EBC Cinema Lounge:
The Dark Knight Rises
Part of the EBC Review Lounge Series
The Dark Knight Rises
Part of the EBC Review Lounge Series
In 2005, Christopher Nolan attempted a monumental challenge- bringing Batman, a character who through more than 60 years of comic books, TV shows, and movies had leaned mostly on the camp side than the dark side- to darker, grittier, and more realistic roots. His first stab at this was Batman Begins, which was pretty standard superhero action fare- good overall and great with the action, but a bit too same-ish for me to take as something other than that.
Then came The Dark Knight in 2008. When I saw it I, being younger and having been taken there to cheer me up by a friend on the heels of a bad breakup, felt like it was good and marginally better than the first one, but I had taken a massive dose of gloom pills that left a sour taste. As I look back on both films, despite occasional heavy handedness with the black and grey morality, The Dark Knight far surpasses Batman Begins and is one of my favorite movies, thanks in part to Heath Ledger's amazing grand finale performance, philosophical questions deeper than most movies, and a nicer balance between character development and action.
Now imagine the more action oriented beat em up that was Batman Begins and the much darker and Philosophy 101 oriented The Dark Knight being thrown into a blender, cranking every element of the combined movie up to 11, and managing to make it all not only work well together, but surpass every other superhero movie this summer in a season of great ones, including The Avengers and The Amazing Spider-Man, and you have The Dark Knight Rises.
A note about Aurora: what happened there was beyond horrible and I am deeply saddened by the lives lost and hope the crazy orange haired bastard who did it rots in jail. That having been said, although my parents did feel more cautious because of it (and security at the theater was higher- seems like we're always preparing for the last tragedy) nothing that happened affected my opinion of the movie or the opinion of anyone else who went with me, and I think that although box office receipts will certainly be a little less because of this, the movie should be judged outside of what happened and Aurora should not prevent anyone from seeing this amazing film.
And as you can already guess, The Dark Knight Rises went far beyond all my expectations, and I will explain why this movie is a must see.
The basic idea of the plot, to fulfill my promise to remain spoiler free, is that Bruce Wayne returns to crime fighting after remaining a recluse for eight years after the events of The Dark Knight due to injuries sustained as Batman. It starts off as a fairly recognizable hero's journey, but the plot has twists and turns aplenty to keep you guessing, although not so many that the story becomes impossible to follow.
All the returning actors feel comfortable performing as their old characters while adding new depth to them, and the new characters, far from causing character ensemble overload, add a lot to the story and universe. I feel Anne Hathaway's elegant, sly Catwoman far surpasses the more animal sexuality of past Catwomen (but Halle Berry still is the sexiest!
), and that Bane is a more than adequate villain, although Health Ledger is sorely missed.The action is so intense you'll want to grip the edge of your seat but can't because of your sweaty palms, but the breather moments are plenty so you don't feel adrenaline overload and so the film can go into character development and philosophy in more detail but in more subtle ways than The Dark Knight. The sets are wonderful, Hans Zimmer's score is back and better than ever...
In short, my rating is:
***** (out of *****)
Get to the theater and see this masterpiece however you have to!
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