THE DARK KNIGHT RISES Review

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES Review

By Darin Skaggs

     I love a great film trilogy. The Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones, Toy Story, The Man with No Name and the Original Star Wars trilogies are some of my favorites.  The history of film has shown that, despite the ones I’ve just named, it is hard to make a good trilogy.  Most of the time the biggest challenge of making a good film franchise is the addition of the third film, especially for superhero movies.  Examples of bad trilogies include films such as Spider-Man, X-Men and Alien.  So when I went to see Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises I was very nervous to see if it lived up to the hype of Nolan’s previous two amazing Batman films, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.  Well I’m glad to say that Nolan’s Batman series can be added to the list of great film trilogies with the new inclusion of The Dark Knight Rises.

     Nolan’s new film takes place eight years after The Dark Knight in which Batman takes the blame for the crimes of Harvey Dent and becomes a fugitive.  The city of Gotham, because of Batman’s sacrifice, has significantly dropped in crime.  No one has seen Batman in years and Bruce Wayne, Batman’s true identity, has become somewhat of a hermit. Everything seems to be going fine in Gotham city until the villain, Bane shows up and starts causing mayhem around the city.  That’s when Bruce decides that it is time to bring back the Batman and stop Bane with help from an expert thief named Selina Kyle.

      The big star in The Dark Knight was the Joker. There were other good characters, but everybody left that film remembering him.  However When I left The Dark Knight Rises, I had many of the different characters roaming around in my head.  Kyle, who is also Catwomem though she is never called that in the film, is a really interesting and dynamic character.  Other characters from the previous films are given more to do, such as Fox, Alfred and even Scarecrow has a nice cameo in the film.  Bane, who throughout is merciless and is downright evil in his actions, becomes sympathetic near the end of the film.  The story of Bruce Wayne/Batman is explored to a great conclusion and brings his character back around to who he was in Batman Begins and who he has become. 

     None of these character’s arcs would be possible without the writing and especially the acting. Anne Hathaway, who as an actress I love, plays Kyle does a great job with the role.  Tom Hardy who plays Bane has restrictions because of the mask and can only act with his eyes and his posture. This is proven to work throughout the film, especially in the opening scene.  Christian Bale, who always did well in the role, as Bruce steps up his game. I would go as far to say that no one in this movie gives less than a good performance.  The best performance for me was Joseph Gordon-Levitt as cop turned detective, John Blake.  It is a hard thing to do, in the third film in a franchise to introduce a new character and give him an arc that is satisfying and also give all the other beloved characters satisfying conclusions as well, but the direction of Nolan and the acting of Gordon-Levitt make this possible.

     If you couldn’t already tell I love this film, but it is far from perfect.  In 2010 a similar issue took place with another Nolan film Inception.  This film was fairly popular with the film community despite being less than perfect and full of plot holes.  I did not enjoy Inception for that very reason.  I enjoy The Dark Knight Rises however despite its flaws because in Inception that was an imagined world with rules we were not familiar with and had to be learned from the movie.  I think the rules of the world were not explained very well and decreased the quality of the film.  The Dark Knight Rises however is set mostly in the reality that we live in. This helped me forgive all the plot holes and faults because I could find an answer for what was not explained unlike the dream world presented to me in Inception. 

     This film makes you feel so much, when you realize that Batman is out of his element you cringe at him when he is not getting the victory we are so used to him getting, which makes his victories much more glorious and well deserved.  The emotions get high when you realize what Bruce will do and all he has done for Gotham.  It even gets a little emotional with the story of Bane.  There are even a few nods for die hard Batman fans and Nolan brings the whole story back around from Batman Begins. 

Much like Joss Weadon’s Marvel’s The Avengers, Nolan made a superhero film that can speak to you on so many levels.  It’s fun, with great characters and makes you think.  Nolan has made a franchise that can be looked at more than just a few superheroes movies, he made great cinematic art.