Note - this review contains spoilers of the previous movie in this trilogy, The Dark Knight, so don't read if you haven't seen that.
The moment we've been waiting a long time for had finally arrived. The excitement of going to see The Dark Knight Rises, which had received almost universally good reviews, was made even better by watching The Dark Knight just before we went. The Dark Knight is still so good and the performance by Heath Ledger is still so out of this world amazing as Batman's ultimate nemesis, The Joker. With The Joker suppressed and presumably in jail or an asylum (it is not mentioned at all out of respect to Heath), Two Face dead at the end of The Dark Knight and Batman going into exile and taking the rap for Harvey Dent's death, how could they continue and top the series? We were soon to find out that it would be by going big - extremely big.
Everything in The Dark Knight Rises is big - the scope, the villain, the toys, the performances. It opens 8 years after the Dark Knight, with Bruce Wayne as a recluse in his home, grieving over Rachel's death, retired from society, his company and his charity work. Batman is a wanted fugitive who hasn't been seen in years, the mafia have been shut down, the streets are clean and everyone is happy. Everyone except a guy called Bane. Bane has been building a secret army to help him carry out his plot to destroy Gotham City, which he says as a corrupt and divided city that needs to be brought back into balance. And there is nobody to stop him. Or so he thinks.....
As Batman decides to come out of retirement to fight this new threat to his city, he is aided or blocked by friends and enemies both old and new. Commissioner Gordon, loyal Alfred and Lucius Fox all have parts to play, with the main newcomers being Anne Hathaway as Catwoman (never explicitly named as such though) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as police offer Blake promoted to detective and right-hand man to Commissioner Gordon. We also have Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate, a possible love interest to get Bruce Wayne out of his shell and member of the Wayne Enterprises Board. Bane, the new villain, is simply massive in both physique and his ambition to cause chaos. He is also another very theatrical baddie, with his strange mask and creepy manner of speaking. Kudos for Tom Hardy (Inception) for his commitment to the role.
I found the movie to be really entertaining all the way through. There are several large set-pieces that are quite astonishing in the scope and scale of moviemaking on show and mainly free of obvious CGI (the football stadium was packed with real extras, in the melee between cops and baddies Christian Bale said he accidentally punched an extra because it was such a chaotic fight scene). There are a lot of parts that aren't action sequences, but I enjoyed these as well. Catwoman was a nice frothy distraction in her interactions with both Bruce Wayne and Batman, essentially providing some much needed comic relief. The dialogue between the other main players was mainly a continuation of the theme around 'what makes a hero' and the nature of villainy, which I find fascinating and ever more relevant as society appears to be crumbling around us. The baddies' cause in this case is obviously related to the recent "Occupy" movement, which makes it the most grounded in reality movie in any Batman film to date.
What I would say is that this isn't the perfect movie that a lot of people are saying it is. There are flaws - it's really, really long and you just feel some of it could have been skipped or covered a bit quicker. The cops are made to look like bumbling idiots, but this is something I noticed on re-watching The Dark Knight as well - why didn't they just go on the wrong side of the road instead of down the tunnel, why didn't they just shoot Batman when they had the chance etc? And if you thought the last movie spent too much time in the daylight, you're gonna hate this movie. Even more of the action occurs in daylight, and Gotham City just looks like New York City (obviously the location, but previous films have had much more of a fantastical feeling to the city). Coming out of the shadows just kind of spoils Batman's mystique if you ask me. And I kept getting distracted by thoughts of "hey we saw that when we were in New York".
The climactic battle is epic, entertaining and emotional and there was a nice surprise that we didn't see coming. With Batman's armoury falling into the hands of Bane and his army of believers and crooks, you get a good chance to see what all those powerful toys can really do when they're used for evil as well as good. So fun (especially the Batpod, I love it!). The film is a completely fitting finale for what has been a very ambitious undertaking to "reboot" Batman into a dark and gritty drama. Reboot is usually a dirty word but I think everyone would agree this one has been very welcome, with a fantastic character arc for Christian Bale, excellent supporting cast and villains in each one, and just some very fine movie making in general. It's probably left a little too open for the final episode in a trilogy, but I'm pretty happy with this as an ending. A very strong movie, dark, fun, thought provoking. I give it 4.5 stars out of 5.
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