Review of The Dark Knight Rises (2012) by Trevor R — 21 Nov 2014

Christopher Nolan's final Batman film comes full circle and completes a fascinating (but thoroughly messy) thematic cycle. The story suffers a great deal from overreach in scope as well as some seriously creaky editing, and the final act specifically feels like it needed at least an extra hour to fully land dramatically (It's one example where the new Hollywood trend of breaking a film into "part one" and "part two" could have been an incredible benefit).

Regardless, while many of the narrative elements fall apart from a logical standpoint, and it-- like all of Nolan's films-- is largely hampered by the director's continuing obsession with characters delivering torrents of clunky exposition, there's much that resonates on a symbolic level. The cast is uniformly strong too (Christian Bale's Bat-voice notwithstanding) with Anne Hathaway and Joseph Gordon-Leavitt delivering two solid performances in a film that is interestingly and enjoyably more ensemble-based than I would have ever expected.

Tom Hardy steals the show, though; his singularly oddball performance as Bane is utterly strange, full of presence and menace with just a hint of offbeat humor, and while it would be impossible (and unwise) for anyone to try and show up or "out do" Ledger's masterful turn in "The Dark Knight", Hardy absolutely succeeds in being equally memorable and enjoyable for entirely different reasons (even if the character never comes close to matching the resonating elemental personification of chaotic evil of the Joker).

When the movie fails, it fails big, with heavy-handed Dickens-referencing speeches and eye-rolling metaphorical imagery. Still, there are enough successful sequences (particularly the brutal brawl between Batman and Bane within the sewer compound with only the sound of bone-crunching punches to serve as soundtrack) that make the whole thing work, and ultimately I sort of admire the broad tenacity of the films messages of revolution, rebirth, and the endurance of hope.