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 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.
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.
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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