The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight Rises - Dir. Christopher Nolan (2012)

"You don't owe these people anymore, you've given them everything."

"Not everything…not yet."

Warning: This is a spoiler heavy review. If you have not seen The Dark Knight Rises, read the relatively spoiler light reviews by Ranjan Pruthee and I at Movie Metropolis.

Christopher Nolan revolutionized the way we think of superhero movies. Just as Richard Donner's Superman made you believe a man could fly, Nolan's Batman films made you believe a man fighting crime dressed as a giant bat could exist in the real world. Nolan's Batman was to the Tim Burton version what Burton's version was to the campy Adam West TV series. Nolan stripped the Bat of his most outlandish elements and grounded it in a gritty, realistic setting. Batman Begins detailed the origin of the Caped Crusader in a manner never seen before on the big screen. Nolan traced every step of Bruce Wayne's arduous journey to becoming the Batman. Its sequel, The Dark Knight, became a massive pop culture event and one of the highest grossing movies of all time. You can thank an unforgettable performance by the late-Heath Ledger as the Joker, Batman's greatest arch-enemy. Dark Knight also succeeded because it didn't look or feel like a typical comic book movie. It was Shakespearean tragedy done in the vein of a neo-noir crime film ala Michael Mann. The bar was set incredibly high for The Dark Knight Rises, the epic conclusion to Nolan's Bat-trilogy.

Eight years after the events of Dark Knight, Gotham City has eradicated the plague of organized crime. A thousand criminals have been locked away without parole thanks to the Harvey Dent Act. The victory has come at a high cost as the Batman accepted the blame for the murderous acts of Gotham's fallen district attorney. The cover-up has eaten away at Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman), who is left alone. His wife and children have left him and his staunchest ally has disappeared. Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) has hung up the cape and cowl and retreated back to Wayne Manor amidst rumors of becoming a Howard Hughes-esque shut-in. His time as Batman has taken its toll on his spirit and his body, walking with aid of a cane and mourning the loss of Rachel Dawes.

Before the Batman can fade into the mists of myth and legend, a new evil arrives in Gotham, a masked mercenary known as Bane (Tom Hardy), born and raised in a hellish Middle Eastern prison. Fashioning himself a latter day revolutionary, Bane is the rare foe who is both physically and mentally a match for Batman. Bane isn't cut from the same cloth as the cowardly and superstitious lot our hero generally faces. He draws first blood after hitting the Gotham stock exchange and ruining Bruce Wayne's finances. Bruce is forced to wrest control of Wayne Enterprises with the help of Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) and Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard), a new board member who provides him with much needed comfort. As Batman, he must combat Bane's loyal army with the assistance of an earnest beat cop named Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway), a slinky thief working her own agenda.

The screenplay by Christopher & Jonathan Nolan (with story credit to David S. Goyer), borrows from several comic book sources such as Knightfall (in which Bane and Batman first do battle), No Man's Land (where Gotham is cut off from the rest of the nation by government order), and Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns (where an aged Batman is forced out of retirement). The latter is fitting since Nolan utilized many elements from Miller's Batman:Year One in his own re-telling of the Caped Crusader's origin. Indeed, Dark Knight Rises brings the series full circle by drawing many parallels to Batman Begins. Much like Bruce Wayne, Bane was trained by Ra's al Ghul (w/ Liam Neeson returning in a brief dream sequence) forcing Batman to battle an old and familiar threat in the League of Shadows. Those familiar with Knightfall will know Bane breaks the Batman's back and then tosses him into the prison, which resembles the family well he fell down as a child. Once again, Bruce must re-train his mind and body for the inevitable rematch.

"And why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up."

