Review: The Dark Knight Rises

It's difficult to sit down and write a review of a film that has so much news around it the past several days. The tragedy in Colorado has no doubt weighed heavily on the minds of everyone around the country this past weekend, and it feels as if something as trivial as the critical opinion of a summer blockbuster doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot. But, I do think an appropriate action to take during this tragedy is to support your local theater or movie house, while also sending thoughts, prayers, good wishes, and the like, to the victims and families affected by the tragedy. The best way I can think of doing that is to continue going to, and writing about, the movies.

Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy has prided itself on being different than your average comic book movie. While this doesn't necessarily mean that they're superior to all comic book movies, it does mean that we expect them to have a different type of tone and meaning. There's no doubt Marvel has had massive critical and box office success with its "universe", but the tone of their films is a complete 180 from the Batman flicks. Both movie franchises great, but have very different tones. What I'm trying to say is this: The Dark Knight Rises is at times the darkest film in Nolan's trilogy, but at many more instances, is arguably the truest comic book/action blockbuster movie out of all three, and the least realized one. 

I won't go over any of the plot points here because I figure if you're reading this, you've either already seen the film or already know the basic plot. I will say that the film has an almost three hour running time at 164 minutes, yet the movie moves at a very brisk pace. This is both a good and bad thing. Whereas Batman Begins and The Dark Knight prided themselves on being character-driven stories first, Rises is very much a basic action movie. Without getting into a lot of detail, the film is set eight years after The Dark Knight. There are several returning characters from the first two films, including (of course) Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale), Alfred (Michael Caine), Fox (Morgan Freeman), and Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman). While there are some terrific moments between Alfred and Bruce concerning just what exactly Bruce has been up to for eight years, I felt like there wasn't enough there to develop these characters over that huge chunk of time. It's as if the characters pick up right where they left off. While that can work for a film set six months after the first, it needs more polish here. Yes, Fox and Gordon are secondary characters, but surely they haven't just been sitting around waiting for Bruce to come back into their lives? We do get some interesting lines about Gordon's life in that time, but there's not enough there.

That's really the big issue with the film: there isn't enough polish on the storyline. While the Batman fanboy in me was absolutely giddy throughout the film, afterwards there was a lot more I wish the film had done. Nolan has always been a director about the characters, like I stated earlier. Here, yes, our main four characters have already been explored for the most part in the first two films, and perhaps there hasn't been any significant changes in Fox or Gordon's (although, in Gordon's case, there has been) life to warrant a big character study, like there is with Bruce and Alfred. After all, they are the stars of the movie. However, new characters, especially Marion Cotillard's Miranda Tate and Matthew Modine's Foley, aren't given enough of a chance to explore their characters, which makes their moments on screen seem forced and not convincing to the movie's plot. Cotillard is terrific in what she's been given, but I wanted to see more of her character, especially in the middle when she seemingly disappears.

This isn't to say I didn't enjoy the film, but I feel I'm nitpicking. The movie had far too much hype surrounding it, and there was no way it could live up to expectations, or its predecessor. The Dark Knight, as I've already said, is the best comic book movie of all time, and a terrific crime story. It was going to be nearly impossible to match it. Nolan and company have still made a terrific finale to their trilogy, and there are a number of things that work extremely well in this installment. Anne Hathaway steals the show as Selina Kyle. The blend of sexiness and brutality she brings to the character make her one of Nolan's best females (a crutch he's been carrying ever since Following: that he doesn't create interesting female characters). Joseph Gordon-Levitt also stands out as cop John Blake, and his back story offers some interesting moments early on in the film, and towards its conclusion.

Hans Zimmer's score is absolutely breathtaking at times, and yet, it is not overdone. A fight scene that ends the first act of the film would have probably been accompanied by a grandiose score in any other movie. Here, Nolan and Zimmer let the action play out with nothing but the sounds we see and hear on screen. It makes the end of the scene have that much more of an impact, because of the nature of what happens, and the repercussion it carries throughout the rest of the film. Towards the film's conclusion, the score is massive, and takes on a life of its own during some of the more hectic scenes we've viewed this summer. Overall, the score is a great equivalent to the film itself; complimenting scenes when it needs to without being overbearing.

There are a lot of specific scenes/shots that tie directly to Batman comic books; more so than the first two films. Graphic novels like No Man's Land and The Dark Knight Returns are the basis for many of these shots. However, the novel that gets the most reference is definitely KnightFall, with a shot/dialogue taken straight from the comics that I was really, really hoping would make the film, and was extremely glad when it did. In these instances, it seems like Nolan went more for fanboy pleasure rather than grounding Batman in reality, like he did in the previous two movies. Again, this works some of the time, but not all of the time.

It's interesting to note that there's an intriguing parallel of sorts between all three of Nolan's Batman films. The best act of Batman Begins was its first, the best of The Dark Knight was its second, and the best of Rises is its third. The third act packs quite the emotional punch, with an ending that not only puts its own spin on the characters, but does it in only a way Christopher Nolan could pull off. There are flaws in each movie to be sure, but in the case of Begins and Dark Knight, the good points outweigh the bad on a significant level. In Rises, the bad points aren't overshadowed as much. They stick out just a little bit more. There are many, many plot holes and questionable occurrences in the film that I really cannot discuss in detail in a spoiler-free review; perhaps that can be for down the road.

One person I haven't mentioned yet is Tom Hardy, who plays the main villain, Bane. He's the most difficult opponent Batman has faced yet in this trilogy, and the first real threat to Bruce's life. Hardy's voice audio was the subject of a lot of scrutiny when the first trailers were released, as it was difficult to hear his lines through the mask he wears. The sound audio was enhanced, and he's (mostly) understandable in the finished film. Hardy stated that he based Bane's voice on an Irish bare knuckle brawler. In an interview, he stated: "The choice of the accent is actually a man called Bartley Gorman...A Romani gypsy...His particular accent is very specific, which was a gypsy accent. So that's why it was difficult to understand." Throughout the film he is calculated and brutal; he's Joker minus the crazy plus muscles. However, like so many other characters in the movie, he's not as fully realized as he could have been.

That's how I feel about a lot of the film. There are a lot of great ideas here, but they're just that. They never become something more than a thought or inspiration. The movie is full of wonderful ideas but not nearly enough of them are as fully-realized as they should have been. Again, I really can't go into details, but let's just say a lot more could have been done with the material towards the end of the film's second act. Is it too deranged to say that perhaps this movie should have been split into two? If not, then many of the ideas needed to be left out to make more set pieces, characters, and storylines resonate like they could have.

While The Dark Knight Rises has its fair share of flaws, it is still a pretty good film. It's not on par with the first two movies in Nolan's trilogy, but it is definitely not a disappointing threequel like Spider-Man 3 or Superman III. It's a cool film, a fun film, but it's not a great film. It doesn't disappoint as an ending to the trilogy, but a lot more could have been done to make the movie on par with its predecessor. I suppose the most disappointing part of the movie is that fact that this ride is over, but, I don't think we'll have to wait too long to see Batman on the big screen again.

B+