The Dark Knight Rises-Film Review

I would like to start this blog off by saying even though I am attaching this to a forum, I know there are already topics on the Dark Knight Rises, but this is my Blog and one of the purposes to my account is I love to review films and this will be my first for this account. If you don't want to read or comment then don't, simple as that.  And as a warning to those that read there will be spoilers in this review. I'm sorry, but its easier to explain my points when I can draw from specific examples. Feel free to leave comments below on what you thought, but no need to flame me for liking/hating certain parts of the film. This is my opinion after all and only my opinion. Now then, lets get to it.
 
The Dark Knight Rises was an absolutely brilliant film, and while it introduces many new characters and tries to blend a very hectic storyline together, it does so with very few missteps and with only a few scenes that dragged. I would like to say to start off that while it is completely ok to dislike the film, the people that say the movie was awful or an incoherent mess to me are crazy. Awful and incoherent are phrases that do not belong in the same sentence with Nolan's films. And while the film has has its flaws like all films, they are few and far between.
 
I came home this past weekend and saw the film with my family after the midnight premiere. I have seen the film twice and feel I can give it a fair judgement now. My father is the most stubborn movie critic I know. Whenever he comes out of a film, he at best will say it is ok. For this film, he walked out and said it was phenomenal and wanted me to take him again. High praise from him. What he said next is what stood out the most to me. He said that the reviewers that give this film a bad review are having to be pretty picky to say this film is not good. And while the movie has its flaws, I will point them out later in the review, they do not detract from its overall objective. I could take any movie out there and find flaws within them. No film is perfect. But the viewer will always see what they want to see in the film.
 
What I love most about Nolan is that other than his terrific storytelling, he is fantastic at casting. This film was no exception. It was filled with excellent performances, and one or two that in my opinion deserve an Oscar nomination, but not a win. There were several performances that stood out for me. The first was Anne Hathaway. Like Heath Ledger before her, many people were in an uproar when she was cast, but I knew I could trust in Nolan and that she would do a damn good job. And indeed she did. I knew she was perfect for the role from the moment she looked at Bruce and  her face changes from shock to being sly and saying, "Oops, no one told me it was uncrackable." Her reaction to that was perfect and I knew we were in for a real treat. To me it was worthy of a nomination for Best Supporting Actress. I say Supporting because her and Marion Cotillard share around the same amount of screen time and neither of them seem to be a "lead" role.  
 
The next performance that stood out was Tom Hardy. To be able to strike fear into someone using only your eyes is unreal. While his performance is not as astounding as Ledger's, what he did was still unreal. Two scenes that jump out to me were the scene in frontof the prison and the scene after Batman beats him down and his mask breaks. When he just is laying there during Talia's speech, he gives off so much emotion and pain through very slight flicks of the eyes. Purely amazing. The last performance that I would say is a standout was Bale. He finally nailed the voice. It was a great mixture of Batman Begins and the awful growl he had in The Dark Knight. But the best part was his Bruce Wayne. Absolutely incredible and he has always seemed like the perfect Bruce. 
 
The ending was the perfect ending possible for this trilogy. The last 10 minutes or so of this film were some of the best in recent history. While Bane's death felt underwhelming, the final minutes were so beautiful that I was able to let it slide. The scene where Bruce climbs out of the prison without the rope gave me chills. The Deshi Basara chant and Zimmer's score in the background, combined with the moment where the bats coming soaring out of the wall to surround Bruce gave me chills.
 
Now for the technical aspects. The cinematography was excellent. Wally Pfister does another outstanding job. Several of the landscape shots over Gotham had my jaw dropping. The score was beautiful. it is the small touches that make Hans Zimmer so great. In Batman Begins the ending track has a choir boy with a note frozen in time as if to signify the pain Bruce is in and that he cannot let go of his parents death. As Bruce flies out over the sea with the bomb, the choir boy's tune flows and helps to show that Bruce is ready to move on. He has given Gotham everything he has, and the pain he feels of his parents death is gone.  The film is not without flaws though and they come from the technical aspects. There were several times where Bane was impossible to understand. Hardy's lines are so genius that they need to be heard and I think at least 10 times there were phrases that were near unintelligible. And at times the score from Zimmer is so overpowering that the dialogue is drowned out. While, the story is quite hectic, I never felt it was rushed. Several scenes did drag but they were necessary to give us a breather from the extreme pace.  
 