I've always considered Christopher Nolan to be the cerebral Michael Bay. Nolan is a master at visual spectacle. We've seen what the director is capable of in Inception with massive cityscapes folding in on themselves and a jaw-dropping scene from Dark Knight involving a somersaulting 18-wheeler. Dark Knight Rises is no different as Nolan uses the IMAX format to its fullest. The film opens with a stunning prologue, done mostly with practical effects, where Bane hijacks a plane in mid-air. There's also a thrilling chase sequence as Gotham Police pursue Batman through the streets and the much ballyhooed implosion of a football field. In addition to the Tumbler and the Bat-Pod, Batman's latest weapon is the Bat, an aerial assault vehicle that glides through the labyrinthine urban landscape.

Nolan's skills as an action director have improved since Batman Begins and the set pieces in Rises are less choppy and more coherent. Nolan imbues his sense of style with a substance ripped out of the headlines. The Dark Knight was all about the Joker shattering the illusion of post-9/11 unity with Batman enacting totalitarian measures by tapping into the city's cell phone signals. In Rises, Bane presents himself as a champion for the oppressed and an enemy of economic inequality. The Nolans draw inspiration from A Tale of Two Cities with Gotham descending into a Dickensian winter under the occupation of Bane's forces. His followers toss the wealthy out of their homes and drag them in front of a kangaroo court headed by Dr. Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy) aka The Scarecrow.

These ideas are hammered in by the evolution of Gotham City from the stylized Chicago of the previous picture to an analogue of New York City. Wall Street and the Queensboro Bridge have been transplanted to Gotham with Trump Tower standing in for the headquarters of Wayne Enterprises. Yet, Nolan merely dresses the film up with these heady themes without fully drawing upon them. Sometimes they feel like parlor tricks meant to distract the viewer from obvious plot holes and inconsistencies that creep up once you have allowed the film time to absorb. The Dark Knight ended with the intriguing promise of a Batman shunned by the public he protected, hunted by the police, and once again feared by the criminal underworld as a wanted murderer. Instead, the threequel leaps forward where Bruce Wayne has improbably put Batman out to pasture. Yet, this plot element has its upside. Comic book movies depict the hero at the beginning or the prime of his career and never when his body has broken down. Bruce is forced to wear a high-tech leg brace to compensate for his knee injuries. However, his injuries are quickly forgotten after a clichéd training montage. Also, it doesn't make a lot of sense to transfer Dr. Pavel's blood to the anonymous corpse since the CIA would still be able to check DNA or dental records.

Some might be disappointed that Dark Knight Rises is the closest of the trilogy to a traditional superhero film with a city held hostage and a madman with an Armageddon device. But, is there really anything wrong with that? And when Batman is flying away with the nuke, did anyone else hope he'd say, "Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb."

Christian Bale gives his best performance of the series in Dark Knight Rises, even if he does overdo the growly Bat-voice. Bale has a rich supporting cast to draw from though many of them are criminally underutilized. Michael Caine returns as the steadfast Alfred, who serves as the heart of the film as well as an instrument of clunky exposition. Nolan still has a rough time dealing with exposition without having characters simply standing around and talking at convenient times. To me, it's just as hard to believe Alfred would abandon Bruce as it was when Michael Gough's Alfred let Vicki Vale into the Bat-Cave.

Joseph-Gordon Levitt instills more to the character of Blake than what was written on the page. As we learn in the end, his first name is Robin, Nolan's unique take on the Boy Wonder. Blake is an amalgam of the first three Robins. He's an orphan like Dick Grayson, a hothead like Jason Todd, and possesses a deductive mind like Tim Drake. Blake ultimately feels shoehorned in and his arc would have had more emotional resonance had he been introduced in the preceding installments. Although, these quibbles are remedied by JGL's performance and the money shot of Robin in Bat-Cave as the platform rises before the end credits roll.

Aussie actor Ben Mendelsohn gets to chew scenery as the unscrupulous John Daggett, an executive trying to take control of Wayne Enterprises. The brimming ensemble also includes Brett Cullen as a congressman, Game of Thrones' Aiden Gillen as a CIA Agent, Matthew Modine as one of Gordon's lieutenants, Juno Temple as Selina Kyle's sidekick Holly Robinson, and Thomas Lennon in a funny uncredited cameo as Bruce Wayne's doctor.

