Movie Review: The Dark Knight Rises

The final chapter in Christopher Nolan's epic Batman film trilogy is upon us. The Dark Knight Rises is just that, epic. The scope of this movie is beyond anything Nolan has done before, even dwarfing his hallucinogenic adventure film Inception (dream within a dream...go deeper!). Remember the flipping diesel truck in The Dark Knight, or the speeding train ripping through the city street in Inception? That's what Nolan's new film is like, a lumbering behemoth of a film. With a run time of damn near three hours, a smorgasbord cast of A list actors, locales and set pieces that cross the globe, and the largest most insane depiction of Gotham City ever,  The Dark Knight Rises is indeed an epic spectacle that is not to be missed.

I was skeptical before viewing this film. I mean, The Dark Knight, as much as I love picking it apart these days, was such an awesome, iconic even, event. It was like more than just a movie. Also, This new Batman flick would have the dubious task of ending the entire saga. With film trilogies, the first movie has the chore of introducing everything, the second film has free reign to do what it wants and be awesome, while the third is once again forced into tying up all the lose ends. So I kept that in the back of my head the whole time, reminding myself I was probably about to watch Return of The Jedi, not Empire Strikes Back if you catch my drift. Well, The Dark Knight Rises works WONDERFULLY as the final piece of Nolan's Batman jigsaw. Elements, themes and characters from the first two films are back, and in a big way. While Batman Begins and The Dark Knight really had no relation to one another, The Dark Knight Rises is directly linked to both previous films and knowledge of events that transpired the other films is essential to the experience of this new one.

The cast is phenomenal. Anne Hathway was my biggest fear. How would she pull off Selina Kyle (aka Catwoman)? Well she does. Everyone nails their performances. Tom Hardy is damn menacing as Bane (even if he sounds like Billy Madison sometimes). Michael Caine as Alfred, never in a million years would I think I would give a rats ass about Batman's butler but he's amazing in this. Gary Oldman, yeah he's still holding it down as Commissioner Gordon. Also, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, props man, props.

So the movie rules. Duh. But guess what...it has it's flaws. Mainly that it's bloated. Yes this movie is epic in every sense of the word, but at some points it's just too much. Some unnecessary characters (Matthew Modine's annoying cop guy for example) could have been eliminated and some of the films "epic" plot really should have been scaled down a bit. As a history geek I got a kick out of seeing Bane trying to Robespierre his way into Gotham and starting his own Reign of Terror, French Revolution style in the streets but really, some of it came off as too phoney and the previously believable Bane instantly became comic book super villain guy and that I didn't like.

Why so serious...oh.

Small grievances aside, I gotta say, I really enjoyed this movie. So nice seeing an adult film (well, not that kind, hehe) with awesome visuals that's not covered in 3D/CGI filth. Also, we've spent the past 7 years with these characters so seeing the grand finale was kind of touching. Like saying goodbye to friends on the last day of school. Damn you Nolan. Damn you!