To close this is nothing but a fantastic film. It combines everything that makes Nolan's film so great. Terrific storytelling, breathtaking cinematography, beautiful score, and Oscar worthy performances. I always dreamed that Nolan would finally get the recognition from the academy that he so rightly deserves. It will be interesting to see how it is treated come Oscar season. The thing that has always gotten me, is the same types of films win the award every year and while they are wonderful films, I have never felt a seperation from the films the year before. To me, The Dark Knight trilogy is The Godfather trilogy of this generation. It is not often that a film series transcends its genre and is a film that almost any movie goer can enjoy. And that is truly special.
 
Score: 9.5/10

I would like to start this blog off by saying even though I am attaching this to a forum, I know there are already topics on the Dark Knight Rises, but this is my Blog and one of the purposes to my account is I love to review films and this will be my first for this account. If you don't want to read or comment then don't, simple as that.  And as a warning to those that read there will be spoilers in this review. I'm sorry, but its easier to explain my points when I can draw from specific examples. Feel free to leave comments below on what you thought, but no need to flame me for liking/hating certain parts of the film. This is my opinion after all and only my opinion. Now then, lets get to it.
 
The Dark Knight Rises was an absolutely brilliant film, and while it introduces many new characters and tries to blend a very hectic storyline together, it does so with very few missteps and with only a few scenes that dragged. I would like to say to start off that while it is completely ok to dislike the film, the people that say the movie was awful or an incoherent mess to me are crazy. Awful and incoherent are phrases that do not belong in the same sentence with Nolan's films. And while the film has has its flaws like all films, they are few and far between.
 
I came home this past weekend and saw the film with my family after the midnight premiere. I have seen the film twice and feel I can give it a fair judgement now. My father is the most stubborn movie critic I know. Whenever he comes out of a film, he at best will say it is ok. For this film, he walked out and said it was phenomenal and wanted me to take him again. High praise from him. What he said next is what stood out the most to me. He said that the reviewers that give this film a bad review are having to be pretty picky to say this film is not good. And while the movie has its flaws, I will point them out later in the review, they do not detract from its overall objective. I could take any movie out there and find flaws within them. No film is perfect. But the viewer will always see what they want to see in the film.
 
What I love most about Nolan is that other than his terrific storytelling, he is fantastic at casting. This film was no exception. It was filled with excellent performances, and one or two that in my opinion deserve an Oscar nomination, but not a win. There were several performances that stood out for me. The first was Anne Hathaway. Like Heath Ledger before her, many people were in an uproar when she was cast, but I knew I could trust in Nolan and that she would do a damn good job. And indeed she did. I knew she was perfect for the role from the moment she looked at Bruce and  her face changes from shock to being sly and saying, "Oops, no one told me it was uncrackable." Her reaction to that was perfect and I knew we were in for a real treat. To me it was worthy of a nomination for Best Supporting Actress. I say Supporting because her and Marion Cotillard share around the same amount of screen time and neither of them seem to be a "lead" role.  
 
The next performance that stood out was Tom Hardy. To be able to strike fear into someone using only your eyes is unreal. While his performance is not as astounding as Ledger's, what he did was still unreal. Two scenes that jump out to me were the scene in frontof the prison and the scene after Batman beats him down and his mask breaks. When he just is laying there during Talia's speech, he gives off so much emotion and pain through very slight flicks of the eyes. Purely amazing. The last performance that I would say is a standout was Bale. He finally nailed the voice. It was a great mixture of Batman Begins and the awful growl he had in The Dark Knight. But the best part was his Bruce Wayne. Absolutely incredible and he has always seemed like the perfect Bruce. 
 
The ending was the perfect ending possible for this trilogy. The last 10 minutes or so of this film were some of the best in recent history. While Bane's death felt underwhelming, the final minutes were so beautiful that I was able to let it slide. The scene where Bruce climbs out of the prison without the rope gave me chills. The Deshi Basara chant and Zimmer's score in the background, combined with the moment where the bats coming soaring out of the wall to surround Bruce gave me chills.
 
Now for the technical aspects. The cinematography was excellent. Wally Pfister does another outstanding job. Several of the landscape shots over Gotham had my jaw dropping. The score was beautiful. it is the small touches that make Hans Zimmer so great. In Batman Begins the ending track has a choir boy with a note frozen in time as if to signify the pain Bruce is in and that he cannot let go of his parents death. As Bruce flies out over the sea with the bomb, the choir boy's tune flows and helps to show that Bruce is ready to move on. He has given Gotham everything he has, and the pain he feels of his parents death is gone.  The film is not without flaws though and they come from the technical aspects. There were several times where Bane was impossible to understand. Hardy's lines are so genius that they need to be heard and I think at least 10 times there were phrases that were near unintelligible. And at times the score from Zimmer is so overpowering that the dialogue is drowned out. While, the story is quite hectic, I never felt it was rushed. Several scenes did drag but they were necessary to give us a breather from the extreme pace.  
 