The Batman has often been overshadowed by his rogues gallery. Without a doubt, The Dark Knight was anchored by Heath Ledger, who won a posthumous Oscar for his turn as the Joker. Rather than go with a more renowned foe such as the Riddler or the Penguin, Nolan chose Bane, who was once portrayed as a monosyllabic henchman in Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin. Here, Nolan's interpretation of Bane is akin to a horror movie monster like Michael Myers or Jason Vorhees. He is brought to life in chilling fashion by Tom Hardy, who has played volatile and physically imposing before in Bronson and Warrior. No easy feat as the British thespian's face is hidden throughout the movie by a cumbersome gas mask. Hardy relies entirely on his eyes, body language, and a posh accent that belies his hulking frame. Think Hardy's Patrick Stewart impression from Star Trek: Nemesis meets Darth Vader. He is Bane, the gentleman's terrorist.

"If someone stands in the way of true justice, you simply walk up behind them and stab them in the heart."

The Clown Prince of Crime has stood has as Batman's most infamous archenemy because he is the yin to his yang. Where Batman represents order, Joker represents pure anarchy. He is a self-professed "agent of chaos." Bane is Batman taken to the extreme. Both come from tragic backgrounds. Both have the discipline (and myopic obsession) to train their bodies to peak physical condition. Bane's moral compass, however, points in the opposite direction of the Caped Crusader. He also lacks the support group that Bruce had in his trio of father figures: Alfred, Gordon, and Lucius. Bane is sold as a zealot believing in his own twisted brand of social justice and that's undercut by a third act twist. In the worst kept secret ever, Miranda Tate is revealed to be Talia, the daughter of Ra's al Ghul, with her own obsession to complete her father's work and cleanse Gotham City. Again, we have a child of pain driven by a mission that they are deluded to be in the right. All of Bane's talk of liberation is for naught as he becomes a mooning lapdog to Talia. Talia, a fascinating character from the comics, is played wonderfully by Marion Cotillard. She is alternately a love interest and a formidable antagonist, but her story unfolds in a rushed manner, as if they decided to compress decades of books into a matter of minutes before killing her off.

The most surprising highlight of Dark Knight Rises is Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle, never once referred to as Catwoman. Many fanboys bemoaned the casting of Hathaway and the look of her costume. Most of them were the same who criticized the casting of Heath Ledger and re-design of the Joker. Naysayers be damned, Hathaway gives this cat some serious claws. She is a strong and sultry femme fatale and brings a necessary injection of fun and wit to Nolan's usually grim and ponderous tone. If I have to make another Star Wars reference, her Catwoman is the Han Solo of Rises, a scoundrel with an ambiguous code of ethics. As for the costume, it works within context of the world Nolan has created. The goggles serve as a high-tech burglary tool while doubling as cat ears. Even her stiletto heels serve as functional offensive weapons. Hathaway is so good that I want to see her in a spin-off. Perhaps, a prequel, Catwoman Begins?

No review of Dark Knight Rises would be complete without mention of the score by Hans Zimmer. If the soundtrack comes off as bombastic and overbearing it is more the fault of Nolan than Zimmer. Nolan does drown out some scenes with the music cranked all the way to eleven. One of the film's best sequences is the initial fight between Bane and Batman with bone breaking body blows serving as the only score. Yet, Zimmer does some of his best work on Rises. He kicks off the prologue on a pitch perfect note with the spooky introductory notes to "Gotham's Reckoning." The composition builds to a crescendo with thunderous drum beats and the ominous chanting of "basara basara deshi deshi."

Yes, you can scrutinize The Dark Knight Rises to death. Or you can sit back and enjoy the visual spectacle that Christopher Nolan has crafted. Epic in scope and grandeur, Dark Knight Rises is a film meant to be seen in theaters on the largest screens possible. This is the grand finale befitting of Nolan's Bat-franchise.

Rating: **** (*****)