‘The Dark Knight Rises’ Review

Release Date: July 20, 2012
Director: Christopher Nolan
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Film Pulse Score: 7/10

Since we left the theater, my roommates and I have been talking about The Dark Knight Rises.  We’re pretty big fans.  I mean, we watched Batman Begins and The Dark Knight over the past two nights, and just got home from TDKR midnight screening.  However, I’m having a hard time swallowing what I just saw.  By this time, we’ve discussed the film sitting in the theater as the credits rolled above us, discussed it walking out of the theater with other film kids, the walk to the car, in the car, on the way home, and sitting around the living room, a candle burning on the coffee table like some beacon of understanding and comprehension.  And I still have the same questions and the same complaints and no one can argue against that The Dark Knight Rises, the ‘epic conclusion’ of the Christopher Nolan Batman movies was, simply put, a major disappointment. 

Now, let me clarify what ‘a major disappointment’ means in this universe.  In this particular universe, this Nolan-ized world, one has to realize that everything is connected.  Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises are all part of the same world and are all connected.  There is nothing in any one of those movies that doesn’t affect something in another.  That being said, when thinking about The Dark Knight Rises, one cannot only think about it by itself.  It exists right next to its predecessors.  This comes into play when viewing it then.

As a supposed ‘epic conclusion’, from my first viewing (I promise, there will be more*), I was not wowed, I was not blown away, I was not moved.  Sure, I had high expectations, but that shouldn’t have stopped something that was supposed to be this huge.

Christopher Nolan and brother Jonathan, pick up the script 8 years after Batman has taken the fall for Harvey Dent/Two Face.  It has taken a heavy toll on Bruce Wayne and it is evident in every facet of his persona; his luxurious personality from The Dark Knight is missing dramatically.

Bane (Tom Hardy), a mastermind in mental and physical strength, aims to give the citizens of Gotham their city back.  Alfred (Caine), Lucius (Freeman), and Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) all serve as perfect side characters to a story whose arcs are dangling and flying everywhere.  The peculiar love interest with Catwoman, aka Selina Kyle, aka…Anne Hathaway, seems trite and not serious.  I can’t see him with her, I don’t know why.  Maybe it’s because every other remark by her is cheesy.  Maybe.

I know this might come off like I hated the film.  But I didn’t.  I enjoyed the film, it was action packed, filled with emotions everywhere, god there was so much crying, and it was beautiful, I can’t wait to see it IMAX.  But I wanted something more.  I wanted something bigger.  I went into this expecting a finale to an amazing trilogy and I feel like it was copped out.  Who knows?  Maybe my subsequent viewings will change my opinion.

*I will be seeing The Dark Knight Rises again, especially in IMAX and will write another follow-up review to this one