To close this is nothing but a fantastic film. It combines everything that makes Nolan's film so great. Terrific storytelling, breathtaking cinematography, beautiful score, and Oscar worthy performances. I always dreamed that Nolan would finally get the recognition from the academy that he so rightly deserves. It will be interesting to see how it is treated come Oscar season. The thing that has always gotten me, is the same types of films win the award every year and while they are wonderful films, I have never felt a seperation from the films the year before. To me, The Dark Knight trilogy is The Godfather trilogy of this generation. It is not often that a film series transcends its genre and is a film that almost any movie goer can enjoy. And that is truly special.
 
Score: 9.5/10

Very well put, just an amazing experience for me also. So glad it ended the way it did as well, very satisfying.

I think the part I'm most sad about is there aren't anymore Nolan-made teaser Batman trailers. Those were incredible!

I need to rewatch the movie.  And it doesnt matter if people care that you attached this to the forum because I dont think theres a thread talking about how great the movie is.  Great review!

I agree. Nolan's Batman earned the proper send off he got.

This was a fantastic film, and I'm glad you enjoyed it very much as well. I'll be seeing this again tomorrow since my friend didn't get to see it with me today, so I'm taking him tomorrow. Or, he's taking me, and I'm paying. I only had a few problems with it, but all very minor. Also, I'd like to say (again) that you'd be doing all of the films injustice by saying one's better than the other.

More specifically, I hate how people are saying "Is it better than The Dark Knight? No, but it's still great." See, I personally think they're both just as fantastic. The only thing I can think of that this film won't do is create so much ruckus over it, like meme's and what have you. I don't imagine there to be anymore "Because he's the hero Gotham deserve's, but not the one it needs right now." stuff.

I just hope it gets the recognition it deserves, and not simply as the one that's viewed as worse than it's superior predecessor.

I pretty much feel the same way about the movie. I was a bit worried about how this movie would be able to live up to the last movie, but as soon as I saw the 5 min IMAX preview in front of MI, I was sold. It surpassed all my expectations and I had very high ones coming in. I will add that as a huge batman fan, I really appreciate what Nolan has done with this trilogy. It's not DC's Batman , rather its Nolan's take on it (almost an outworld style comic story), but still he manages to incorporate so many great themes from THE best batman stories ever. Watching the 3 movies, as a Batman fan I know the origin of all the themes and key points in the movie, yet the story is new, breathtaking and gripping at the same time. Its familiar yet very new. While I really like and appreciate the Marvel movies as a comic book fan, those movies are just straight adaptations of comicbook stories on the big screen (going in to all of Marvel movies I knew exactly what the plot was going to be and how exactly the movie was gonna pan out). The Nolan films are a different beast all together, they are great films with Batman as a hook. There are very few things about the movie that I can be picky about, but again no movie is perfect. This was just an epic movie, just fucking incredible.

i also don't get how people can criticize this movie and say its bad (I saw some people saying Amazing Spiderman was better! I liked that movie but CMON!), It's not perfect and sure Bane's voice could have been more clear, Alfred was too cheesy, Bane's death was lame and there were a bunch of continuity issues, but compared to most generic corny garbage popcorn movies that have become the norm in Hollywood, at the very least this was a breath of fresh air.

Yeah it was really good... buuuuuuut I think it had some pretty big issues as well.

The prison didn't seem like the worst place in the world, hell the prison that Bruce Wayne was in before getting recruited into the League of Shadows seemed to contain more abject human misery and hopelessness. The pit seemed more like a monastery, only becoming a violent stabby rape fest on random occasions with weirdly fashion co-ordinated inmates.

Talia's loyalty to her father is perplexing considering her relationship with Bane, and her means of destroying Gotham were crude and lacked the sinister elegance of Ra's idea of making a city tear itself apart or The Joker just turning Gotham into a twisted fun house.

Granted, Bane and the bomb allowed the city to do something similar with their crazy french revolution shenanigans but relying on a nuke to be the actual threat (as opposed to human nature, as seen in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight) struck me as kinda lazy.

Come to think of it the fusion reactor as a whole was kind of an weak plot device, same as the 'blank slate' thing Catwoman was after. I understand that both serve to push Talia and Selina closer to Bruce, but there had to have been a smarter way around that than 'Hey check out this nuke I made hot stranger I trust' and 'Oh that thing only one guy had, yeah I have it too'.

Not sure why they had Batman notice the scar on Talia when he gets caught totally off guard by her later, I mean he's a fucking super detective and never noticed anything off about her? No background check? Nothing?

