[Films] The Dark Knight Rises

Time for another film review! This time around I’m going to be looking at second of the three films that I’ve been looking forward to all year, and another check mark on my ‘films to see in 2012’ list. This film is possibly one of the cinema events of the year in fact, particularly for those of us with a tendency towards geek hood. It’s time to look at “The Dark Knight Rises”

 One of the official posters for "The Dark Knight Rises" (Credit: screenrant.com)

For as long as I can remember, Batman has been one of my favourite comic book characters. Not the favourite mind; that honour went to the X-Men as an ensemble.  Actually, my superhero preferences can quite clearly be traced back to the widespread cartoons of my childhood during the 90s. I loved the X-Men cartoon, series, and really enjoyed Batman: the Animated Series and the Spiderman cartoons. As such I enjoy those characters. Whereas the Fantastic Four, Hulk and Iron Man cartoons left me somewhat cold, and so until the modern superhero film boom I was ambivalent towards those characters. But there is something about Batman that I really like. Possibly it’s the fact that he has absolutely no superpowers, unless an impressive, albeit human, intellect and seemingly unending reservoirs of cash are a superpower. In some ways it made him more accessible, more believable. His stable of villains too had a tendency to be more rooted in reality, or had the potential to be., and  the fact that he actually helps the police fight crime is what all small boys imagine superheros do. Of course most of them actually don’t anymore, and deal with big, world-threatening, global events. Only Batman and Spiderman have ever seemed to have that local-scale appeal (although that too has been reduced in comic books these days).

Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy has taken the realism inherent in Batman and turned it up to 11. Dark and gritty are the watchwords, and there is no hint of anything super-powered or unnatural in the films at all. Everything is based on current or near-future technology, and the emphasis is definitely on the ‘hero’ rather than the ‘super’. Although even that statement is debatable, with Nolan injecting admirable levels of ambiguity and shades of grey into his films.

 One of the iconic images from "Batman Begins", and possibly the entire trilogy. (Credit: screenrant.com)

The first two instalments in the trilogy were critically and publicly acclaimed, and generally considered to be the pinnacle of the current glut of comic-book character based films. Their style could even have been said to have influenced the direction of many subsequent films, both inside the genre and beyond. As such “The Dark Knight Rises” was eagerly anticipated. How would Nolan finish the story? How much further could the characters develop, and in what directions? Questions were raised when the choice of villain was revealed to be Bane; how would Nolan’s realistic take on things deal with a villain who essentially runs on super-steroids?

The answer is, quite simply, with aplomb. Tom Hardy’s Bane is an interesting and entertaining villain, almost stealing the show from Christopher Bale’s Batman and completely blowing initial concerns over his casting out of the water. Yes, he is occasionally difficult to understand, but those times are few and far between. Bane seems to take a gleeful pleasure in causing chaos and sowing discord, and he presents convincing arguments regarding personal freedoms and official cover-ups at several points in the film. The unfolding back story that accompanies him is also intriguing, and each time a new snippet of information is revealed it changes your perception of the character. 

Bane 'liberates' Gotham city. (Credit: huffingtonpost.co.uk)

Christian Bale is on fine form as an ageing Bruce Wayne trying to deal with the emotional scars from the events of “The Dark Knight”, then with the challenges of being an ageing Batman. Michael Caine puts in a superlative performance as always as Alfred the butler, showing genuine compassion for his younger charge. There is certainly much more friction between the two than previously, and you get the sense that Alfred is becoming frustrated with Bruce’s reluctance to move on. The antagonism comes to a head in one of the most moving scenes in the film.

Unfortunately several of the other established characters are given slightly short thrift. Commissioner Gordon has an excellent story arc, and his inner guilt is brought out by Gary Oldman, but he lacks screen time. So too does Morgan Freeman’s engineering genius, who does his usual job of pretending to be Q from James Bond, and whose fate is left ambiguous as far as I recall. This reduced screen time is not too noticeable though, as the characters still play integral parts in the film, and comes as the price for the introduction of several new characters. Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s young police officer is brilliant, and his journey from idealist to pragmatist, disillusioned with officialdom, is well done.  So too is “Catwoman”, who whilst never referred to as such, is very much channelling the spirit of the renowned thief. She brings much needed lighter moments to the film, and continues the theme of personal journeys that is prevalent throughout the film.

 Some of the main characters from the Dark Knight Rises (Credit: geek-grotto.com). Left to right are:

Officer Blake (Gordon-Levitt); Commissioner Gordon (Oldman); Batman (Bale); Bane (Hardy); Selina Kyle (Hathaway)

Ultimately, this film is a great piece of cinema. Well rounded characters, a brilliant plot twist at the end that throws the previous two and half hours on their head, and a plot that’s interesting, but doesn’t detract from the individuals involved, all combine for a tour-de-force by Christopher Nolan. The end of the film comes almost in two separate pieces, with the conclusion of the main plot line that is a fitting tribute to the trilogy, followed by a denouement that lifts the depression and passes the torch to a new generation. A brilliant film, and a  perfect end to perhaps the best superhero trilogy made to date.

The posters for Christopher Nolan's 'Dark Knight' trilogy combined into one. Beautiful image. (Credit: gofobo.com)