It’s impractical to even bother trying to compare “The Dark
Knight Rises” to its predecessors, “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight.” The
three installments making up Christopher Nolan’s groundbreaking superhero
trilogy are so remotely different from one another that the Caped Crusader
himself remains the only constant amidst the coming and going struggles against
psychological, moral and physical villainy. Set eight years after the previous
film, Batman continues his self-imposed exile from vigilantism after taking the
fall for Harvey Dent’s crimes. That is, however, until Gotham City is
threatened to its core by the masked terrorist, Bane (Tom Hardy) and his
cataclysmic agenda. Bane is a juggernaut that shouldn’t be feared just on bulk
size alone, but when combined with his calculating genius mind, the end for
Gotham has finally arrived.
Going into “The Dark Knight Rises,” the main concern that
audiences had was that the film would succumb to the “second sequel curse.” Too
many times to count, second sequels have had the tendency to pale to their
predecessors. And while most of that stems from overstuffing the finale beyond
its breaking point, “The Dark Knight Rises” overstuffs and surprisingly runs
with it. At 164 minutes, this follow-up to “The Dark Knight” materializes as
the longest installment as well as being the most ambitious. Everything is
amped up in “Rises” as Bane’s plot to level Gotham to ash is not here to invoke
fear or spread chaos, but to annihilate without remorse. Bane’s terrorist
agenda hits hard, almost too hard that it severs the thin line between fantasy
and reality further than any superhero film to date.
Christian Bale returns as a more aged, reclusive and broken
Bruce Wayne/Batman. Bale owns the iconic character, perfecting the rustiness
for being out of action for many years. Though Bruce Wayne and Batman are one
in the same, Batman himself takes a backseat for the majority of the narrative,
honing in more on the journey that Bruce Wayne the man undergoes. Batman is
prominently absent to a point where it’s easy to forget that this is a
superhero movie. After three films donning the cape and cowl (don’t forget the
sometimes incoherent gruff voice), Bale is Batman – physically, mentally,
emotionally. Whoever takes up the mantle of the Caped Crusader in the
unavoidable reboot faces too big of a challenge.
The same applies to whoever succeeds Christopher Nolan in
the director’s chair. Nolan is not only one of the finest directors today in
Hollywood, but in the history of cinema. His larger-than-life scope throws
everything imaginable at the audience, but still subtly reels in within the
boundaries of a finale’s limitations without being overly ridiculous and
bloated. In fact, if Nolan yearned to go out in a blaze of glory, “The Dark
Knight Rises” would have gone the “Harry Potter” or “Twilight” route, split
down the middle into two parts. There are plenty of sub-plots and secondary
characters to expand upon, but as it stands, the finale is coherent enough sans
the extra padding.
Nolan assembles his ensemble cast with ease. Actors like
Michael Caine, Marion Cotillard, Tom Hardy and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, all
acquainted from Nolan’s last film “Inception,” interconnect naturally with one
another. That leaves Anne Hathaway as the new girl on the scene. Hathaway as
femme fatale burglar Catwoman left many fans with the same exact question when
Heath Ledger was cast as The Joker. Really? Like Ledger, all skepticism is put
to rest as soon as Hathaway works her magic, riding the line between hero and villain.
Unlike previous iterations, she’s smart, wily and doesn’t depend on a gimmicky
S&M costume to widen a few eyes.
Equally impressive and surprisingly effective is Tom Hardy
as Bane. Now outside animation and the graphic novels, Bane has yet to receive
his proper due. That is…until now. Hardy might not be the ideal physical size
that comic book fans are accustomed to when it comes to Bane (particularly that
he’s actually smaller than Bale’s Batman), but Hardy’s top-notch performance as
the masked terrorist should silence the doubters out there. The warpath that
Bane is on throughout “The Dark Knight Rises” exemplifies how to properly handle
a physically demanding villain. Even that commanding voice of his with an
undertone of cultish chants is as menacing as a Darth Vader or Hannibal Lecter.
The largest hurdle in
“The Dark Knight Rises” is the fact that fans expect it to be superior to “The
Dark Knight” in every which way or form. But honestly, there’s really no
realistic way to even compare the two. “Rises” is so remotely different from
the previous two installments that it humanizes Gotham’s plight and the
bleakness of a terrorized city. The color palette is nothing more than ordinary
rather than staying consistent with the established theatricality of the
trilogy. Also, a hefty portion of “Rises” is shot during the daytime, which is
a step away from the abundance of night sequences, we’re so accustomed to. Even
Gotham City feels strangely different, considering shooting in Chicago was
changed to a combination of shooting in New York City, Los Angeles and
Pittsburgh. In name “The Dark Knight Rises” is a Batman movie , but at the same
time it doesn’t quite feel like a Batman movie.
Yes, the changes are a bit of a shock at first, perhaps even
distracting, but “The Dark Knight Rises” is a fully invested finale for
Christopher Nolan’s trilogy as well as the story arc with Bane and Bruce Wayne
journeying back to becoming Gotham’s silent guardian once more. Where “The Dark
Knight Rises” succeeds most is in bringing a few plot elements from the first
film full-circle. By the end, everything is wrapped up with a perfect balance
of closure and ambiguity. And in typical Nolan fashion, he doesn’t tie up every
loose end that will undoubtedly spark debates between purists and casual fans.
Back in 2005, Christopher Nolan took a great risk reinventing the cartoonish
superhero wheel with a darker, realistic approach and seven years later, it has
paid off greater than anyone could have dreamed. With his superhero saga finally
at a close, Nolan sends Batman out with the bang it deserves and one of three
benchmark films that we as audiences deserve.
GRADE: A+ (10/10)
This review is also available on Blu-Ray.com
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