The Dark Knight Rises Review

The Dark Knight Rises is possibly one of the most hyped films of the decade. There's been so much excitement surrounding this film that surely it just can't live up to it, right? Right. The Dark Knight Rises isn't the best super-hero movie ever, nor is it my favourite film of the Summer - but it is a good finale to Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy.

The Dark Knight Rises takes place 8 years after the events of The Dark Knight. Batman hasn't been seen since the death of Harvey Dent and Bruce Wayne has become a near-crippled man who no longer leaves his mansion. But, everything has been going rather nicely since The Joker's imprisonment. No super-villains have attempted to take over Gotham, crime is at an all time low, but - as Catwoman informs Bruce at the beginning of the movie - "There's a storm coming."

And boy, was she right. 

As soon as Bane comes to town, Gotham once again falls into the hands of chaos - meaning Batman takes it upon himself to stop Bane and restore peace once again.

First, I should mention the fantastic cast, consisting of some of Hollywood's biggest talent including: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, and Anne Hathaway. They all deliver great performances - even Hathaway who I had my doubts about before. And while I'm still not convinced she's very sexy in the role, she is a much more interesting character than previous on-screen Catwomans, (I still can't erase the memory of that Halle Berry train-wreck *shudder*).

And other supporting characters that are new to the series such as Joseph Gordon-Levitt as John Blake, and Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate are just as good in their roles as the rest of the cast, and their characters are worthy additions to Nolan's Batman mythos. 

The problem was handling such an A-List cast and so many great character's has got to be difficult, and so it's hard to deny that some character's get pushed to the side a little. Michael Caine is great (as always) as Alfred, but there came a point in the film where he just disappeared. At points I even felt like key character's such as Anne Hathaway's Catwoman weren't really needed, and this was a shame.

Another problem I had with the movie was that the pacing seems to slow down considerably near the middle of the film, so much so that at some points the film verges on boring. Thankfully, it doesn't quite get that bad and it really bounces back with the ending, which is truly amazing and a great way to round off the trilogy - although I wish it didn't have to end because this is one franchise I don't want to see 're-booted.'
Although, at the same time the film's plot had issues and seemed to remind me of my experience with Prometheus, in that it was entertaining to watch first time round, but when you really start to think about all the major plot points there are some very weird plot decisions. Now of course, The Dark Knight Rises' plot never gets quite as muddled as that of poor old Prometheus, but still it isn't quite as flawless as everyone hoped and expected.

But I feel like I'm being too critical. At the end of the day, this movie is definitely the most ambitious of the trilogy and considering this it does extremely well. The story may have pacing problems in the middle and a few strange moments when you think too much about it, but really it is still full of exciting action and a great end to a fantastic trilogy.

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