"The Dark Knight Rises" Review

by Phillip Bryant

Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Written by:  Christopher Nolan, Johnathan Nolan, David Goyer (story)
Produced by:  Emma Thomas, Charles Roven, Christopher Nolan
Starring:  Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Michael Caine.
Music by: Hans Zimmer
Cinematography by: Wally Pfister

The Review will contain spoilers after a certain point, noted below. Feel free to read until that point if you haven’t seen the film, then stop, seriously.

At the end of The Dark Knight, Commissioner Gordon lamented the now iconic lines “because he’s the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now …” and so on and so forth, cementing one of the finest films, summer event type or not, of my generation with those incredible lines.   

If Batman wasn’t the hero Gotham needed then, in the story contained in The Dark Knight Rises, they certainly need him now.

Much has been talked about the basic story, in case you still need to know, in which case you can read one of the other billion reviews that will or have already come out, or better yet, can go see the movie.  The general consensus is that the story is just as it promises, epic, but rather than being complex like that of the previous two Batman films, it is more complicated.  This statement I cannot entirely agree with, nor can I disagree either.  The backlash, and occasional death threats, at critics who have maligned this final installment in the trilogy shows two things: the ignorance and often stupidity of people on the internet, and the sheer chart topping levels of anticipation this movie is receiving. When all is said and done, Avatar will most likely still retain its top spot on the money scales, but once you see the Dark Knight Rises, you’ll understand the ones on the top of the wealth chain don’t always have a happy ending.  But enough about the unending dribble as to box office, something that is more and more talked about and more and more destructive to film.

As with Christopher Nolan’s first two Batman films, there is something refreshingly different about this film.  One key thing is its setting, 8 years after The Dark Knight.  The tone of this film, if the first was character study drama and the second a taunt crime thriller, is nothing more than operatic.  Nolan stated his largest influences here were Doctor Zhivago and A Tale of Two Cities. To compare this Hollywood blockbuster to those two masterworks would be trite, but to not compare them may be a bigger crime, pretentious.  Superheroes are, quite possibly, the defining heroic tales of our era, much as God-like warriors were in ancient times.  The defining quality of Nolan’s Batman films is that they transcend the Hollywood Blockbuster mantra in the vain of Jaws or Star Wars, they are so very stooped in excitement, but not at the expense of originality and intelligence. 

This film is not perfect and it never could have been.  Not to mince arguments, but as a gut check to the critics who are deriding aspects of the film for not being logical, neither was The Avengers or The Amazing Spider-man.  In fact, I would be of the opinion The Dark Knight Rises is better, but to compare them is ludicrous.  The flaws in the Batman film are going to be more talked about because its stakes are so much higher than that of The Avengers.  And that is exactly why this film should be praised, it has stakes.  As soon as Iron Man flew with the bomb into space, there wasn’t a moment where I was genuinely worried for his safety: they’re already shooting Iron Man 3. Nor did I have genuine stakes for any Avenger, or Spider-man in his film.  But here, in Gotham City, anything could happen.  It is a rare situation to have in a blockbuster of any kind, and that should not be ignored.

On many occasions the film dazzles beyond fantastical, drawing me in every single moment and not letting me go. Whether it be the development of the things comic fans love or new links in the Caped Crusader’s story, to say this movie keeps you on the edge of your seat is an understatement.  How someone cannot be immersed in the story baffles me, even if the film has a string of plot holes of lazy developments.  This is a true epic conclusion.  One that is 3 hours long, and I wouldn’t have given a second thought if it was 5.  This has always been a character story, and everyone one here is in top form, especially Christian Bale and Michael Caine.  At the heart of Batman, for me, will always be his relationship with Alfred and how that keeps him in contact with the world other than evil.  It is done fine, and I am not ashamed to admit that tears rolled from my eyes, and they will yours too.

Spoilers Abound

Speculation, as I said, was all that we as an audience had to go on.  Certain things seemed evident and were, though this is not to the fault of the filmmakers no more than if I read Harry Potter I already knew what was going to happen, then was disappointed and called the films “predictable”.  Many people basically knew that Marion Cotillard, who as always is a gem, would play “Miranda Tate”, but really be Talia Al Ghul.  We were right, but it felt so satisfying in the film I didn’t care.  I was hoping the scene would come when Bane would break Batman, and it did not disappoint.  But my favorite, and sure to be most talked about part of the film, was John Blake, or “Robin”.  While watching the film, I thought to myself, he is doing, in essence, all the things Robin probably would be doing, in Nolan’s vision of Batman.  When he mentioned his real name at the end of the film, it made perfect sense.  This is not a film of the comics panel by panel, but Nolan’s adaptation of Batman.  Blake is Robin, both literally and metaphorically.  It is a great representation of what Nolan has done with the series: made it his own, but let us all along for the ride. 

The film was not everything I wanted, in fact it left some things out I did.  There was a specific shot in the trailer (where Bruce walks into Tate's society gathering) that wasn't there.  Why that bothered me, I don't know, but for some useless reason it did.  Nolan had a golden opportunity here to make something truly, artistically, spectacular and be granted a huge budget to do it. Having less characters would have improved the film, that going hand in hand with less expository scenes.  Yet I am satisfied with the movie I got to see.

As a final word, whether The Dark Knight Rises is better than the previous films doesn’t matter, it isn’t trying to be.  It is a conclusion to something breathtaking, a blockbuster with more heart, soul, charisma, and intellect than many other films put together.  Over time, this trilogy, to the chagrin of some and embrace of most, will become something on par with Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings, something that may not be repeated for quite a while. It is over said and not original, but this is truly not the film series we deserved, but the one we needed right now.