The Dark Knight Rises review

by Luke Jones


FULL SPOILERS DISCUSSED AHEAD

Even prior to the release of The Dark Knight Rises Christopher Nolan had earned his place among the great directors of all time. His reboot of the Batman franchise with 2005's Batman Begins is an influential exercise in how to update a seventy year old character for modern audiences. The sequel, 2008's The Dark Knight, is an even greater accomplishment; a heady mix of popcorn blockbuster, Michael Mann style thriller and examination of post 9/11 America.

High benchmarks then, not only for every other superhero film released since but also this, his third and supposedly final trip to Gotham. Yet The Dark Knight Rises is just as daring and entertaining as its illustrious forebears. Perhaps more surprising is that, for the most part, this isn't a Batman film.

Picking up eight years after the The Dark Knight, Rises sees Bruce Wayne living as a virtual recluse while Gotham enjoys a period of relative peace. Harvey Dent, last seen transformed into the murderous Two-Face, is still held up as a false beacon of hope following his death in The Dark Knight. Legislation in the form of the Dent Act has given the police and prosecutors greater power against the criminals of the city, leaving no need for the Batman. Yet evil is rising, and soon Gotham will once again need the hero that it has cast out as a vigilante.

Nolan himself has said that each of his Batman films can be reduced to one central theme, and Rises is no different. While Begins and Dark Knight were about fear and chaos respectively, Rises is all about pain. Commissioner Gordon feels guilt over the lie on which the city's stability is based. Alfred, so long Bruce Wayne's closest ally, is pushed to breaking point and new villain Bane is both physical and mental pain incarnate. As Bruce Wayne, Christian Bale does his finest work in the series to date, as the outcast unable to move on from the death of his childhood love. It’s a role that obviously required tremendous physical discipline (Wayne veers between being malnourished and super-stacked throughout the film) whilst remaining anguished yet enigmatic. It also sees him spending far more time outside of the Batsuit than within it, making this feel more like a Bruce Wayne film than a Batman one. 

It makes for a more emotional film, as seen in one of the film’s highlights when a desperate Alfred appeals for Wayne to walk away from his methods of fighting crime. Yet it also makes for a bloated one and, unusually for Nolan, one that lacks focus at times. The film has undeniable pacing issues, with an exposition heavy beginning as the pieces are put into place for Bane’s masterplan. Later, as Bane finally plays his hand in a series of stunning visual beats, Wayne is relegated to the sidelines so that he can undergo his own journey to overcome prisons both literal and mental. It makes for a dip in tension at the same point where The Dark Knight was ramping things up with its Sophie’s Choice middle act.

Yet it never feels like a film that was compromised to appease studio executives, such as Spider-Man 3. This is still a Nolan film, and as such remains relevant despite the amount of rubber suits. The thrust of the plot sees the 1% suffering at the hands of the 99, and Nolan still has a knack for subverting American symbols for chilling results. Thus we have the national anthem played as dreadful durm before the strang of that most American of arenas, the football stadium, collapses in on itself in the scene from the trailers. Bane, for all his decoration, could stand for any terrorist with a grudge against capitalism.

Ah yes Bane, the masked villain unearthed to follow THAT performance. Bane may not be as well known as the Joker, but then neither was Ra’s al Ghul, or the Scarecrow for that matter. Bane acts as the expected physical match for Batman, but proves to be just as intelligent an adversary as the Joker was. Worries that actor Tom Hardy would be unintelligible behind the mask prove mostly unfounded, but his mannered, articulate delivery is just as iconic as Ledger’s punk-rock drawl. He even gets to deliver some of the film’s biggest laughs along with its more brutal moments.

While the dynamic between Wayne and Bane lies at the heart of the film, a variety of sub-plots keep the weighty supporting cast involved. Gary Oldman is as good as ever as Commission Gordon, adding a pleasing weariness to the character that speaks volumes about the eight years since The Dark Knight. As head-strong cop John Blake, Joseph Gordon-Levitt does his best but is unable to drum up much excitement in a role that too often boils down to pushing the plot forward for the other characters. The other new addition, Anne Hathaway, fares much better. As Selina Kyle she brings a pleasing ambiguity that doesn’t surpass Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman in the way that Ledger’s Joker did for Jack Nicholson, but works within the Nolan bat-universe. 

The rest of the cast are uniformly excellent, and it’s fun to play spot the TV actor (Prison Break! Lost! Torchwood!). As mentioned above Michael Caine does stellar work as Alfred, with the character receiving the most focus he has had since Batman and Robin. 

Nolan certainly hasn’t lost his knack for filming action either, though the increased focus on Bruce Wayne means there are fewer moments for Batman to shine. His first appearance is amongst the film’s more gleeful moments, astride the Bat-Pod in a high speed chase through the streets of Gotham. Apart from this though the action is more visceral, more crunchy than in The Dark Knight. This is Nolan working on an epic scale, more war film than crime-fighting thriller, with extras sometimes numbering in the thousands. 

Interestingly this also feels like the most cartoonish of the Nolan Batman films, despite the darker story. Perhaps it is because of the dynamic between Batman and Catwoman, or the more convoluted and backstory heavy plot that harks back to Batman Begins. It may even be down to the magical medical talents of the inmates at the prison Wayne finds himself locked in. Along with the epic length come plot holes too. Why does no rubbish build up while Gotham is under siege? Why are the police so clean after emerging from the sewers? Where are the ordinary citizens while all of this is going on? 

To question these seems churlish however when confronted with film-making as accomplished as this. If The Dark Knight Rises is a tougher film to love than either Begins or The Dark Knight it is simply because this is a more sombre story that doesn’t allow for as much fun as the previous two. Much as Temple of Doom was maligned for daring to tell a darker Indiana Jones story, this may disappoint some who want more Batman in their Batman movie. 

As for what the future holds, Nolan has clearly stated that this will be his last Batman film, and the end does suggest a new beginning for some talented film-maker to spin off their own universe. Whether Nolan does return or not (and really Warner Bros should be driving a truckload of money to his house as I type) it will be interesting to see whether the star of that film will be Batman or... another miscellaneous character. For now, however, Nolan can rest with the knowledge that he has crafted the finest trilogy of superhero films ever made. 

P.S. One final note on the film’s use of IMAX cameras. After the success of their use in The Dark Knight Nolan has once again used the format to film over an hour’s footage for The Dark Knight Rises. To my immense disappointment the owners of the cinema at Birmingham’s Millennium Point decided to cancel their IMAX licence towards the end of last year, instead installing a digital projector that is unable to display said footage as Nolan intended. If you want a full explanation of the difference (and the IMAX comparison picture halfway down shows this clearly) then this article explains why the decision to go digital is such a backwards step for Birmingham’s Giant Screen.