Movie Review: "The Dark Knight Rises"

Christopher Nolan brings his Batman trilogy to a close by solidifying his place as the man who created the most artistic, intelligent, and substantive translation of comic book to film ever attempted ... and, more, achieved.   While the debate will rage on whether The Dark Knight Rises is the equal of 2008's monumental Dark Knight (and nobody but nobody can match Heath Ledger's Joker), the scope and scale of this film cannot be denied, and even with its flaws it still soars over the skyline of Gotham and our own imaginations.

First things first: The premise is that eight years have passed since the events of The Dark Knight, and Gotham's crime wave has been largely suppressed under something called "The Dent Act," a provision named after the late Harvey Dent (more than ever publicly revered as a hero in the "noble lie" that ended the previous film - a lie so massive it would choke even Plato's Republic).  Batman (or as he's constantly referred to in the film, "The Batman") has vanished, still a wanted man.  Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) has retreated  - literally into the depths of Wayne Manor to become a Howard Hughesian recluse, mentally into despair and depression after the death of Rachel Dawes.  Hobbling painfully with a cane or drifting in a dressing robe through his cheerless mansion, Wayne is a man broken both physically and psychologically.  It is a brief but powerful meditation on the personal cost of service, even as it also obliquely asks the question whether Gotham was worth the price.  Wayne is as dusty and covered as his disused furniture, and one wonders just how much he has left to give.  (In fact, at one point this question is explicitly raised.)  The ever-faithful Alfred (Michael Caine, more glorious than ever in the role) can only look on with pained concern.  The cost, it suddenly becomes clear, is not only Bruce Wayne's.

Seemingly this mournful stasis could go on indefinitely if not for two events that kick off the movie.  First, the beautiful jewel thief Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) infiltrates Wayne Manor and burgles the pearls that had belonged to Bruce's mother, piquing his interest in the world beyond his seclusion for the first time in years.  She's clearly Catwoman, though that label is never used.  Secondly, a monstrous physical crag of a criminal ominously named Bane (Tom Hardy) appears, ostensibly to lead a revolution that smacks showily of class struggle and Marx and the French Revolution but actually is a grand plan to annihilate Gotham entirely.  As history tells us repeatedly, beware wild-eyed zealots preaching utopia only to turn it into their own private despotism.

I should probably stop here before I start spouting spoilers ... and that's just the problem of reviewing this movie during its opening weekend.  I really - and I do mean really - want to discuss a number of aspects of the movie (Nolan is as complex as ever in his discussion of good, evil, crime, chaos, and heroism), but I can't do that without giving away major plot points.  I guess I'll just have to wait a little while before writing a second review.  For now, I'll say:

The Cast:
Christian Bale is as good as ever, and he reminds me again why he's one of my favorite actors.  The complicated Bruce Wayne, more complicated than ever this time around, is the role of a lifetime, and Bale does it justice (and redeems the train wreck that was his summer of 2009).  All the great recurring characters return - Michael Caine as Alfred, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon.  Oldman is particularly good.  Anne Hathaway exceeded my expectations entirely and made me forget both The Princess Diaries and - more importantly - Halle Berry's oh-please-God-make-it-stop absolutely horrendous turn as Catwoman in the 2004 flick of the same name.  Now for Tom Hardy, so delightful as Eames in Inception.  Oh, Tom Hardy, who has the unenviable task of being the villain after the Joker!  Bane is without doubt a formidable presence, but part of my problem with him is the fact that his face is covered with a muzzle and I often couldn't quite make out what he was saying.  (Apparently since in this flick Batman could enunciate better through his growl than before, Nolan thought he'd make up for it by making Bane the one with the impenetrable speech impediment?)  The covered face also presents its own challenges in expression, though in the end, that along with Bane's own weird voice and hyper-muscular violence makes him an inscrutable beast - a figure of brute force that makes you shudder when the inevitable face-off with the physically compromised Batman comes as you know it must. Marion Cotillard (yes, this is apparently an Inception reunion) takes her place as a rich philanthropist, though as the film proceeds you feel the need perhaps to put that word in scare quotes.  The best addition to the cast is really Joseph Gordon-Levitt (it *IS* an Inception reunion!) as a rookie cop, and he almost steals the movie.  Intense and focused, he also has a surprising link to Wayne and has a remarkable monologue early in the film that will define him.

The Cinematography:
Somebody nominate this film for the Oscar already!  It is a gorgeously shot work, and some of the vast cityscapes will take your breath away.  Nolan is a meticulous moviemaker, and you see that attention to detail.  Gotham comes to life as an alternate-universe version of New York City, strikingly on display.  The setpieces are feasts for the eyes - truly deserving of the description "epic."

A Caveat:
If I were you, I'd watch both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight before you go see this.  There's a lot going on in The Dark Knight Rises, and a good deal of it harks back or explicitly notes themes, characters, and events in the preceding films.

Problems:
Again, I can't be too specific without being spoilerrific.  Let me say this: Nolan's approach to Batman's comic book roots is to imbue as much realism into his version as it will take.  This usually works magnificently, but there are a few things in this movie that will make you want to tear your hair out if you think too hard about them.  Overall, though, the biggest problem is the sheer size of this effort.  There is so much going on with so many characters that it becomes almost distracting in places.  At times there is too much exposition and at others not enough. Cotillard's character especially is a problem with plausibility on several fronts, and the same goes for a certain location in the storyline that should probably be considered one great big metaphor of hell and human despair rather than an actual correctional facility.  Nolan's nearly 3-hour-long opus is enormous, and sometimes it trips on itself, but this time around I'm inclined to let it pass and go all Robert Browning on you: a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?  Nolan tries like nobody else, bless him, and even the movie's imperfections are a testament to his vast effort and vision.  OK, I'm also going to say this rather unfair thing: Bane is a terrorist and a scary one, but he lacks the sick, perverse charisma that would make him as fascinating as he is repulsive and therefore really let him get under your skin.  He's no Joker.  Also, the Catwoman character arc is a little thin given that we haven't quite enough background on her, and the Cotillard character ... I'll just leave it at that.  (Then again, Nolan's always had a problem writing well-rounded, nuanced female characters.)

Overall, though?  The Dark Knight Rises is a film of substance as much as action, and it is a worthy conclusion to one of the finest film trilogies ever made.

Mad Minerva gives this film a grade of A-.  (OK, since it's a trilogy, I should recalibrate the grades to: Batman Begins B+, The Dark Knight A, and this an A-.)

Rotten Tomatoes gives The Dark Knight Rises the fresh rating of 87%.

The Dark Knight Rises runs 164 minutes and is rated PG-13 for some language and plenty of violence.