The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Christopher Nolan is perhaps the luckiest man in the film world. He is one of the few in a position to make high-level, intelligent movies that both cost and make truckloads of money. This is entirely because he came across the Batman franchise at precisely the right time. The desire to reboot it was—not unlike the recent shot at rebooting Spider-Man—entirely motivated by the money it could make. Yet Nolan and Batman proved to be a perfect match. Here was a franchise that needed a creative kick in the rear end, and Nolan had a distinct vision of what his Batman could be, and how he could turn it into an ambitious 21st century epic. Thus was born Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, two distinct and uncompromising films that showed the world that the superhero genre could be about something more than a man wearing a costume.

Now Nolan’s trilogy ends with The Dark Knight Rises, which—due the incredible financial and critical success of its predecessor—has become the most universally-anticipated film in ages. One could probably make the argument that it’s the most universally-anticipated film of all time; at least since George Lucas released Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 1999. Here is a franchise that appeals both to the comic book fan and the regular movie fan; the nerd and the cineaste. Nolan has achieved a blend of the mainstream and the artful that most filmmakers only dream of, and that is why his films are so blindingly popular. He has earned complete creative control, which has given him the opportunity to make completely bonkers films like Inception. It also allows him the chance to end his Batman films in the exact fashion he likes, and with The Dark Knight Rises he is able to complete his unique creative vision.

The film picks up eight years after The Dark Knight, which ended with Batman taking the fall for Harvey Dent’s crimes. Now Batman is essentially retired, and Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) hides in his rebuilt mansion far from the public eye. Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) has worked to make the streets of Gotham safe, and everything seems to be going swimmingly. Yet right below their feet, the terrorist Bane (Tom Hardy) is planning an attack on Gotham City that in no small way mimics such historical events as the French Revolution. I won’t go much further into it, because I’m guessing that most Batman fans want to go into this knowing as little as possible. Just know this: there is conflict.

All your favorite characters return, including Michael Caine’s loyal servant Alfred and Morgan Freeman’s Lucius Fox. However, Nolan introduces several new supporting characters—too many, probably—that play key roles in this final battle. Anne Hathaway plays Selina Kyle, a burglar who gets in deep with the wrong crowd and ultimately makes some unfortunate decisions. Nolan also pulls a couple of his old Inception buddies into the mix; Marion Cotillard is an eager board member at Wayne Enterprises, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a young police officer who develops fruitful relationships with both Wayne and Gordon.

The Dark Knight Rises is ultimately an incredibly satisfying and thrilling conclusion to Nolan’s trilogy. It’s also kind of a mess at times, particularly in a first half that feels unusually unfocused. Nolan has always made long movies, but they usually hit the ground running and drive forward with unparalleled momentum. The Dark Knight Rises moves quickly—it doesn’t feel nearly as long as its 165-minute running time—but for a while it has its hand in too many places at once. Frankly, it feels a bit like Spider-Man 3 syndrome, though it never comes close to sinking to that film’s considerable lows. It never becomes actively bad; it just feels curiously disorganized.

The film is also slightly more “normal” that people might expect. By that I mean it feels more like a conventional action picture than the deep, harsh tragedy of The Dark Knight. That said, it works terrifically well on this level, and Nolan’s action sequences in this film are the best he’s directed in his career. (There have been complaints about his action directing before, but this film is evidence that he’s grown quite a bit in that area.) The Dark Knight Rises shares its predecessor’s occasionally bleak worldview, but it never quite engages us on the same emotional level. It’s awful hard to top the impact of the official Greatest Superhero Movie of All Time, and it doesn’t, but it's some exhilarating stuff once it kicks into high gear.

One of the more unenviable tasks falls on Hardy, who has the unfortunate responsibility of following Heath Ledger’s Joker, who is one of the most terrifying villains movies have ever seen. He thankfully does a rather fantastic job, and he turns Bane into an instrument of brute force, which is quite the contrast to the Joker’s lighter touch. That’s exactly the correct way to go, though Bane never becomes the inherently terrifying presence that the Joker was. In The Dark Knight, you could feel Ledger’s ghost even in the scenes he wasn’t in. That’s not the case here, but the more time we spend with Bane the more we learn to fear him.

Once everything clicks into place, Nolan creates exactly the climax that his series deserves; an all-out battle on the streets of Gotham that feels like the culmination of all that came before. It’s also wonderful in that it keeps the series’ thematic ambitions afloat. The question of Batman’s necessity and righteousness has hung over every scene, and there’s no denying that Nolan lays the political subtext on pretty thick as the film goes on. The good news is that it never really feels preachy; if anything, he’s leaving it to the viewers to decide how the Gotham Revolution (if you will) can be read. That is, if audiences are at all interested. Most are probably just anxious to see if Batman saves the day, and how the series will leave him.

If that is the case, it’s hard to imagine any of them will be disappointed. The Dark Knight Rises is thrilling-if-imperfect blockbuster entertainment that never does a disservice to what Nolan had created before. It may be the weakest of the trilogy, but that is a purely relative term. If anything, it is the third best film in the trilogy. (Though I could be persuaded to move it above Batman Begins down the line. It’s actually growing on me the deeper I get into this review.) Nothing is more ostensibly silly than a man in a cape beating up criminals. Somehow Christopher Nolan has taken this and turned it into one of the bleakest, greatest and most ambitious mainstream trilogies of all time. To whoever will be directing the inevitable reboot: best of luck!

Grade: B+

P.S. – This is not technically a spoiler, but if you want a completely clean slate then look away. There is a shot near the end of the film that I did not think was meant to be taken literally. More people have than I anticipated. All I will say is it involves where a certain character ends up in the denouement, and if you have an opinion on it I’d love to hear it. That’s all.