The Dark Knight Rises Review

It’s generally acknowledged that the problem with film trilogies is that, while one or two films within them might be classed as great, there’s always at least one part (usually the third: see the Terminator and Godfather series’) which lets the side down. Only the Toy Story, Lord of the Rings and Star Wars trilogies have managed it, so when Christopher Nolan decided to return to Gotham City one last time in The Dark Knight Rises, the challenge he faced to create a third Batman film which would stand up next to (and ideally surpass) Batman Begins, and particularly The Dark Knight, seemed insurmountable to everyone except him.

Gotham has had eight crime-free years and, with the police and the Harvey Dent Act ensuring that things stay that way, there appears to be no need for Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) to don his cape and cowl again. That, and the fact that Batman’s still wanted for Dent’s murder while Bruce Wayne is still mourning the death of Rachel Dawes has turned the billionaire into a Howard Hughes-esque recluse. However, Bane (Tom Hardy), a terrorist trained by the League of Shadows (an organisation whose leader, Ra’s Al Ghul, was Batman’s main nemesis in Batman Begins) whose imposing physique suggests that he could probably give Marvel rival the Hulk a good run for his money, sets his sights on shattering the idyllic peace that the city finds itself in, bringing Batman out of his cave and back onto the streets.

That’s about as much as can be revealed without giving away major spoilers, but it will have to suffice. Thinking about it later, it’s staggering how much Nolan, his brother Jonathan and David Goyer have managed to pack into 165 minutes of film – there are themes that take in everything from personal betrayal to the very real economic crisis, knowing nods to and full representations of elements and plotlines from the comics, inevitable blockbuster action (including a jaw-dropping escape from a plane in mid-air by Bane in the first ten minutes), a good amount of screen-time for everyone involved (and with a cast that includes Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard, that takes some doing) and above all a re-examination of plotlines and events from the previous films, bringing things full circle from the trilogy’s first film while suggesting that the story will carry on after its end (although Nolan won’t be aboard – this is definitely it as far as he and probably all of the cast and crew, including director of photography Wally Pfister, are concerned). 

Much of the attention before the film’s release focussed on Bane – as the film’s main villain, Tom Hardy faced the unenviable task of measuring up to Heath Ledger’s chilling, Oscar-winning performance as The Joker in The Dark Knight. It seems unfair to compare them, such was the power and demented energy of The Joker, but Bane is a very different kind of enemy – one capable of physically breaking Batman in half rather than trying to outsmart him. Bane presents himself as a liberator of Gotham, breaking the people free from the shackles they are placed under by the rich and powerful, but in his own way, he causes just as much mayhem and chaos as his predecessor. It’s also worth noting that, bar two or three lines, his voice (which is muffled and distorted due to an anaesthetic-feeding mask that he wears at all times) is perfectly understandable.

While the old stalwarts are as reliable as they have been in the previous two films, two other new characters stand out. Anne Hathaway is something of a revelation as Selina Kyle, a very modern burglar whose night-vision goggles flip up on top of her head to look like the ears of a cat. Playing a character with about six different layers that she can put on display at the flick of her tail, Hathaway ensures that we see every one of those layers, and her dubious morality gives the film much of its intrigue. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays an entirely new character, one who doesn’t feature in the comics – police officer John Blake. He gives the film a much needed dose of morality and honesty as a foil to Gary Oldman’s jaded Commissioner Gordon, never wavering in his determination to rescue Gotham from the clutches of Bane and the gang of mercenaries he commands.

The Dark Knight Rises is by no means a perfect film. There are a few minor plot-holes, a relatively old-hat “ticking bomb” scenario which doesn’t add a huge amount in the way of tension and the effect Bane has as Gotham’s reckoning and as a match for Batman is severely diminished by the end. However, despite these small gripes, the film is a satisfyingly intellectual, highly emotional and always thrilling trilogy-ender on the most epic of scales. Good luck to the director that Warner Bros hires to resurrect cinema’s most famous cape and cowl – they’re going to need it.

5/5