Review of The Dark Knight Rises (2012) by Discordia87 — 22 Jul 2012

It is not our own fault, as a collective audience, that the third film in the trilogy is often so pressurised into being a fantastic, ugly and plot-less mess. We get overexcited and speculate endlessly and wildly about the plot and twists of the film to the extent where the creators are left with no option but to go hell for leather and overload, over-complicate and overextend themselves when it comes to actually making the damned thing! Nolan has in the past provided massively entertaining well written, scripted and directed works of cinema, (TDK, Inception and YES prestige) I do not doubt his talent.

TDKR was not one of them, the dialogue lacked the wit and pithy impact of the previous film to the point where everything felt rushed and miscued. The plot 'twists' were obvious, unnecessary and entirely un-intriguing. The action scenes were fine, a little drab although I appreciate the 'broken Batman' concept. Bane was good and would have appeared better if the rest of the plot had stood well around him. A suitably frightening bad guy I loved the voice and the interactions between him and his army (although why they are so willing to die at his command is never fully explained). The prison scene could have worked in another film, similar to Batman Begins for example, but were an irritating and contrived side plot, especially the whole rock climbing bit (was this the key scene? Not sure). Give a director enough budget and he will drop your expectations through a trapdoor.