I'm going to keep this short as much has already been said about The Dark Knight Rises and this is a spoiler-free review. The Dark Knight Rises is the last in Nolan's trilogy. I love Christopher Nolan and his Batman movies but its nice for this franchise to have a set of films that has a true beginning, middle, and end as opposed to just being continued forever by different people.
The three main new actors in this film are Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Tom Hardy. When Hathaway was first announced as Selina Kyle, I was a little skeptical, but trusted Nolan. My faith was rewarded as I thought she did a great job in the role. Selina Kyle is also never actually referred to as Catwoman.
I remember Joseph Gordon-Levitt from Angels in the Outfield (1994) and the TV show 3rd Rock from the Sun so its pretty cool that he is making the jump from child actor to adult actor. JGL plays a cop named John Blake who aids Commissioner Gordon and Batman in their attempts to protect Gotham City from Bane. I didn't know what to expect from this role as it is basically a new character but felt it was handled very well from both an acting and writing point of view.
Like Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy was in another Christopher Nolan movie, Inception. Hardy has a lot more screen time in this film as his plays the main villain, Bane. I thought Hardy put in a nice performance as a memorable and intimidating nemesis. I also liked the design of Bane's mask and costume, which are different from the way he is usually depicted in the comics.
The only real negatives about this movie are the pacing and not knowing enough about the motivations of Bane. We got too much of some scenes and not enough of others. There were some parts left out such as more on Bane's backstory which was filmed but not in the theatrical cut. I have heard that this is because IMAX can only hold 2 hrs and 45 minutes of film which is exactly the run time of The Dark Knight Rises. Perhaps the rumored extended Blu-ray cut will rectify these issues. However, Nolan usually doesn't even include deleted scenes with his movies let alone have multiple cuts available, so we'll have to wait and see what happens.
The Dark Knight Rises is not a perfect film, but a great ending to this series. Anybody who really enjoyed the first two will probably be very happy with this movie. I still feel that The Dark Knight is the best complete film in Nolan's series followed by The Dark Knight Rises, then Batman Begins. But I love them all!
8/10
Just saw this the other day. Wanted to wait til all the hype died down.
ReplyDeleteNot a bad movie. Definitely a slight step down from the previous movie but better than Begins. I thought all the actors did solid work. I even didn't mind Tom Hardy's ludicrious accent!
I think the thing that tripped it up is Nolan's insistance on making everything 'realistic' it makes the plot holes and credibility gaps seem much more obvious.
Like you I enjoyed that the whole series had a nice beginning, middle and end.
I thought Bane's accent was a little over the top but memorable. I don't mind the tone of the Nolan movies as most of the Batman comics I've read are realistic enough while still taking place in a hyper reality that isn't our world, like Batman Year One which was an influence on Batman Begins. As much as I liked Nolan's series, I hope that they go in a different direction with the inevitable Batman reboot.
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