Review of The Dark Knight Rises (2012) by Evis03 — 21 Jul 2012

It's not a bad movie, not by any stretch of the imagination. It's certainly superior to Prometheus. However it lacks any impact. There are no memorable performances, ideas, moments, scenes or effects- good or bad. I didn't walk out angry but I was certainly disappointed.

Bane was horribly realized. I'm sure the mask was a severe burden on Hardy's acting but I never connected with Bane the same way I did with the Joker, or even Ras. And given that he is probably my favourite Batman villain, that was a severe disappointment too. The voice is also frankly atrocious. It sounds like a stereotypical old man but through a Darth Vader filter. Half of his lines were unintelligible and the rest had any menace robbed from them thanks to the ridiculous tambre. The more we learn about him, the less sense he can his motivations make. Apart from that, the rest of the movie was just... just there. Anne Hathway made a pretty decent Femme Fatale, but the role never really evolved beyond that. I think there were just too many characters and development was spread too thin. I never got emotionally invested in any of the characters, and consequently the action and drama just didn't carry much weight.

Speaking of spreading too thin, for a Batman film we see very little of Batman, and only marginally more of Bruce. He spends the entire first act hobbling around and then after two or so action scenes he spend most of the second act wallowing in a cell while what can only be described as 'Stuff' happens.

The take home message of the film is shocking. Apart from pissing all over the 'people are essentially good' message of the second film, it also seems to be giving a great big middle finger to the idea of socialism and the Occupy movement. There's also a big thumbs up for authoritarianism. Did Frank Miller write this? Not to mention another subtext which seems to infer you should be grateful if you grow up in poverty or hardship as it will give you strength.

All in all it's a deeply flawed film in its conception and execution. It's crime isn't so much that it does things badly (not to say that it doesn't do things badly), but that it doesn't really do anything well. It's the epitome of 'meh', neither good nor bad, but with some shoddy characterization and ideas. A plain cheese sandwich made with slightly stale bread.

I think Nolan was too focused on referencing and drawing from comic source material and desperately trying to create a historical parallel, and not paying enough intention to just making a good film off his own talents. All in all, it's a big step back from The Dark Knight, and an unworthy ending. It's worth a look simply for closure, but probably as a rental.