The Dark Knight Rises Review

The final film in the Nolan trilogy.  Everything leads up to this point, was it worth it?  Absolutely.

Clearly this is a film much more centered on Wayne than it is on Batman.  Don’t get me wrong, there’s still plenty of Batman but this is more of an emotional journey for Wayne fully coming to grips with who he is and part of that his Batman's physical and inner battle with Bane, a villain who can feel no pain thanks to a device he wears over his nose and mouth.  It took me a few moments to adjust to Banes voice, but once I did I found him to be one of the most enjoyable villains of the series.  For this film, Bane was the perfect choice as Waynes emotional journey will take him all the way back to the beginning.  In some ways Bane is the physical manifestation of what is holding Wayne back from fully becoming the Batman, giving true meaning to "What do we do when we fall?" that is echoed in the first film.

Speaking of villains, we can’t forget Catwoman.  Anna Hathaway plays the role perfectly with just enough style and flirtatiousness that does a good job of matching the character from the comics and other media forms.  She also has some great action scenes and moments with Wayne.

The story is strong, introducing a new character.  A younger cop who gets caught up in the plot and not content to just sit by and follow the rules.  Without spoiling much, Bane escapes from a unique prison, obtains and bomb and holds Gotham in his grip, basically allowing the people of Gotham to live in anarchy.  No rules, no consequences…at least that’s the story.  You’ll need to see the movie to find out what’s going on. 

We also get to see a few new gadgets this time around including the brand new vehicle The Bat.  Nolan’s version of the Batwing, the flying vehicle which gets a lot of screen time and is impressive to watch in combat.

Overall I felt the film could have used a few more scenes with Batman, but aside from that and a few fanboy nitpicks based on the Batman character, this is a very strong, character driven film with great action scenes and an emotional journey that takes its toll on Bruce Wayne as well as the Batman and easily the strongest film of the series.