The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

The Dark Knight Rises brings the Nolan series of Batman films full circle. This film is one of the most eagerly anticipated films of the year and one where I had genuine fears that it wasn’t going to meet my high expectations. Having enjoyed the previous two Batman films I was hoping that this was going to finish off the trilogy in the way that I was hoping it would. The story takes place eight years after the events of The Dark Knight were Bruce Wayne is living pretty much as a hermit. Don’t know many hermits that are billionaires and live in massive mansion but there isn’t time to ponder on that fact because we are quickly introduced to Selena Kyle. Now I have seen the Tim Burton version of Catwoman and I have to say that prefer Nolan’s version. This is done largely because of Anne Hathaway, I’m not a Hathaway fan and haven’t really seen any of her films but I was really impressed with how she glided throughout the film.

The main thing that I was aware of before entering the cinema was that there was an issue with Bane’s voice and to be honest I didn’t really have a problem with it. The first time I heard his voice I was a little confused and there were occasional words which I didn’t understand but on the whole I understood what he was saying. I thought that Bane was a very good baddie and much better than what we got in the god awful BATMAN AND ROBIN (1997) movie where he doesn’t really do much though I am reliably informed that its more truthful to the comic in the 1997 version. Tom Hardy does a good job in a tough role because we don’t see his mouth he has to do a lot with his eyes and with the way he positions his body and he does a really good job. Christian Bale is a fantastic Batman/Bruce Wayne. I thought that this was his best outing because he didn’t spend as much time in the Batsuit as he did in previous films it made it more of a character piece and Bale did that well.

Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine are as usual brilliant in this film. I thought that Caine was just that little bit better but because he was very emotional in this film. I thought that when Alfred was at the gravestone of the Wayne and he was apologising to Bruce’s parents for not protecting him was a really sad moment and reminds us why Caine is a really good actor.

The film takes its take and with a running time of just over two and a half hours it has the time to take. It’s close to an hour before Bruce Wayne is in the Batsuit and I like how the entire film seemed to flow perfectly. I never looked at my watch and never got bored and unlike Marvel Avengers Assemble/The Avengers, I don’t think that this film needed to lose any of its running time because it ran for as long as it needed to and that a rare thing in movies at this time. It was nice how they seem to tie up the film to BATMAN BEGINS (2005) as Liam Neeson and Cillian Murphy both make surprise appearances. They are both good actors so it was a bonus when they appeared though Neeson’s was too brief.

This trilogy for my money is the best trilogy in movie history. This film was everything I wanted to be and met my very high expectations. I don’t know how long it will be before they reboot it (hopefully longer than they left it for Spiderman) but one thing is for sure and that is whoever directs it wont be able to match what Christopher Nolan has achieved in these films.