Movie of the Week: The Dark Knight Rises

[jacey]

Wow, what can I say? One of the best movies I've seen this year and possibly the best of this trilogy because here we have a Batman, 8 years on from the last movie, who is utterly demoralised, having taken the rap for something he didn't do (in the last movie). He's broken, mentally and physically, but rises to the occasion anyway. It's not a question of sitting back to see how he creams the bad guys, instead there's a genuine fear that he won't succeed. This time he's up against someone bigger, tougher and trained by the same mentor and there's no get-out-of-jail-free card.

I like the way Bruce Wayne turns out to be very human. His body's taken a lot of punishment (no superpowers, remember) and all the cartilage in his joints is shot to hell and he's walking with a stick. He's used up and fighting his own body as well as the villains. Alfred's part in all this is almost unbearably poignant. Not usually a phrase I find I'm using in a review of a comic-book derived movie.

There are some good performances, not least from Christian Bale, Michael Caine and Gary Oldman as you might expect, but Anne Hathaway as Catwoman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Blake and an almost unrecognisable Tom Conti in an excellent cameo role.

I do wish I'd taken the time to re-watch the first two Chris Nolan Batman movies and reminded myself of the plot intricacies as there are some loose ends tied off here and some plot strands that would work better with the other two movies loaded back into memory. It would certainly bear watching all three in order.

Bonus point. This movie is not in 3D. Yay!

Comments

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

It is dark but I don't think it's as dark as the middle one. Sure Bruce is in a lot of trouble but, hey, you always put your characters through the mill. That's the point of the story. Regardless of its darkness this also has an excellent resolution. if you've seen the other two it would be a mistake to miss out on this.