The Dark Knight Rises - Spoiler Filled Review

The Dark Knight Rises (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Two weeks after the release of Dark Knight Rises, I finally got a chance to see it.  I liked it, but it was not the best of the series.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

Christopher Nolan wraps up the Dark Knight trilogy in truly spectacular fashion.  After introducing the Joker in The Dark Knight, Nolan really had only one villain that could top the Joker, that being the Bane.

The story itself melds elements of Batman event stories Knightfall (where Bane plays the principle villain), along with No Mans Land, and Ra’s Al Ghul plans for Gotham from Batman Begins, with just a touch of an Occupy Wall Street/99% movement thrown in.  Set eight years after the events of The Dark Knight, Gotham is a city far different from any we have seen in previous movies.  The false legacy of Harvey Dent has allowed the Gotham Police to clean up the city, without the Batman, who has gone missing since those events.  Crime has not been eliminated completely, as we meet Selina Kyle (played aptly by Anne Hathaway), who first targets Bruce Wayne.  It is this action which starts to bring him out of seclusion.

Into this mix we add Bane, who begins to shake up Gotham by his own attack on Wayne.

What we see in this movie is a Bruce Wayne/Batman that we have never seen on the big screen, only hinted at in various Elseworlds and future stories in the comics.  This Bruce Wayne is an all too human hero.  The effects of his fight against crime has taken its toll on his body.

This is not your typical multiple villain movie battle.  While there is no question that Bane is every bit as bad as they come, there is an ambiguity with Selina Kyle that helps flesh her character out more.  She does what she does because she wants, almost needs, something.  But, even in being a criminal, she has her own standards of conduct.  This helps her become a more intriguing character than Catwomen of cinematic past.

The stand out of the movie ends up being Joseph Gordon-Levitt, moving into to the part of police officer Blake.  Blake shows himself to be more than just a normal beat cop, much more.  At times, Blake becomes more of the hero of this movie than Batman, figuring out the clues to what Bane has planned for Gotham, where Batman is almost reactive.

A bit underutilized is Marion Cotillard, who plays “Miranda Tate.”  I say she’s underutilized because the real identity of Miranda Tate has been the single worst kept secret of the whole production.  Even when you try to disconnect yourself from that, it becomes tough to not see her as Talia and wonder what exactly is the angle that she is trying to play in this movie.

As I mentioned above, while it is a good movie, it is not the best of the three.  That still goes to The Dark Knight.  But, this is a good, and worthy ending for the trilogy.

Related articles

• The Dark Knight Rises Review (girishkumar.me)
• The Dark Knight Rises (2012) Review (oldgamereviewer.com)
• 15 Things That Bothered Us About ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ (slashfilm.com)
• The ‘Dark Knight Rises’ Characters, From Worst To Best (mtv.com)

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