WARNING:SPOILERS
Its no secret to anyone who knows me that I am completely gay for Christopher Nolan's Batman movies. They are easily the greatest comic book movies ever made and created a standard that all comic book movies now try to strive for. And yet no one as been able to reach the line that Mr. Nolan has drawn in the proverbial sand.
Nolan is a genius film maker, go watch anything he ever made and be prepared to be amazed. He has made great movie after great movie and shows absolutely no sign of stopping that trend. I love every movie he has made: Following, Memento, The Prestige, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Inception, and The Dark Knight Rises. All are great movies that entertained me from start to finish.
That being said I don't really know how to write an actual review of The Dark Knight Rises (which I'm gonna call Rises from now on). Sure I guess I could sit here and talk about everything, like the story and acting and such, but It'd be a waste of time. Just go see the movie, trust me it's worth the money. So I think I'm just going to touch on some things that I loved about the movie. Starting with Batman himself.
I have always like Christian Bale's performance as Bruce Wayne/Batman. Indeed I've actually liked pretty much everything performance by Christian Bale, man's a damn good actor. Go watch The Fighter or American Psycho if you want proof. But we're talking about Batman. Really the big problem everyone seems to have with his portrayal is the voice, and while I guess I can understand it, I personally have never been bothered by it. I can understand why people wouldn't like it, but it was never something that took away from the movie for me. Now, I do believe there are parts of the movie were it's a little weird for him to use the voice, i.e. the fight between him and Bane, considering everyone in the room knew who he was because Bane just said it I think it was silly of them to use the voice know, but I guess you could just chalk it up to him becoming Batman or whatever. Bottom line is I think Bale's great, especially during the scenes between him and Alfred, they played that up in this movie and it was pretty heartbreaking.
Michael Caine is perfect. Seriously, no one in the world could play Alfred better than him. He embodies the role, he's phenomenal in it. It might be his best performance ever. I know some people get all up in arms about how all he does is deliver speeches and what not, but again never really bothered me, also not Caine's fault since he didn't write the screenplay, and shut the hell up, he delivers those speeches perfectly. I never really understood why those speeches bothered people. Alfred's an old man whose lived a very long life, and what? You think he does have stories to tell or speeches to give? How many of you have a grandfather who will actually shut the hell up about when he was young? Also I would like to just hammer in the point that Caine delivers each and every one of those speeches absolutely perfectly.
I don't understand why everyone was mad when Anne Hathaway was cast as Catwoman. She's a great actress, why was it such a big deal? Whatever the reason it's completely moot after watching this movie because she is awesome. Her switches between damsel in distress and cool, smooth burglar are perfect. She does a great job in the action scenes and her character is an interesting one. She plays the part exactly how it needed to be played and is a fine addition to the already phenomenal cast.
Gary Oldman's awesome. What else could I possibly say? He's my favorite actor, he absolutely demolishes every role he's in. He's perfect in freaking everything. His role as Gordan is no exception, he perfect, he's always perfect. They did something different with Gordon in this one, for one he plays a much bigger role and is given more screen time, which made me happy because Gary Oldman, they also made him kind of world weary. Like he's been through the war against the criminals and won and now he kind of wishes it wasn't over. He's wracked with guilt about covering for Dent and helping make him look like the hero he totally wasn't. And it shows. Gordan's awesome and so is Oldman.
Here's the big one though, Bane. I loved Bane. He might have been my favorite part about the movie. I loved how they made him a huge hulking beast, but his voice is very intelligent. Maybe he's not comic Bane, but he's Nolan Bane, which is just as good if not better. Tom Hardy is amazing. This will be the role that lands him so many roles in the future. He plays every part of the character right, the mannerisms, delivers every line spot on, and he's intimidating as all hell. I have to give Tom Hardy props for gaining like 30 pounds of muscle that made him the hulking beast he is in the movie. He's exactly the villain we believe can best Batman, even if only for a little bit. I won't go into what I think about the whole Bane being controlled by Talia thing because I have a friend who put it into better words than I ever could.
Check it out here: http://eventualpsychotic.blogspot.com/2012/07/a-look-at-bane-warning-dark-knight.html.
I would just like to point out the scene where we see Bane and Talia on screen together and the look in Hardy's eyes in that scene, some amazing bit of subtle acting.
I could go on and on about things I like about this movie. From the awesomeness that is Joseph Gordon Levitt and how I hope they make a Robin movie with him and all the other supporting cast members who do a great job. I could go on about Nolan's stellar directing and the writing. But what I want to point out is two instances in the movie which really stood out to me. both are two scenes were there is a distinct lack of musical score were every other movie in the world would have used it. The scene where Alfred quits and the scene were Batman fights Bane. Most directors would have used a score especially in the Alfred scene, but not Nolan he chose to let the emotions play out themselves and didn't use the score to try and sway your emotions, and damn does it work, that scene is heartbreaking as hell and it doesn't even need a sad musical accompaniment. The other, Batman fighting Bane scene, most movies use a score during fight scenes to make it more epic. Not Rises and not Nolan. The only soundtrack to this scene is the thudding of fists and the grunts of exertion. It is brutal. And it works so much better without any music.
So, is the Dark Knight Rises a perfect movie? Nope. There are things here and there that could have used better explaining, but I didn't mind them that much, I was to busy enjoying Batman. I also think Bruce Wayne should have died at the end. If you've seen the movie you know what I mean. It would have worked better if he would have sacrificed himself, or given the city everything he had if you wanna put it like that. But besides all of that stuff I love this movie. Its long, but not once did I complain or even think about it. And Nolan's directing is as amazing as it always is and all the element, I think, combine to make a fantastic movie. I think I still like The Dark Knight more though. But just by a little bit.
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