Vladimir Rakhmanin
Staff Writer
I don’t think there’s any way for me to begin this review without expressing my condolences towards those who were killed and injured in the Colorado massacre at the premiere of the film. It’s one thing to watch violence occur on screen, but it’s a whole different thing when villainous events such as these happen in real life. My thoughts are with the victims and their friends and relatives.
Onto the film. I’m going to honour Christopher Nolan’s vice-like grip on plot leaks by keeping this review completely spoiler-free, and trust me, it’s much better going in not knowing what will happen. So many films and video games these days suffer from what I like to call ‘the Uncharted 3 effect’, when pretty much the entirety of the major plot points are revealed in trailers. By the time you walk into the cinema/sit down with the controller in your hand, you feel like you’ve already seen/played the film/video game in question.
Thankfully, Nolan’s secrecy has paid off here, starting with a jaw-dropping opening set-piece that I just know would not have seemed as impressive if I had seen it in trailers beforehand. Cameos and references are also abundant, as almost all the plot threads from the last two films are tightly threaded into the narrative and satisfyingly concluded. This film deviates from the comic books the most out the trilogy, but it does it in a way that makes sense and feels right within the context of this gritty universe. Fans of the Batman mythos will also get a lot more out of the twist that occurs late in the game. Without spoiling anything, you really have to watch Batman Begins if you want the full impact of this film. It also can’t hurt to play through Batman: Arkham City.
Of course, I know which question you want answered the most. Is Dark Knight Rises better than 2008’s magnificent The Dark Knight? Ultimately, the answer is no, but that’s probably because it has a different feel to it. I mentioned that Batman Begins has plot similarities to Rises, but that’s not where the comparisons end. Whereas Dark Knight felt like a crime drama within the context of a superhero film, the bookends of the trilogy embrace their comic book roots in a more overt fashion. Once again, I don’t want to spoil anything, but Rises definitely has a lot more action than Dark Knight.
Even though Rises is not as good as it’s masterpiece of a predecessor, I still hold it to be better than Batman Begins, and it is most definitely the best blockbuster of the year. Take that, Avengers. That’s right, I went there. Christopher Nolan knows how to make a blockbuster that also feels like a massive event, the sort of epic feel that was reserved for fantasy and sci-fi films only. Maybe it’s the fact that everyone decided that this would be the last film in the trilogy, maybe it’s the fact that Nolan decided to base the feel and structure of the film off Return of the King – it doesn’t matter. It works, and the unrelenting pace of the film makes the three hours pass by like fifteen minutes. Hans Zimmerman’s urgent score is great as usual, helping to build atmosphere.
Anne Hathaway, who lost a lot of my respect at those atrocious Academy Awards, has completely redeemed herself. She gets into character so well that it’s hard to imagine anyone else playing the role of Selina Kyle. The rest of the cast do a predictably great job, although that’s not a surprise considering how great the acting was in the past two films.
The major weak link in the film is, as everyone had expected, the villain. Bane, even though visually brilliantly reimagined for this version of Batman’s world, just doesn’t cut it when it comes to psychological depth, especially when compared to Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning portrayal of the Joker. Some attempts are made to humanise him, give him motives for the terrorism that he wages on Gotham City, and even give him some interesting quotes, but none of this matches the Joker’s anarchic destruction.
Even if I would have loved to see more interesting villains, like the Riddler, or even Mr Freeze, having watched the film I now know that for the plot to work, it is Bane that has to be the villain, and no other baddie from Batman’s rich history would have made the conclusion this satisfying. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you why, as it would be spoiling an enormous surprise. Just know that there is a reason that Christopher Nolan decide on Bane, and not anyone else.
Finally, the ending is fantastic, both emotionally and visually. The last montage is very powerful, and even if I would have ended the film about two minutes earlier to retain some ambiguity, for those of us who have been with the franchise for almost a decade, seeing the fates of these characters is an amazing experience.
To sum up, The Dark Knight Rises, although not as good as The Dark Knight, is the best blockbuster of the year so far, and is an amazing conclusion to a brilliant trilogy from one of modern cinema’s most talented directors. Altogether, now – tuuuuuuuuuuuuun….. TUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN…………
