I don't think I can add much to my initial review of The Dark Knight Rises, but I'll try to add something significant here. I guess I should start with explaining that I don't think this movie is the perfect Batman movie — that distinction goes to The Dark Knight — but this movie is the perfect end to the Dark Knight trilogy created by Christopher Nolan. The world of comic book superheroes requires the stories to be told in perpetuity. Nothing can end. We need a continuous stream of never-ending adventures. Therefore, the best superhero stories are the ones told in the "middle." We like to see the hero's origin, like in Batman Begins, but we don't want to dwell on that for too long. We also like to occasionally speculate about the death of our hero, but we really don't want him to die because we need more adventures. What we really want to see, over and over again, is our hero, fully formed and in his prime, taking down whatever epic threat that comes his way. This is how the game is played in comic books and TV shows, and it works wonderfully. But in movies, the rules change a bit.
Every good movie has a beginning middle and end. In movies, we need resolution — the bad guy can't just be defeated, he has to die so he can't ever come back. Also, the hero really needs to either die or retire as well. Movies require finality, which is something I think all superhero movies have struggled with. The compulsory need to tell the middle story has prevented all superhero movies from telling the end. Spider-Man 3, should have ended the story, but it tried to keep it going and it became a flop. It's fine and necessary to keep things continually moving forward in other media, but not in movies. And until The Dark Knight Rises came out, I think every other superhero movie franchise has failed to understand this. They're just too afraid to close the door. But it has to be done. And that's what makes this movie so perfect.
In preparation for this review, I re-watched Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, as well as the animated version of Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. Miller's very dark (and slightly disturbing) story came out in the '80s and is credited for giving Batman the push he needed to move past the campy Adam West version and into the more serious Tim Burton version. Miller tells the tale of an old Batman who comes out of retirement to battle a new threat (a gang called the Mutants), two of his oldest foes, Two-Face and Joker, then finally end it all with an epic slugfest with Superman himself. It is a good story, but too pessimistic for my liking. In my mind, The Dark Knight Rises is the definitive final story of Batman. It did an excellent job of pulling together Nolan's first two films and it gave Bruce Wayne a wonderful sendoff that will be very hard for anyone to beat. Naturally, this movie will earn a perfect score from me, so I won't worry about adding or subtracting points. Instead, here's just some things I liked and didn't like.
The introduction to Bane was pretty great. "Was getting caught part of your plan?" "Of course!" And then, "Will you die if I take off that mask?" "It would be extremely painful ... for you!" Bane had so many great lines. And the whole bit with the planes was quite unexpected and impressive. A really fun way to jump into the movie.
I really loved Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle. She could dramatically change her emotions very quickly to great effect, and she perfectly nailed that good-person-doing-bad-things quality that is so essential to the perfect Catwoman.
The reappearance of Batman was a lot of fun. Probably the best part about it was how calm he was while evading basically Gotham's entire police force. The crisis that preceded this was pretty neat, too, with Bane taking over the stock market.
The first thing in the movie I didn't like was when Catwoman disappeared on Batman while his back was turned for a split second, and Batman said, "So that's what that feels like." Unnecessary cheap laugh. Maybe it wouldn't have bugged me so much if Christian Bale didn't say it in his ultra-gruff Batman voice. (You'd think he would've toned it down a bit after all the negative reaction from the last movie. He wasn't that bad in Batman Begins.)
The first big, bold shocker of this movie was having Alfred actually leave. He's threatened it a hundred times before, especially in this continuity, but I never thought he'd actually do it. I applaud the filmmakers for having the guts to do something like this. Of course, this could only be done in the final story for Batman.
I guess now I need to say something more about Bane. Tom Hardy was magnificent. We really could only see his eyes, but he still managed to look menacing and ferocious. His voice was also superb. That accent really contributed to the theory I had for a while of him being Ra's al Ghul's son. I also love how intimidating Bane was. Just walking around casually with his hands on his coat was incredible. And how about him threatening John Daggett with just his pinky? (I am really sad they didn't call him Roland Daggett, but since he was so wussy an ineffectual, I'll say he was the real Daggett's son or younger brother.)
When Bane was first introduced in the comics in the early '90s, he was the central villain to a massive storyline called Knightfall. In it, Bane released all the super villains from Arkham so Batman would get worn out by recapturing them all. Once Batman was on the brink of exhaustion, Bane figured out his secret identity and fought Batman in the Batcave, ultimately breaking his back over his knee. It is one of the most iconic moments in comic book history. Every incarnation of Bane since then has required him to (at least attempt to) break Batman's back over his knee. This movie did not disappoint. While Bane was not maniacally screaming, "I will BREAK you!" like he usually does, this one was much more calm, and simply said, "I was wondering what would break first — your spirit, or your body!" I absolutely loved it.
Another great thing about Bane is that he's always been extremely smart. He never wants to kill Batman, just break him. Here, he decided to torture him, but not his body — his soul. And as Bane put so well, "There can be no true despair without hope." After re-watching the trilogy, I've decided that each movie has a central theme to it. Batman Begins is fear. The Dark Knight is chaos. The Dark Knight Rises is hope.
The destruction of the football stadium was incredibly epic, even if they showed it in all the previews. The little boy singing the National Anthem while all the chaos began was beautiful cinematography. (Even if it was completely unrealistic. Anyone who's been to a football game knows that lots of people are still walking in and finding their seats.) And there's another great Bane line: "Let the games begin!"
