Review of The Dark Knight Rises (2012) by Reddave2 — 19 Jul 2012

The third film in any trilogy is always very hard to judge - as it has to tie up previous plots and continue the evolution of characters to satisfy an existing audience. In this case, Dark Knight Rises is a great success. Containing plenty of nods back to the previous film, its nice to see how Bruce Waynes character evolves. Anne Hathaway is surprisingly good as Selina Kyle, in a part which takes elements from Hush, The Long Halloween and Batman Year One. Tom Hardy's Bane however is quite different to the Bane we got in Knightfall (and, thankfully, Batman & Robin). Hardy is incredibly threatening as a villain, and fantastic at portraying his character through pretty much his eyes alone. It feels unfair to compare him to Ledgers Joker as both perform fantastic in their respective roles. The rest of the cast are equally good. The plot is also compelling, although much like the Dark Knight sometimes Logic is bent or straight out broken to get the film to where it needs to be. Thankfully the film justifies this moments with great set pieces and some compelling moments - Michael Caine getting the best bits to my mind. So as a conclusion to a trilogy this is in no doubt a ten for me. But as a stand alone film there are one or two plot holes and the odd clunky scene that drag it ever so slightly. Given that the first two films are excellent anyway there's no reason not to be clued in on the world that Nolan and co. have built. If you watch just one of Nolans Batman movies, go for The Dark Knight but as part of the trilogy and its conclusion this is as fantastic as the previous 2.

One thing though: I've noticed that some of the newspaper reviews criticised the politic aspects of the movie - which is bizarre as there really isn't much more than Bane using an Occupy:Gotham belief to mask his real intentions. Sure the odd comment has subtext but it has no real depth beyond the film itself. And Mitt Romney has nothing to worry about.