The Dark Knight Rises (Movie Review)

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I have never seen people counting down to a movie by the hour, never seen people more reluctant to reveal spoilers or anything that normally appeals to so many people, most of whom are from the comic book writing/drawing fields and have worked on the character at some time in their career. If all of this is happening, one thing is obvious - Nolan and Co. have gotten it right. To say that this was the most eagerly awaited movie of the year would be an understatement, and an unfair one, at that!

Okay, let's begin with where the first two movies by Nolan had brought us.
Batman Begins introduced us to Bruce Wayne/Batman (Christian Bale), Alfred (Michael Caine), Lieutenant James Gordon (Gary Oldman), Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy) and Ra's Al Ghul (Liam Neeson). We get a glimpse into the world of the Batman and what makes him tick. We learn of his arduous training under Henri Ducard/Ra's Al Ghul, and most important, we see how Bruce conquers his greatest enemy, his fear. The Dark Knight introduces us to the primary force of chaos in Gotham, The Joker. We see allies turn into enemies, as Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) is disfigured and ruined physically as well as mentally, turning him into the homicidal Two Face. While Batman Begins was powerful on emotional content, The Dark Knight packed a punch with it's edge of the seat sequences, and the memorable performance of Heath Ledger as the Joker.

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My expectations from The Dark Knight Rises were high, Knightfall being my favourite Batman storyline and a sequence that had become etched in my mind. I bought Batman #497 (the infamous issue where Bane breaks Bruce's spine) when I was a kid, somewhere in the early 90's and I thought "this is the end of Batman!"
I could never buy another issue from the same storyline or read it somewhere (those were the dark ages, for you kids with your internetz, ipodz and ipadz today, so forgive a poor old man, eh?) until a few years ago, when I finally purchased the tradepaperback. Talk about a cliffhanger, eh?

It is nigh impossible to talk about the film without spoilers, however minor they may be, so please bear with me... or stop reading right now. 
I mean it.

Okay, with that out of the way, let's go ahead. The Dark Knight Rises (a.k.a TDKR) shows us a Gotham eight years after Batman has retired. Bruce Wayne is a recluse who has run his company into the ground, never appears at parties - or in public at all in fact - and is left nursing a leg injury. Under The Harvey Dent Act, thousands of criminals have been put into Blackgate prison. Fellow billionaire Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard) tries too hard to cling on to Bruce, while Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) comes into his life as a common maid and proves to be a complicated player who often ends up on the wrong side of things. Whispers announce Bane's (Tom Hardy) arrival, and under extenuating circumstances, Bruce Wayne is forced to re-think his role and finds new allies in the form of Officer John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Miranda Tate. Meanwhile, Bane is planning something big to bring the city to its knees. Commissioner Gordon encounters Bane accidentally and is shot, incapacitating him. Alfred is unhappy with Bruce's decision to come out of retirement, while Officer John Blake, now Detective, realises that the city needs Batman more than ever.

Christopher Nolan has done it again. Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Joseph Gordon-Lewitt and Marion Cotillard all excel in their roles. Christian Bale looks every bit the retired loner he's supposed to in the early sequences, and packs a punch in the later ones. Tom's tone has the perfect mixture of ruthlessness and sarcasm. Anne Hathaway and Joseph Gordon-Lewitt are picture perfect.
The screenplay is top notch, and the sequences I love the most are the ones featuring the Pena Duro prison in the fictional country of Santa Prisca (filmed on location in Jodhpur), the stadium sequence (glimpsed in the theatrical trailor) and the final sequence. 

Hans Zimmer has also done it again, the score is top notch. If I have to nitpick, I'll say that the first half seems a bit dull at times, but the post interval portions more than make up for it. The ending is very poignant, as with the previous installment, and there were many sequences that brought a tear to my eye, and I'm not ashamed to admit it.

While it is unfair to compare a movie with a comic book, you just can't help yourself with this one. Tom Hardy is every bit the steroid pumped intelligent antagonist Chuck Dixon, Doug Moench and Graham Nolan intended, but his frame just isn't that larger than Bruce, which sounds a little realistic. Nolan's been bringing realistic takes to the rather outlandish rogues' gallery, and it works. While the storyline doesn't borrow too heavily from any specific story arc, I couldn't help seeing shades of Knightfall, Knightsend, Legacy, Officer Down, A Lonely Place of Dying and No Man's Land.

While I would not say that The Dark Knight Rises is the best movie of the new Batman trilogy (that honour has to go to The Dark Knight) it is a satisfying conclusion to Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy (though there is definitely room for more).

Highly Recommended!

My Rating : 9 on 10