- A trilogy rises
This is it, Christopher Nolan's last
Batman movie, a movie that was so anticipated that the midnight
showing in many places was sold out up to six months in advance. We
all know what Batman (played by Christian Bale) is, nobody lives under a rock so I'm not going
to write up a silly summary of any of that, however I am going to
write that this was the best Batman movie to date, discuss its minor
problems and note that even at its run time of 2h45m, it was actually
not long enough (even though I always dread seeing movies that are
over 2 hours due to the confining aspect of it all).
Since this movie is still in theatres,
and having talked to readers after my previous written movie reviews
that were in the theatre at the time I give this warning now. I try
to never spoil anything that isn't in the first five or ten minutes
of any movie and I'm going to do that here, but within reason, this
is a review you probably shouldn't be reading it if you didn't want
to know things about the movie. So with that being said, here is my
review.
The Nolan Batman was a gritty reboot
from the goofy Batman live-action movies we received years ago but it
also strayed away from superhero movies in general that have been
made over the years. As a series of three, people die, good and bad,
and we have no other choice but to say they are really dead, not
comic book dead (as in “don't worry he looks dead but you know next
issue he'll be back”). I really enjoyed the darker side of Batman
through his 60 years of life and Batman Begins really brought that to
life. The Dark Knight Rises (TDKR), however, brought the other two movies
to their knees.
Back when the second movie came out
many people were up in arms about Heath Ledger being the Joker. As I
never saw him in anything before, I didn't judge him until I saw it
and like many other people that Joker is quite the performance, and
so when it was announced that TDKR would feature Tom Hardy and Anne Hathaway as the drug reliant terrorist Bane and the slinky jewel
thief Selina Kyle I knew people would have doubts. Tom Hardy gained
30 pounds of muscle from the look of things and after seeing TDKR, I
no longer think of a pumped up Mexican when I hear Bane so I'm going
on the record by saying Hardy has done the best Bane of all previous
media. Selina is a bit harder to nail down. She's never mentioned
as Catwoman within the movie and so one can argue that perhaps she
isn't actually supposed to be Catwoman, her costume doesn't have a
tail and she doesn't hang out with cats although she does hang out
with stray girls and other ladies of the night (take away from
Batman: Year One). But she does play quite the thief and intrigues
our dark knight with her character and sexual energy. She has some
memorable lines throughout the movie that help her keep up to the
more entertaining characters. So while Hathaway is perhaps not the
best Selina or (arguably) Catwoman she is good enough for the movie.
A note to Anne Hathaway, congratulations from going from a princess
(2001) to the form-fitting suit of a cat burglar who is quite the
goddess for many a fan boy in TDKR. The remaining cast Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine were all as good as they were in the previous movies. New
comers to the series Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard also stand out, as expected from those actors. Collitard's eyes still freak me out by the way.
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| If they kissed it would complete a lot of fanfics. |
I saw the movie in IMAX and while I
never had a problem with the audio, I know people who swear up and
down that they missed a lot of lines or in general found the action
to be too loud for them. My best guess is those people have
sensitive ears or better yet were so excited by seeing The Dark
Knight Rises their inner screams of joy made them miss things. So,
not a point against the movie, but a warning to those who perhaps
have weak ears. I thoroughly suggest you see it in IMAX. The movie
is such a strong movie based around the crunch of violence and combat
you want to feel the movie and there isn't a safer way to experience
it than audio. The loud mix throughout really enables you to feel a
lot of the bigger bangs in your chest, something that I really love.
The movie is, as previously mentioned,
really long and with that epic you get a grand sense of all the
characters. Unfortunately, a few characters get the short end of the
stick when it came time for ending. I only bring this almost
spoilerish note because it was really my biggest complaint and the
only reason this movie didn't garner the perfect 10/10 score from me.
I give this movie 9/10
PS: The last 15 minutes or so I wept
tears of joy for such a great movie, tears of sadness that an era is
now over and tears of excitement because I get to live in a world
where this movie exists.
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