It's nice to see Jim Gordon still has some fight in him. They already faked his death in the last movie, so we knew he wouldn't die here (at least we very strongly assumed), but it was still pretty cool to see him slowly getting out of the hospital bed then putting the young detective to shame.
Speaking of that young detective, Blake, I had really mixed feelings for him. He was pretty cool at times, kinda lame at other times, and in some cases, just downright annoying. The worst was when he chewed out Gordon for lying about Two-Face. Uh, Blake? Gordon just brought about eight years of unprecedented peace and prosperity to Gotham thanks to that lie. You might want to lay off him a bit. Which reminds me ...
This would have been the perfect time to mention the Joker. Gordon could have said, you don't remember how it was back then, you were just a kid. Judges and police commissioners were dying and hospitals were being blown up. We did what we had to do! I think he could have easily said that without expressly saying "the Joker." I understand that Heath Ledger died and they kind of wanted to respect his memory or whatever, but I really wish they would have addressed what happened to him. Did he die? Is he still locked up in a cell? What? You could argue that the Joker was so horrific that nobody can even mention his name anymore, but I still wanted something.
Luckily, there was one great villain they did not forget about. Yes, Ra's al Ghul is immortal ... in a sense. I was devastated when they killed, so to bring him back, even in just a memory, was wonderful. Liam Neeson is just so great.
I was a big fan of Bane's prison. It's the perfect visualization for the theme of the movie. Using hope to rise out of the darkness. Now, I knew Batman would get out. He's Batman, you know? But I was surprised at how emotional his escape was. I almost started to cry a little bit when he was standing on that well. The music and the chanting and the lighting, everything made it a powerful, beautiful scene.
There was another little cheap gag that I didn't like. Batman gave Blake a little bomb with very serious instructions: "Count to five. Then throw." Of course the little bomb didn't blow up, which allowed Blake to say, "Um, no offense, but do you got anything bigger in that belt of yours?" Then Batman swoops in with the Batplane. Ha ha. Come on, guys, we don't need stupid jokes like this! By the way, I am completely indifferent about the Batplane. I hated the Batmobile, liked the Batcycle, but the Batplane does nothing for me either way. It was fine.
Now, in the first two films of this trilogy, Batman mostly fought a psychological battle with his villains. That was great, but we really needed him to have a good old-fashioned slugfest with someone. Bane filled that role perfectly. He was someone Batman could finally punch over and over again. Their final battle was so fun, especially when Batman broke Bane's mask, and he went berserk, taking out a big chunk of a column. This was the fight Batman had been missing for so long.
Big props for Nolan being able to pull out one more big twist. I honestly didn't see the Talia al Ghul thing happening. The story of the child born in that prison mirrored Bane's comic book origin, which is exactly what the filmmakers wanted us to think. Making that child Talia was really cool, even if Talia herself was kind of lame.
I guess my biggest complaint about Talia is that her grand plan is fatally flawed. Even though Ra's al Ghul always wanted to destroy Gotham, I always felt like he also wanted to be there to rebuild it into a better society. But Talia actually wanted to die with the city. I guess you could argue that she was also expelled from the League of Shadows for being too extreme and crazy, but a little explanation about that would have been nice. There was also some weird stuff going on with Talia at the end of the movie, which I blame the scene editors for. First, Talia is with Gordon and others trying to track down the bomb. They get caught and Jonathan Crane sentences them to death by exile, but Bane pulls Talia away from the group. Later, Bruce shows up and explains his plan to Lucius Fox and Talia. He tells her, "Sorry, I don't have time to get you out of the city." Right after that, Batman meets Gordon on the ice and he asks him where Miranda (Talia) is, and Gordon says that Bane took her. Wait a minute. Batman, you just barely saw her, why are you asking where she is? And when did you have the time to set up that giant flaming Batsignal? Aww, who cares? It was awesome!
As I said earlier, this is the final story and the bad guys can't just be captured. Bane had to die. However, I was not satisfied with the way he was killed. It was so abrupt, with Catwoman shooting him. And to make matters worse, she cracked a cheesy little joke right after. I really feel like they made this movie, then realized it was very serious and needed more humor, so they hastily added some jokes here and there to lighten things up.
If Christopher Nolan has one weakness as a director, it's that he over-explains everything in the climax. The absolutely worst case of this was in Batman Begins, but this one wasn't that great either. We had Lucius tell us what they needed to do, then Talia told us what they were doing, then Lucius reminded us. I guess this is necessary for little kids, but it does get tiresome.
Now for the glorious finale.
The first great emotional beat was Batman telling Gordon that a hero can be someone who does something as simple as putting a coat around a young boy's shoulders. Period. Enough said.
The next big part wasn't at Batman's "death," but at his funeral. I had been debating with myself for a long time before this movie whether Batman needed to die and whether that would be the best way to end the trilogy or if it would be cliche. Or would faking his death be cliche? It was and is a very difficult argument. I want the story to end completely with no loose ends. I want to see the end of Batman. But at the same time, Batman can't stop and he certainly can't die! But he had to. It was the only way the story could truly end. So when that bomb exploded, my mind went through this argument a hundred times. Emotionally, I was in a state of shock. Is he really dead? Did they actually, truly do the unthinkable? Then we saw Alfred breaking down at the funeral. Even if Bruce wasn't actually dead, Alfred feeling like he failed the Waynes was more than tragic enough.
Then, things started happening. Clues, hints, whispers. But it didn't come together until we got to Alfred in Paris and he looked up and the music hit that big, strong note. I didn't even need to see Bruce. I really started to cry right then and there. Bruce was alive. Batman was dead. And the greatest Batman trilogy had ended.
