Don't read this review if you don't want to learn specific details about the plot. You have been warned!
If the Dark Knight redefined the superhero genre then the Dark Knight Rises revolutionises it. This is comic book story telling on an unprecedented scale. The Dark Knight Rises is not just the third film in Christopher Nolan's reboot. This is the final chapter in Nolan's trilogy. A true trilogy is a rare thing nowadays - many movie franchises are protracted in order to generate as much income for Hollywood as they can. But The Dark Knight Rises truly ties together the threads woven in Batman Begins and the Dark Knight. The continuity with the previous two films is one of the strongest features of the Dark Knight Rises and one of its biggest triumphs.
In Bane you have at last a villain with both a physical and theatrical presence on screen. Every scene Bane is in, like a gravitational pull, his presence is felt and you sense the fear eminating from each character as they tread with trepidation even at the sound of his name. Bane's voice, a point of contention when the prologue was released last year, is to Bane what the facial scars were to the Joker and gives his character added mystery and intrigue. There is something innately sinister about not being able to discern someone's real voice. Bane's distorted dialogue and monologue really helps to establish the uniqueness of the character, which was always going to be a hard act to follow after Heath Ledger's posthumously oscar winning performance as the maniacal Joker.
The supporting cast are an outstanding feature of this film. Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character John Blake, a precocious police officer turned detective brings a lot of emotional depth to the film as an honest citizen of Gotham who grew up in an Orphanage idolizing Bruce Wayne who he always suspected of being Batman due to his ability to empathise and understand the trauma and pain of losing his parents. Anne Hathaway's Catwoman is sexy and stylish, while her alias Selina Kyle is more vulnerable and conflicted. The chemistry between her and Batman is tantalizing and scintillating as each scene they are in is filled with sexual tension, mutual respect and a deep moral yearning to create a new life in which deception and violence play no part.
Undoubtedly though the star of this film is the Dark Knight himself Bruce Wayne/Batman. Ultimately this is a trilogy about Bruce Wayne, not Batman. The film starts eight years after the Dark Knight and Batman has gone into hiding having taken the blame for Harvey Dent's death and subsequently becoming villified by the Police. Bruce Wayne has become a recluse, keeping himself to the east wing of Wayne Manor heartbroken and bereaved of his lost love Rachel Dawes. His injuries have caught up with him and now he walks with a cane due to lack of cartillage in his knees. Only the theft of his mother's pearl necklace, and his finger prints from the safe in which they were locked, brings him out of Wayne Manor and back into society as he tracks down Catwoman. Over the course of the film Bruce learns to live and love again but he also learns the hard way about physical suffering combined with accute mental torture. Rashly, Batman challenges Bane to a dual but eight years away from crime fighting Batman is no match for the power and aggression of Bane and so succumbs to his latest adversary's remarkable strength (itself born not of a super serum but his own suffering). Literally a broken man, Bruce Wayne must recover and go through the same suffering Bane himself endured as a young man.
The character progression of Bruce Wayne is awe-inspiring, this is a story in which Bruce Wayne must go on a journey of self-discovery. Rotting in a prison cell, somewhere in the far East Bruce Wayne must truly learn how to survive and regain the will to win and defeat Bane. When he finally returns to Gotham, which has been overrun by Bane and his henchmen and under the threat of nuclear annhilation, as Bane possesses and is in control of a nutron bomb converted from the core of a nuclear generator, created to give Gotham clean, renewable energy; Batman must confront Bane a second time while saving the city from certain exstinction.
This is a stylish, intelligent, dramatic and epic conclusion to the Dark Knight trilogy. The plot is full of emotion, the script is intelligently written with fantastic interplay between all of the lead characters; the action sequences are mesmerizing and the fight scenes are emotively choreographed and charged. The casting is superb and the acting second to none. I sincerely loved everything about this film and it surpassed even my expectations as a Batman fanatic.
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