Review of The Dark Knight Rises (2012) by William G — 05 Nov 2017

Beginning, Fall, Rise...

...These are the three words that sum up each film in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. Each film deliberately tells a completely different story. Which is something that many other superhero franchises lack. Most of them just retrieve the same plot and just add different aspects to make it not as obvious (Spider-Man trilogy, Iron Man trilogy, X-Men trilogy, etc).

But Christopher Nolan indeed takes a new direction with each film. Which can be said about all of his films, actually. And The Dark Knight Rises further proves it. While, The Dark Knight Rises bares stylistic resemble to The Dark Knight, it's far grander in scale, and far less restricted than its predecessor. In a way, it's a culmination of what Batman Begins and The Dark Knight have achieved. It possesses more comic book-inspired style that Batman Begins had, but doesn't lack the grit and a sense of operatic realism that The Dark Knight had.

It takes story elements from such Batman stories like The Dark Knight Returns, Knightfall, The Cult, and No Man's Land. Each of these stories could've been a movie in itself, but, the elements that the movies takes from them, it does a great job at appropriating elements from them for its own narrative.

What I really, really appreciate about this film, and what I never found in any other superhero film (until Logan didn't came out), is that, this movie gives a satisfying closure to its titular character. Which is what every other previous superhero film failed to do. Bruce Wayne in this film is tested as he never has been before, by Bane, one of Batman's greatest adversaries in the comics. But he manages to pick himself up, come back, and save Gotham, as he promised on his parents' grave to do, despite the cost. But, at the end, there is a glimpse of reward for all the pain he went through. A glimpse of hope. A sign that maybe everything he has was worth it.