Sunday, December 16, 2012

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)


JohnnyTwoToes Tells you why this is undoubtedly the Best Batman film ever !


At long last, the final chapter of the Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale Batman trilogy arrived in a fitting conclusion to not only one of the best films of the year but one of the best trilogies in the past fifty years. 

Although it has been criticized for not being as good as its predecessor, for me it would be like comparing apples to oranges. The Dark Knight Rises(TDKR) picks up where The Dark Knight left off. Harvey Dent is dead and has become a martyr, so much so that Gotham now has "Harvey Dent Day". Bruce Wayne has now taken refuge in a portion of his estate and does not go out or take visitors unless you are Alfred or a maid feeding Bruce thorough the mail slot. 

One night at a party being thrown on Bruce Wayne's property a cat burgler named Selina breaks into Wayne's safe and steals his mother's pearl necklace and a set of Wayne's finger prints. Why? What could she possibly need Wayne's prints for? Thus enters Bane. He is a brutal thug of a man; angry immensely strong, powerful, and intelligent. He has hatched an elaborate scheme to leave Gotham a smoking pile of cinders. The plan is very involved but there are lots of twists and turns and to say anymore would ruin the film. Needless to say there are things you won't see coming and that is the joy of this film. 

Christopher Nolan and his brother Jonathan Nolan have created a smart and fresh script that has all of the elements of the Batman series including all of the original cast, but has gone above what one would expect and is pure genius. Not only does TDKR have energy, wit and intelligence but the characters seem to have grown wiser, too. 

This includes the newest characters in the form of Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) the newest rookie on Gotham's police force, Miranda (Marion Cotillard) as Wayne's newest business partner, and Selina(Anne Hathaway who may be Wayne's best friend or his worst enemy; after Bane, of course. Tom Hardy as Bane is real evil SOB and yet, he is played with intelligence and there is a real sense of impending doom whenever Bane is on screen. His face respirator, wheezing, coughing and speaking his dialogue through his raspy voice with a matter of factness that is chilling. Bane will tell what he is going to do to you but say it like he is telling you the weather. 

The returning cast is superb from the suave Bale, honest Commissioner Gordon(Gary Oldman), Alfred(Michael Caine) who loves Wayne as the son he never had, and Fox (Morgan Freeman) who is trustworthy as the day is long. But TDKR is really Christopher Nolan's triumph. His script and direction are solid and almost poetically etched in cinematic history. 

This is great film making and it held me for almost three hours. I was never bored and was always interested in what the characters were doing. Hardy's performance as Bane is a real treat, too and it is every bit as good as Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker in The Dark Knight, albeit the characters are about as different as they could be. To say one is better than the other is unfair to both. The Dark Knight Rises is a fantastic film on so many levels so I will say that it simply needs to be seen to be believed. And yes, the best Batman Film ever! 

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