Movie Review: The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight Rises is the final movie in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight movie trilogy. Nolan has set the bar for himself quite high ever since the second movie, The Dark Knight, gathered critical acclaim; he certainly does not disappoint with the third movie.

This movie takes place roughly eight years after the event of The Dark Knight after the Joker’s rampage was put to a stop. Bruce Wayne has become a recluse, having hung up his cowl and still haunted by the death of Rachel Dawes. However, a new threat has come to Gotham, a threat named ‘Bane.’ Bane is a terrifying antagonist, incredibly strong and very cunning as well; Bruce Wayne returns to being Batman to face him, but the past years have not been kind to him and Bane is more than ready to take on the Bat.

 This movie was definitely a fun one. Bane was a wonderful villain, a combination of monstrous fighter and criminal mastermind who has a great presence, causing audience members to be on the edge of their seats whenever he appears. Selina Kyle is fun to watch as well, being delightfully snarky and never playing the ever-annoying ‘action girl that’s suddenly turned docile because someone grabs her arm’ card. Secondary protagonist John Blake is also quite likeable, playing an integral part in helping Batman and, along with returning characters such as Jim Gordan, that ordinary people can be heroes in their own way.

The story is a standard one for the Dark Knight trilogy: supervillain tries to tear Gotham apart and Batman has to save them. However, this movie seems to be a bit lacking in the ‘Batman’ department; I felt as though I saw more of Bruce Wayne than I did of Batman. Granted, this does make the moments with Batman more exciting, but there might be some people who might not like it. I do like how Selina Kyle (I notice she’s never ever referred to as ‘Catwoman’ in the movie, only a brief mention of ‘the Cat’) is written in a way that makes her essential to the plot and not just for the sake of having another character from the comics inside; the Dark Knight movies never had this problem and I was glad that The Dark Knight Rises didn’t break this trend.

The romance aspects of the movie were a bit cringe-inducing for me, mostly because of how sudden the romance aspects are brought up. There has always been some sort of attraction between Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle in other Batman works, but in this movie the romance just doesn’t seem to be based on anything other than a few flirtations and Bruce ‘understanding’ Selina’s true self. There is also a scene where Bruce has a romantic session with a character named Miranda Tate and this scene comes across with no believable romantic buildup. I felt that these scenes needed more work, but it doesn’t dent the movie too much.

However, as a conclusion to a saga, The Dark Knight Rises is a very fitting movie. The character arcs are tied up nicely, especially the story of Bruce Wayne. The story is relatively solid and very enjoyable to watch, though it can be a bit convoluted at times and the romance parts needed a bit more of a foundation to be believable. But overall it is a great way to end the trilogy and definitely one of the must-see movies of Summer 2012.

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