The Dark Knight Rises

Forests' worth of writing has already been done on this subject, no doubt, and I'm not sure how much there really is to say.  I've been a huge fan of Nolan's take on Batman from the beginning, and despite a few minor flaws, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are way, way up on my list of movies I could watch repeatedly forever.

The Dark Knight Rises (or TDKR from here on out) is the last of Nolan's trilogy, and picks up 8 years after the death of Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight.  Thanks to laws passed in Dent's name, Gotham is cleaner than it's ever been, but Jim Gordon is still torn up a bit by the lie he and Batman fabricated to keep Dent's name clean.

Enter Bane - a huge, terrifying mercenary/terrorist whose stated goal is to complete Ra's al Ghul's destiny.  And that's not just his mission - it's really the mission of the whole film.  Nolan sets out to resolve not just the appearance of Bane, and the new threat he poses, but to bring round and tie up all of the lingering feelings re: masks and the wearing thereof in a single sweep.

That's one of the biggest possible issues that TDKR has; where Batman Begins was obviously an entrance point, and The Dark Knight was pretty much standalone, TDKR has both of those movies as pretty much required reading.  There are innumerable references, overt and subtle, to the events of the previous films, and how they feed into the attitudes and mindsets of Gordon, Bruce Wayne/Batman, and even Alfred.  So as a standalone film, perhaps, TDKR doesn't stand quite as tall as its predecessors.

As the final installment of a trilogy, however, I find it pretty damn hard to fault.  The renewal and continuation of themes from the previous movies makes sure that this feels like a proper conclusion to a story, and not just another entry in an undefined, ongoing saga.  As far as comic book movies - even general heroic action movies - go, Nolan's Batman is going to be unsurpassed for a long, long time.

It's not without some niggles, though. The passage of time (the film takes place over about five months) isn't particularly well-conveyed, and some relationships seem to pop up out of nowhere, especially where the newer characters are concerned.  Bane's voice has been oddly mixed; any time he speaks, it seems to blare out of the front centre speaker at full volume, perhaps in an attempt to avoid issues with the distortion effect from his mask, and his weird, Deckard-Cain-esque accent.

All things considered, though, I enjoyed the hell out of this one. Seeing it in IMAX was one of the most impressive and immersive spectacles of my career (even in less than ideal seats), and the action sequences were the first time I can remember being actually on the edge of my seat.

If you found anything to like in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, see this.  See it now.