The Dark Knight Rises Review
In about a week and a half, The Batman hits theaters. That means we are almost done with my Batman review series. So in today’s blog post we are talking about the final movie in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises. Let’s get started!
The Good:
This is a movie that I think deserves to be called epic, and is easily the most epic movie of the trilogy. Where the story here is spanning months, the movie is once again shot with IMAX cameras. And all of it makes you feel this epic story that is being told. And what is impressive about it, is that it’s not epic because there is an alien army with sky beams. It’s a grounded type of epic, it’s large in scale but still fits the rules that Nolan established with Batman Begins.
I also think this movie is a great bookend to the trilogy. And does a great job of being the concluding installment to this trilogy. I think with having this movie tie into Batman Begins, it makes the trilogy feel complete. And as you move into the second half of the movie, you really feel like this is the final installment in this trilogy of movies. Some trilogies don’t really feel like the end on the best note, but this is not an example of that.
And somewhat tied to that, this movie has a number of emotional and gut wrenching moments. That really makes you feel the emotions you are supposed to feel. What they do with Alfred in the final 5-10 minutes of the movie, and how he is used just evokes a lot of emotion. But it’s not just the ending that is emotional, all through-out the plot you get these emotional moments that make it the most emotional movie of the trilogy. And like I said, you feel them.
Another positive for the movie is that it was shot with IMAX cameras and because of that it provides some great scenes. The opening scene with the plane heist is one of my favorite openings in movie history. I rewatch that scene about 3-5 times a week, and it blows my mind that they actually shot that. There was no CGI involved in that scene, and just the fact that they actually tore planes apart in real life, just elevates that scene. Even in the climax when you have these wide shots of the police up against Bane’s army and they are running towards each other, it looks gorgeous because of the IMAX cameras. And I think shooting it in IMAX adds to that epic tone that I mentioned earlier with this movie.
I know that I’ve mentioned this in the previous three reviews…but the cast here is great all around. The villain is Tom Hardy as Bane, and while we will talk about some things with him in the negative. In general, I think that he is a great villain played so well by Mr. Hardy. And he’s one of the most quotable movie villains out there, he gets these great one liners that are great to put in the trailer. And Christian Bale brings all of the things that he did so well in the previous movies, but brings a more broken side to the character.
Finally, this is a movie that has a nice string of humor running through-out it. It’s not these big flashy jokes, but these nice little one liners between Batman and Catwoman or Bruce and Selina. It’s not a full blown comedy, but there is a nice sense of humor running through-out the movie.
The Bad:
The first thing that comes to mind is I don’t like what they did with Bane in the third act of the movie. They built up Bane as this great villain that poses a big threat towards Batman, Bruce Wayne, and Gotham City. But the way he is defeated here is so cheap and lazy, and I think it’s some of Christopher Nolan’s weakest writing for the trilogy.
Also, there are some laps in the logic in how certain things play out. For example, when Bruce is trapped in the cave it’s for months. But back in Gotham, it’s portrayed like it’s only weeks. And some of that logic doesn’t quite add up for me. And in the middle act, I’m focusing on that more so then the movie itself.
Final Thoughts: The Dark Knight Rises seems to be a pretty polarizing comic book movie. A bunch of people seem to really like this movie or you think it’s ambitious but flawed. And there aren't a whole lot of people that are in the middle. As for me, I really do like this movie. And I think it’s a great movie that is ambitious, epic, emotional, and the book ends the trilogy really well. But I think some of the writing and logic are the biggest weakness of the movie.
The Score: 9.2/10 (A-)
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