It’s been eight years since the Batman (
Christian Bale)
supposedly murdered Harvey Dent, and no one has seen the Caped
Crusader since. Not that he’s been missed much, since Gotham City has
never been more peaceful and prosperous, with organized crime at an
all-time low. That quickly changes, however, when anarchist Bane (
Tom Hardy)
appears and threatens the city, forcing the crime-fighting vigilante
out of retirement. Complicating matters for Bruce Wayne/Batman is the
appearance of cat burglar Selina Kyle (
Anne Hathaway), whose obsession with getting Wayne’s fingerprints puts them both on a deadly collision course with Bane.
Pluses:
That pervading atmosphere of gloom and doom. After the relatively light and frothy popcorn heroics offered by
The Avengers and
The Amazing Spider-Man,
a superhero movie with a more serious tone and a more philosophical
bent is almost refreshing. Where the threats posed in those two Marvel
movies came from a fantastic genetic engineering experiment gone wrong
and an out-of-this-world cosmic cube, the terrorist threat posed by Bane
in
The Dark Knight Rises (TDKR) is one that’s far more
realistic. His tools are bombs, a nuclear device, and even the hatred
the “have-nots” feel for the “haves.” Director
Christopher Nolan’s
searing, Imax-sized images of Gotham’s purge recall not only the 9/11
attacks, but the Holocaust as well. Why so serious? The word “dark”
isn’t part of the title for nothing.
The awesome IMAX scenes.
50 minutes of TDKR’s 165-minute running time are filmed in the
standard-setting IMAX format, and they are magnificent and mesmerizing.
The establishing shots of Gotham City are all filmed in the eyeball
enthralling format, as are the spectacular and occasionally horrific
action scenes. These large-format scenes are definitely worth an extra
half-spot!
The story’s numerous twists, revelations, and surprises.
The film’s screenwriters--Christopher Nolan and brother Jonathan
Nolan--have given TDKR enough unexpected plot twists and jaw-dropping
revelations to make the film’s two hours and 45 minutes just breeze by.
Such surprises make TDKR a thrill to watch even during its quieter, less
action-oriented sequences.
The absolutely convincing visual effects. The Amazing Spider-Man and The Avengers
had computer-generated (CG) shots that weren’t 100 percent convincing
(the Lizard in the former, the Hulk in the latter). In TDKR, there’s not
one visual effects shot that’s substandard. From the shots of the
Batpod racing through Gotham’s alleys to the shots of the stealth
plane-like Bat doing aerial somersaults between Gotham’s skyscrapers,
everything looks completely real, like it was done the old-fashioned way
without the aid of computers. The flawless work of the film’s army of
visual effects wizards is even more impressive in light of TDKR’s IMAX
exhibition, which would have made any shoddy CG shots even easier to
spot.
Michael Caine’s moving performance as Alfred. As the forever loyal, wisdom-spouting butler of Wayne Manor, Oscar winner Michael Caine
has many of the best, most quotable lines in the film. These include a
touching wish/dream for his Master Bruce and a moving apology near the
end that brought this reviewer to tears.
Anne Hathaway as the seductive safecracker Selina Kyle. Just as Michelle Pfeiffer’s eccentric but unforgettable portrayal of Kyle/Catwoman in Batman Returns
was purr-fect for Tim Burton’s stylized vision of Gotham City, so
Hathaway’s less flamboyant but still beguiling portrayal is also pitch
perfect for Nolan’s more realistic Gotham.
Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, et al. Nolan
has once again assembled a top-notch cast to bring to stunning life
another superb cinematic vision. The new cast members of TDKR are all
wonderful in their respective roles, as are franchise veterans like Gary
Oldman (Commissioner Gordon) and Morgan Freeman (Lucius Fox). Even the
hundreds of extras are also good!
The simple but superb last shot. The final shot of last week’s The Amazing Spider-Man
was quite the visual effects stunner in 3D, showing the web-slinger
propelling himself through a skyscraper crane and twisting and turning
his lithe body above a glowing, moonlit New York. By contrast, the last
few moments of TDKR are much simpler, and may not even have any visual
effects trickery in them at all. It’s simply a shot that closes Nolan’s
trilogy superbly, gives the film’s title a new spin, and made me applaud
in my seat.
Minuses:
The staging of the pit sequence.
This one’s impossible to discuss without spoiling a major plot point.
Suffice to say that Nolan’s usually reliable gift for camera placement
appears to have deserted him in the most crucial shot of this scene.
The lapses in logic. Lapse #1:
At the start of the film, we learn that Batman hasn’t been seen in
public for eight years, and neither has Bruce Wayne. In fact, the joke
circulating at a party being held in Wayne Manor is that the billionaire
looks like Howard Hughes, with long hair and uncut nails. Didn’t it
occur to Wayne that doing this would make everyone figure out that he
was Batman? Lapse #2:
After Bane and his army have taken over Gotham, how come it’s so easy
for one of the good guys whom Bane is after to re-enter the city without
being seen?
In brief:
With The Dark Knight Rises, Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy is now the Lord of the Rings
of the superhero genre, a near-perfect (even the LOTR films had flaws)
gem of an adventure that’s as provocative as it is entertaining. Its
stupendous production values, mesmerizing cast, ambitious scale, and
insightful script make it easy to overlook its very few minor flaws.
Watch the full trailer here.