Again, still enjoyed it immensely and didn't even get bothered by these things until a few hours after the movie. For the most part Nolan pulled it off, and the trilogy as a whole is a huge accomplishment and something I look forward to revisiting in it's entirety soon.

Oh, and that first fight scene between Bane and Batman makes the crazy mask voice totally worth it.

Bruce sure managed to heal quickly after a broken back. No worries, just a vertebrae hanging out not getting infected. Glad he managed to recover completely in < 5 months (able to take on Bane just fine), while not losing any muscle mass after eating little crumbs of tostitos and drips of water. Also, why didn't someone just kick Wayne in the leg? Seems like a fairly easy solution to his hacky cripple fix. Maybe I don't understand the device well enough

4' 8y/o kid gaps what a 6' fullgrown adult gets only with fingertips. Makes sense. Lacking nutrients and exercise doesn't kill you, so it outta make you stronger--right, Kanye?

Watching the fumble with the jammer was like watching my teammates screw up in Dota. Pretty careless. Hard to watch.

Pretty cool that they 'just found' Fox's u/g reactor and weapons warehouse. Bane might've found the reactor thanks to Talia, but the warehouse, too? really? And nice that they managed to set up explosives just absolutely *everywhere* around the city no problem. Like in the middle of bridges and in the executive box at the stadium. Stadium box wouldn't be so difficult, it's just impractical, but surely people noticed all of the bridgework.

Bane's voice. Painting Fusion in a negative light.

Alright, so there are a few things that bug me about the actual script.

But it was still enjoyable. Solid action, beautifully shot, great acting. By no means a 'bad' movie, but perhaps a bit sloppier on the details than I would've liked. Snap reaction was I would've liked Spiderman more if it wasn't an origin story, but I think DKR was probably better anyhow.

...

Oh, and wtf was up with Selina using her heels for EVERYTHING. Are hands overrated all of a sudden? They were on the lift and instead of using her hands, she goes and kicks it with her heels. Uhh... not to be impractical or anything.

I loved it a great deal, and I was super impressed by Hardy (who I am rapidly developing a man-crush on) and Hathaway, who I usually don't like.

Bane sounding like someone doing a bad Sean Connery impression kind of threw me at first, but it grew on me quite quickly. Plus I really dug the origin story twist.

I agree with this review 100%. Totally lived up to the hype and the scene were he breaks out of the prison gave me goosebumps

the ending man. Perfect ending. I was blown away by how Nolan could let Batman have the ending he deserved and was never given in any other interpretation of the character, comics, cartoons or other films.

I agree with this review 100%. Totally lived up to the hype and the scene were he breaks out of the prison gave me goosebumps

I felt like the move was adequate, it did what it needed to and that was about it. I don't feel like they took any risks with the story.

@MAGZine said:

Bruce sure managed to heal quickly after a broken back. No worries, just a vertebrae hanging out not getting infected. Glad he managed to recover completely in < 5 months (able to take on Bane just fine), while not losing any muscle mass after eating little crumbs of tostitos and drips of water. Also, why didn't someone just kick Wayne in the leg? Seems like a fairly easy solution to his hacky cripple fix. Maybe I don't understand the device well enough

4' 8y/o kid gaps what a 6' fullgrown adult gets only with fingertips. Makes sense. Lacking nutrients and exercise doesn't kill you, so it outta make you stronger--right, Kanye?

Watching the fumble with the jammer was like watching my teammates screw up in Dota. Pretty careless. Hard to watch.

Pretty cool that they 'just found' Fox's u/g reactor and weapons warehouse. Bane might've found the reactor thanks to Talia, but the warehouse, too? really? And nice that they managed to set up explosives just absolutely *everywhere* around the city no problem. Like in the middle of bridges and in the executive box at the stadium. Stadium box wouldn't be so difficult, it's just impractical, but surely people noticed all of the bridgework.

Bane's voice. Painting Fusion in a negative light.

Alright, so there are a few things that bug me about the actual script.

But it was still enjoyable. Solid action, beautifully shot, great acting. By no means a 'bad' movie, but perhaps a bit sloppier on the details than I would've liked. Snap reaction was I would've liked Spiderman more if it wasn't an origin story, but I think DKR was probably better anyhow.

...

Oh, and wtf was up with Selina using her heels for EVERYTHING. Are hands overrated all of a sudden? They were on the lift and instead of using her hands, she goes and kicks it with her heels. Uhh... not to be impractical or anything.

Just to kind of respond to some of these criticisms.

