The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Brief review: Even if it doesn't quite meet the high expectation set by its predecessors, Nolan's long-anticipated conclusion to his "Batman" trilogy is still a great way to end the franchise. In spite of its 164-minute running time, "TDKR" never fails to entertain, thanks to the clever writing and gripping narrative, enhanced by the film's visual depth. In the same fashion as "The Dark Knight", "TDKR" has little to no 'comic book feel' about it, simply because its director tries to keep everything as realistic as possible. Unfortunately, that combined with the lack of humor makes it seem a bit too serious at times. Execution-wise, "TDKR" is nothing short of masterful, but considering Nolan's amazing skills that's not a surprise. Pfister's muted, almost noir-ish cinematography and gritty camera work match perfectly with both the movie's dark tone and Gotham City's grim atmosphere, and Nolan's refined, yet vigorous direction maintains the intensity of the story. While far from epic, the action scenes are well-shot and thrilling to watch, and the CGI work is first-rate and intentionally kept to a minimum. The acting is superb. Although a bit underused, Christian Bale turns in his best Batman performance yet. Anne Hathaway steals every scene as the seductive, yet shifty and manipulative Catwoman, Tom Hardy does an outstanding job as the astounding villain, Bane, and Marion Cotillard and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are at their very best.
Overall summary: Pretty much humorless and tad overlong, yet never boring, "The Dark Knight Rises" is a beyond satisfying conclusion to Chris Nolan's worldwide acclaimed "Batman" trilogy, that boasts a deeply thoughtful script, strong characters, and top-notch execution.
12 comments:
My sentiments exactly. It did need a little humor, but it was still an awesome way to conclude the series. The last couple minutes were worth it.
How you rate this below Spider-man... Oh well, great minds can't always think alike. :) TDKR is far superior in every way to the web crawler, in my opinion. Guess that's because I prefer my heroes to be men and not little boys. ;)
And how could you tell TDKR was a tad overlong? I was totally sucked into the story from the first second and never once thought about time. :) My only complaint really was Marion's death scene, which was the worst I have ever seen and did not mention in my review because well, I didn't want to spoil things too much. ;)
Great review, though and I agree with most of your points. Nolan is phenomenal director and this was the perfect conclusion to the trilogy.
Oh and I LOVED the no humor. Sometimes you just need a relentlessly dark story with little to no hope. Humor? Light? That's what Spider-man is for. LOL
Alex, it did need a little bit more humor indeed. I dunno, I thought the ending was a bit cheesy, but overall I was happy with it.
Mel, yep, I did like TAS more than TDKR. Back in 2008, I enjoyed more Hellboy 2 and Iron Man more than I did The Dark Knight, so the news ain't shocking at all. :)
I've never been one of the biggest fans of TDK to be honest. I found it overly serious and not comic book-ish enough and I missed the Gothic tone, which Burton gave it back in the 90s. I don't get all the hype for TDK and its sequel. I also thought Batman Begins was superior in every level.
I didn't want to spoil anything either, that's why I didn't analyze the plot at all. Thanks, hon.
Mel, and I hate movies that take themselves too seriously. A little bit of humor is never needless, even for a dark movie like this one.
Spot-on review, my friend. I think TDKR was, as you articulated, too dark and serious. It kind of strayed from the unintentional humor (some intentional) of the first two films in the trilogy. It did not match the near-perfection of TDK nor did it have the raw, fresh, narrative thrust of Batman Begins, but as a send-off to this ultimate trilogy, it was a very worthwhile coda. Overall, like you, I left the theater a very satisfied moviegoer.
Matty, you can't even imagine how happy your comment made me. At one point I was thinking there's something wrong with me, finding TDKR not humorless enough. I know it's a dark story, but at the end of the day, a little bit of fresh humor wouldn't hurt, would it? :)
I agree about Batman Begins - ot was such a breath of fresh air!
Great review! This definitely was short on humor, and a completely serious Dark Knight movie. I think it kind of fits mostly because Bane was such a bad ass bad guy. There was no need to joke around. While there wasn't as much action as in the other movies, the story had me sucked in. I was never bored, unlike moments in Spiderman. A great ending to the franchise that I am sad to see go.
TAS didn't bore me for a second, and I must confess I enjoyed it a bit more than I did TDKR. The latter was very compelling, but it didn't blew me away action-wise. It should have been better, simply because everyone including me had very high expectations. That being said, I liked it a lot for what it was.
I agree. TAS had more action. I just wasn't into the story as much as I was with TDKR. I guess I was more into what was happening to Batman than Spiderman!
HorrO, there wasn't enough of Batman in TDKR, don't you think?
2/3s of the film belonged to other characters. To me, that was a huge mistake.
TAS belonged to Spider-Man and he was the 'centerpiece' of the movie, as he's supposed to be.
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