable comparisons of the new villain Bane (played by Tom Hardy) with Heath Ledger’s Joker. In my opinion, Bane doesn’t measure up to that iconic performance, but that doesn’t mean that Hardy doesn’t create a villain of pure evil and menace to challenge the Dark Knight. Bane’s mask causes him to have an almost Darth Vaderesque voice, rich with menacing baritones ,that causes goosebumps from the pure evil that emanates from it. A more than respectable performance. Where The Joker was chaos and random evil, Bane is meticulous and precise in his malevolence. Bane is an intellectual and physical brute force equal if not superior to Batman.
The film itself opens 8 years after the death of Harvey Dent. Bruce Wayne has become a Howard Hughes style recluse in his mansion, so permanently damaged that he hobbles around with a cane, while Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman, love him) wrestles with his conscience for the lies surrounding Dent’s death that have risen him to hero status. The once cesspool that was Gotham City is now free of organized crime and is a peaceful and idealistic city despite being based on Batman’s martyrdom and Gordon’s lies. Batman is long retired and Commissioner Gordon is viewed as a warhorse past his usefulness. A situation ripe for the arrival of evil.
Nolan has always been topical in his story telling. Where ‘The Dark Knight’ explored our feelings post 9/11, ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ explores the current Occupy Wall Street movement and our thoughts around class warfare. Bane arrives with his mercenaries and invades the Stock Exchange with the purpose of crashing the market and giving the city of Gotham over to the people. Nolan’s plots are too complex with too many surprises to go into full detail. It would do it a disservice as well as spoil the twists and turns of the film. Suffice it to say that Bane is pure evil and malevolence despite his message of liberation to the people of Gotham. Nolan obviously has disdain for the one-percenters given his portrayal of stock traders, but neither do the actions of 99-percenters sit well with him. It’s not that he’s trying to be diplomatic or a fence sitter, it’s just that he doesn’t wear idealistic rose colored glasses. He turns the lens on human nature, which isn’t always pretty.
Introduced into the story is the reimagined Catwoman (played surprisingly seductive by Anne Hathaway). She is a hardened burglar and a grifter, and despite her resentment of the rich, she finds herself drawn to the reclusive Bruce Wayne after robbing him. Even though she is never referred to as Catwoman, her functional outfits leave no doubt of who she is. She is not just a sexy femme fatale as played in previous incarnations. This is a well developed role that could probably support a movie of it’s own. She’s not the one dimensional social anarchist that we believe in the beginning and Nolan evolves her character as the movie develops. She injects welcome humor into an otherwise somber film.
How can one forget Oscar winning actors Michael Caine reprising his role as Alfred and the great Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox? Each great supporting performances of characters increasingly concerned that they will not be able to save Bruce Wayne from himself. The ray of hope is the rookie cop, John Blake (played by the Nolan favored Joseph Gordon Levitt). He is the idealist in a sea of cynicism and is Batman’s biggest believer. Even when disillusioned with his idols, he continues to believe. Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate provides Bruce’s love interest (or is she?). What starts out as a minor character becomes central as the film progresses. There are almost too many great characters to shove into one movie, but that’s what happens after numerous sequels; the baggage piles up. Nolan does a great job weaving an epic that does not feel like a superhero movie. This movie could stand on it’s own (or even stand above) as a Nolan film even without the superhero dimension, so don’t think you have to be a super hero fan to enjoy it.
The film is dark, somber, and horrifying and takes the story to surprising levels of nightmare reminiscent of Nolan’s last film, ‘Inception’. Despite or because of this, we are riveted and can’t turn away as the horrors pile on themselves. I’m not giving away any spoilers here, but I will say that the ending and the conclusion to the trilogy is immensely satisfying and leaves the series with respect and a feeling of completion. A serious film maker, not only does Nolan never look down his nose at the subject matter, you sense his deep love for the characters.
Nolan continues his roll as a maker of complex and intellectual films (whoever would have thought a superhero movie could fall in that category). While I didn’t enjoy it as much as the Dark Knight, it is an impressive accomplishment and a worthy series finale to probably the best superhero franchise ever produced.
I give this film **** stars
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