We are given very little details to the timeline in which Bruce escapes the Pit (Which by the way was Nolans version of a Lazarus Pit. Talia escaped to try to continue her fathers work, thus Ra's was metaphorically reborn in it. Same with Bruce) to when he shows up in Gotham. We have no idea even where that is. Bruce is visibly bruised, beaten, and weak when he escapes the pit. By the tiime he gets to Gotham he looks healthy. One can imagine some time to recover/get prepared for the coming battle happened. The reason it wasn't shown was because it would of just been filler. Something Nolan had complaints with on his previous Batman films. We can all assume a billionaire like Bruce Wayne had the resourcefulness to stash away some cash or a house or something that isn't inside of Gotham city to be able to do these things. As for the jump. Zero to do with physical ability. While we choose to ignore these things in life, when pushed to the brink our body can do things we never thought it could. While it is an example often used, their have been women who have lifted up a car to save their crying child. In that instance it is about adrenaline. In the case of the jump the rope was obviously Bruce and his symbolism of being afraid.

Remember since the Joker Bruce has been in hiding. His most severe loss was against the Joker which was a lie to protect the city as best as possible. In Nolans universe Bruce hasn't come into contact with anyone with his physical prowess, and has almost never been defeated as badly as he was with Bane. I'd venture to say his confidence and faith in his own ability to be able to escape and protect Gotham was shattered. Another metaphor on how Bane "breaks" the Bat. It wasn't until Bruce started hallucinating visions of Ra's that he worked through his issues. Obviously a tie to the fact that the idealism behind Batman was created with Ra's in Begins.

The bombs and finding the warehouse of goodies and all that jazz. People forget since Nolan isn't a fan of using date timers on his movies that it's been 8 years since The Dark Knight. The context of the opening scene was meant to be months before Bane is "seen" in Gotham. On top of the fact that if you forget in Batman Begins the League of Shadows proved it was very easy to infiltrate various layers of the Gotham City system. In a time with very little crime, where as Rises showed corporate crime was running rampant and with Batman under wraps, it isn't that much of a leap to assume that all these things could be found out/orchestrated. Their was an employee of Wayne Enterprises who admitted he knew the identity of Batman in The Dark Knight. In an 8 year + time frame is it really that unrealistic to think some of the bridges and others would need to be repaired? If you missed it in rises, they showed that they were using some type of concrete blend that was actually causing the majority of the explosions. Again these scenes could of been shown, but it's just filler. If you stop to think about the logical possibility of some of it happening in the universe Nolan created, which keep in mind isn't EXACT reality. It isn't hard to believe.

Another complaint I noticed that isn't on your list but a lot of others seem to address as well is the whole police force going underground. I'd venture to say that in a universe where a crazy person like the Joker exists, and if you remember in the Dark Knight both Batman and the police were slow to react to the Joker which caused countless deaths of important figures and otherwise, that they might overreact when they haven't seen a serious crime in 8 years. I think people forget that it is still a fictional universe. Nolan does so much to try to paint it as realistic that people demand that it has to function like reality. People like the Joker would be killed on the spot in reality. A vigilante would be sent to federal prison, if not worse. We have to assume it is a world in which these characters would exist and could be allowed to exist. In which case certain principles of the world regardless of how close to realistic they are would change.

As for the review, spot on. I loved the film from top to bottom. After seeing it it convinced me that despite Nolans original intentions to make all films separate of each other, they mold into one big film. The theme of which is pretty easy to identify with. Defining a vigilante. Defining the character of Batman. In the first film the major character development was that Bruce could do anything necessary while still maintaining a code to clean up the city. Not just let it die. In the second film that was truly tested, and he learned the lengths of which he had to go in a city like Gotham to try to keep it as clean as possible. Lengths that get torn up and dug into in the third film as everything comes full circle. Nolan takes the character all the way through the mud and brings him back up when the true nature of the character is revealed. Batman has and always will be about both symbolism and the message of an ideal.

One of the most powerful scenes to me in Rises was the revelation that Bruce lied about getting the auto pilot fixed. It made so much more of the movie click for me. He had fixed the auto pilot and said he didn't. The city needed to think that Batman sacrificed himself for the sake of Gotham. Because if they didn't? The idealism of Batman was broken. He sent thousands of cops marching down the street many of to their deaths, it was an open scale war and the code of Batman was easily broken in that film. But with one act, the perception of Batman dieing it was all resolved.

Anyways great film glad to see a good review of it without nit picking for a change. As stated it isn't a perfect film, none is. But it gives you enough realism in my mind that you are barely required to suspend your disbelief if you consider the universe everything takes place in. Add in all the themes and symbolism from the characters/comic nods. Like Nolans "Robin" having references to the three main Robins in the comics. All was very well done.