Batman - The Dark Knight Rises Review (Holy Bat Spoilers Batman)

“Not Everything. Not yet.”

Here it is the third and final installment in Christopher Nolan’s epic Batman.  The highly anticipated Batman: The Dark Knight Rises is finally here and we all have to wonder is it worth the hype.  Well that’s what I was hoping for when I went to the first showing this morning.  With my son next to me we waited with baited breath for the movie to start and to see our hero on the screen.  Would we like it?  Would it be up to par with Batman Begins and The Dark Knight? Well we had our answer after 2 hours and 44 minutes of movie viewing.

We loved it.  This movie was awesome.  Batman: The Dark Knight Rises is the best of the three movies by Christopher Nolan.  It was epic.  The Dark Knight Rises was a great story and accomplished everything it was trying to convey.  It was masterfully told and you got a sense of what the story teller was trying to tell with it.  It was a movie that dealt with the motivation of a man.  From Bane whose motivation was to destroy Gotham and break the Bat to Bruce Wayne who wanted to return and save Gotham from evil. 

You get a sense of the type of man Bruce Wayne was by watching him in the prison of hell.  Trying to escape it to no avail but finally putting everything together and realizing who he is as a man.  By searching deep down inside of him and overcoming his fear of death and finally freeing his tormented soul was he able to escape the prison.

I loved the character of Bane. Even though he isn’t the venom induced crazy man from the comics who first came onto the scene in 1995 he was still a cool and dangerous foe for Batman to face.  This Bane was more of a philosophic madman who did things his way and just killed anybody who got in his way or failed him without batting an eye lash.   Tom hardy played him magnificently.  The way he made Banes voice sound was just so creepy but with a hint of intelligent sarcasm to it.  It was really well done and his acting performance was phenomenal.

Anne Hathaway as Catwoman was really good.  She captured the Catwoman from the comic books to a T.  That’s more or less what I was thinking when I saw her performance.  It was just like Catwoman from the comic books.   It was an amazing performance one that I kind of had doubts about but as you can already tell I really liked her performance and that my doubts were unjustified.

The Dark Knight Rises was truly a movie full of surprises.  From the reveal of who the true villain is to cameo appearance by Liam Neeson as Ras al Ghul.  This movie kept you thinking. (I did have Marion Cotillard pegged as Talia).  I loved how they used Joseph Gordon-Levitt character Blake as the main protagonist who took it upon himself to get Bruce Wayne thinking again and to get back into the game.  I loved his character and was glad to see what happened to him at the end of the movie.  Robin indeed. 

This movie will be emotional for a lot of Batman fans as there are quite a few touching scenes. One of my favorites is when Alfred is saying goodbye to Bruce Wayne.  It was very emotional and it was like seeing a father saying goodbye to a son that he was proud of but had a feeling wouldn’t see again. Plus you guys are going to get choked up at the death of Batman.  It was a great way for him to go as he sacrificed himself to save everyone in Gotham city. But do not worry Batman isn’t dead.  The Dark Knight Rises ends on a happy note.

I really enjoyed this movie.  Unlike The Avengers this wasn’t an all-out action and effects movie. Yes there were some sfx in the movie and there was a lot of fighting and such but The Dark Knight Rises was more story centered that if you were expecting a mindless action filled movie than I’m sorry you are going to be disappointed.   Which is a lot of the charm of Batman in general is the storytelling.  All the great Batman stories in the comic book are story driven.  The Killing Joke, Year One, A Death in the Family, and The Long Halloween are all driven by a strong story and use the action sparingly.  These movies by Christopher Nolan are no different.  Strong storytelling complimented with action.

 

The Dark Knight Rises is a fitting end to this trilogy.  It was a great story with enough action for all the Batman purist who see this movie.  This movie will absolutely get repeated viewing from me in the theater and on Blu Ray.

A+