Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises (2012) Movie Review

Running Time: 164 Minutes
Release Date: July 20 2012 (India)
Starring: Christian Bale, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Juno Temple, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman
Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Written by: Jonathan Nolan (screenplay), Christopher Nolan (screenplay), David S. Goyer (story)

Last two days I re-watched Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight (2008). As much as I love director Christopher Nolan for bringing the super hero source story back with Batman Begins, I still can’t get over the masterwork The Dark Knight. The dark knight presented us with some great filming and stunning villain in the film history, The Joker. With that being said Nolan one of the best film-makers working today. I had huge expectations walking into the epic conclusion of his Batman Trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises.

The Dark Knight Rises starts up eight years after the epic conclusion of The Dark Knight, where Batman turns himself into antihero to save the Gotham City. As we know this was a lie set up to deliver a message of hope to dark city. Now when Commissioner Gordon stumbles upon a plot to destroy the city from within, Bruce Wayne gets back into action as the Batman. Waiting for him is the mysterious Selina Kyle and Bane, a lethal adversary on a crusade to tear apart Batmans legacy piece by piece.

Coming to performances, Though Nolan introduced some new characters with The Dark Knight Rises, but certainly only few stands out among the lead cast. Christian Bale is wondrous being a retired hero or being a Devdas in the beginning or returning from the death to save his city. He has done a Fab job. Tom Hardy’s performance can’t go unnoticed either. Think about how tough it is for Hardy, to come in as the villain after Joker’s performance in The Dark Knight. Hardy plays Bane perfectly and he definitely commands an unstoppable presence. Tom Hardy had to do so much with his eyes for Bane’s malicious personality to fully come across on screen and he smashed. Gary Oldman justified his role as Commissioner Gordon. A special nod goes to Michael Caine, whose turn as Alfred has provided the entire trilogy with a consistent emotional and ethical center. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Hathaway inject new life into the series with their charismatic performances. Anne Hathaway as Catwoman was one of the biggest surprises to me, she nailed it.

Stunning Scenes:

• Flight Hijacking Scene
• Batman Entry after eight years
• Bane’s reckoning
• Football Stadium scene
• Bruce coming out of the Prison
• Anne Hathaway chase scene
• Bat symbol lighted over the bridge

Coming to Technical side Action, Cinematography and Master level Music. Hans Zimmer’s score are striking. Hans Zimmer BGM for Batman and Bane add so much to the film and make it a real masterpiece. Wally Pfister’s cinematography is larger than life. The IMAX sequences of action are absolutely mind-blowing and deserve to be seen on IMAX. Action scenes have the Nolan signature and edge-of-the-seat entertainment guaranteed. The overall story seemed too hoity-toity and intense which consequently made the film overly lengthy. Creating a follow up movie to a mammoth of a movie like “The Dark Knight” is definitely not an easy thing to do. Considering the hype surrounding, Christopher Nolan has outdone himself. Chris Nolan refuses to make an effects movie, loves reality and hates CGI. Every single piece of action in TDKR is real. Even the opening… The action, suspense, thrills, romantic all bound together with an acute emotional drama, attracts the viewers in a marvelous way.

The scene where hundreds of cops and bane guys fight it out in the street is not so convincingly shot. The final fight between batman and Bane is a bit dragged (with few punches and kicks). Even the way Bane character ends in the end is not fully comforting. They had a good plot going with a twist at the pre climax that should have made my jaw dropped but just made me beaming at the end.

Survi Verdict: The Dark Knight Rises is a visual masterpiece and a very solid flick but it didn’t blow me away like The Dark Knight. ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ has some flaws in its storytelling. Some parts are rushed too. But you will overlook them because of the scale. Nobody should try and reboot Batman after Nolan’s trilogy. Nobody is going to do better than this. It’s going to be extremely tough to better this. The Dark Knight Rises might not quite reach the peaks of its forerunner, but it’s a worthy, EPIC conclusion to a dazing TRILOGY that has lifted the bar for an entire BATMAN series.

Bottom line: I recommend everyone to watch Batman Begins and TDK before watching TDKR to fully appreciate the TRILOGY. Just make sure you see The Dark Knight Rises in REAL IMAX, the way it was intended to be seen, 70+ minutes were shot with IMAX cameras.