(Originally posted December 29th, 2017)
As we near the end of the month, you might think I'd be getting a little tired of these movies by now. Absolutely not. The Dark Knight Rises (2012) is yet another fantastic Batman movie, and a brilliant conclusion to Christopher Nolan's trilogy. It's a movie that was unpredictable, thrilling, suspenseful and just so incredibly entertaining. Starring Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth, Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon, Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Tom Hardy as Bane, Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as John Blake and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox.
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| The Dark Knight Rises (2012) |
One of the biggest surprises of the movie is just how quickly they're willing to let the villain win. It's something that not a lot of movies do, and it's very welcome here. This is Batman's most difficult trial yet, and considering what's come before, that's saying something. Bane was a fantastic villain, and a stellar performance by Tom Hardy considering what he had to work with. Yes, he's a little muffled at times, but it's never as incomprehensible as I thought it was going to be. At the very least, it's a far better interpretation than in Batman & Robin. I also loved how they managed to tie his motivations back to the first movie, Batman Begins. That went a long way in making this trilogy really seem like one coherent story, and that's another thing I love in sequels. The threat is very real here, and Bane is probably one of the better villains I've seen this month, purely because of what he was able to accomplish. They also manage to pull a few twists that I didn't see coming, and I obviously won't reveal them here if you haven't seen it, but trust me when I say that this villain is definitely one of the best things about this movie.
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| Tom Hardy as Bane |
One of the other great things about this movie is basically how brutal it is to Bruce Wayne. The first half of this movie is essentially just a list of terrible things the villains are able to do to him, and most of them are completely unrelated to him being Batman. Granted, they know who he is, but they need his company more than they need the Bat. 'The Dark Knight Rises' is certainly an appropriate title here, as he must rise from the several layers of dirt that keep getting repeatedly thrown on him. The downside is that the first act is a little slow, and I feel like the movie could have been about 15-20 minutes shorter and you wouldn't have lost much, but once Bruce dons the cape and the cowl again, the pace picks up and it doesn't slow down. Christian Bale is once again amazing here, and his Batman voice isn't near as grating as it got at times in The Dark Knight. But, honestly, my favourite performance in the entire movie was from Michael Caine as Alfred. He's not in the movie very much, but he's got a great arc here, and the emotion at times hits you in the feels like a charging rhino. Such an amazing character and such an amazing performance.
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| Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth |
Anne Hathaway is expectedly great here as Catwoman. It's a far more grounded interpretation, as you'd expect, and there's much less insanity as there was with Michelle Pfeiffer's interpretation in Batman Returns. I think I prefer Pfeiffer's character in that movie, but that kind of Catwoman wouldn't have worked for this story. What we got was actually really solid, and there was a really fascinating arc that she had in this film. I felt that, at times, she didn't have much motivation to do some of the things she did or, at least, it wasn't very well explained, but it didn't really matter so much, since the whole journey she went on throughout the film made sense by the end. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was another great addition to the cast, and his character was really fun to watch as well. He was like a younger Commissioner, and since it goes without saying at this point that Gary Oldman was spectacular, Gordon-Levitt was also entertaining, and there was a nice journey his character went on over the course of the film. His character also played into the film's message, and, again, in case you haven't seen it, I won't reveal it here, but it was basically the entire message of the whole trilogy, not just this film, which is great since this is the final chapter.
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| Anne Hathaway as Catwoman |
Were there problems? A couple. First of all, the films requires you to suspend your disbelief a little more than the previous movies. It's not a lot more, but there are elements in here that would make some people roll their eyes. I, personally, don't have a problem with it, but some people do, so just keep that in mind. My only other real complaint, and I'm not really sure how to say this without spoilers, but I feel like the resolution and ending was too clean, especially for how dire the situation got at points. Again, it's hard to go into this without spoiling the movie, so I'll just leave it at that, but trust me, it's a problem.
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| Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne |
It didn't affect my overall enjoyment too much, though, as The Dark Knight Rises (2012) was a fantastic movie to finish off the Batman films for the month. I've now seen every Batman movie (if you don't count Justice League as a Batman movie), and I'm very happy I did, as I found some really amazing films here, ones I'm sure to revisit again and again, including this one. 8.5/10.
Tomorrow: the DCEU continues with Wonder Woman.
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