Friday, July 27, 2012

Movie Review - The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight Rises (2012) * * * * *
Director: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Anne Hathaway, Morgan Freeman, Tom Hardy, Matthew Modine.

From IMDB:
"Eight years on, a new terrorist leader, Bane, overwhelms Gotham's finest, and the Dark Knight resurfaces to protect a city that has branded him an enemy."

My Thoughts:
I totally loved this movie.  I'm not even gonna try to be all critical and professional about it either.  It's an awesome movie, you must see it, and you must love it!

*sigh*

Ok, fine.  I suppose you don't "have" to "love" it.  But I am betting that if you are a fan of Nolan's take on Batman in general, as evidenced in "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight," then you probably will love "The Dark Knight Rises."

(Here there be spoilery things).

This third installment in Nolan's series felt to me like a perfect third and final movie in a trilogy.  The story is involved, and fantastically layered, providing answers to questions that we didn't know we had, and tying certain events back to previous points in the story.  (As an example, when the residents of Gotham's prison system are released, we see some familiar characters, who take an active role in the story as it unfolds).

The movie is long, and could have been made shorter with tighter editing, without sacrificing any actual plot content, but at the same time, it didn't feel like a long movie, to me at least. Several plot twists, and some truly great action scenes and character growth moments made this film a winner.

One of the things I really enjoyed was the way that Batman, who disappeared in disgrace at the end of The Dark Knight, is able to rehabilitate himself and his image.  During his 8 year absence, the city government and citizenry have grown and learned to care for themselves - the police, who were previously too terrified to fight against the mob and other criminals infecting Gotham's underbelly, are now all too willing to fight against the terrorists, and take back their city when given the chance, creating a situation where Gotham finally doesn't need its' Dark Knight any more, but instead has the symbolism of heroes to look up to and emulate.

But the bottom line is it is awesome and you should totally watch The Dark Knight Rises on the big screen.  I give it five stars, and even Bob enjoyed it.  Go see it as soon as possible! 

But when you do, take a moment to think about the victims and families involved in the shooting in Colorado.  My thoughts and best wishes go out to them, with the hope that someday, the true meaning of what Batman and all the other Super-Heroes stand for will be realized and understood by everyone, and events like that will no longer happen in our world.  As Bruce Wayne says, "Anyone can be Batman."  Let's try to remember that, because we can all be heroes in our own way.

2 comments:

  1. With a couple of surprising plot twists, and several crowd-pleasing nods to his previous Batman films, Nolan delivers a near-perfect farewell that tops off one of the best trilogies in some recent time, especially for the superhero genre. Great review Sunny.

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