The long-awaited final installment of Christopher Nolan's epic Dark Knight trilogy has finally arrived! The Dark Knight Rises hit theatres this past weekend to numerous fans' delight and positive reviews from critics. Now that I have seen the film, I can complete my Batman franchise review.
The Dark Knight Rises
Director: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway
Box office gross: $198,038,896 (as of July 24, 2012)
"There's a storm coming, Mr. Wayne."
Nolan was skeptical on making a third film in the Dark Knight series, stating "how many good third movies in a franchise can people name?". His skepticism was not without warrant; many movie makers attempt to make a third movie in a franchise, hoping to continue the success of the first two films and more often than not, the film flops. Take Shrek the Third for instance. After two successful Shrek movies, the addition of a third film was inevitable. However, the movie was so horrifically bad, most people believed it was the nail in the coffin for the franchise. Thankfully, Dreamworks was able to produce a fantastic reboot of the series through its fourth installment. But I digress; back to The Dark Knight Rises.
Nolan found what he was looking for, a good story, and began work on the final installment of what was now a trilogy series.
The film began with what I thought was a very "Harry Potter" like beginning: Commissioner Gordon was seen addressing the death of Harvey Dent, reminiscent of Rufus Scrimgeour stating that "these were dark times" in the opening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. But I am not criticizing this; it was a great opening that set the tone in both films. And both films were fantastic.
With The Dark Knight Rises, Nolan created a true trilogy. Like Jamie Kennedy's character in Scream 3 said, "true trilogies are all about going back to the beginning and discovering something that wasn't true from the get go" and this film does that brilliantly. Of course I can't tell you how this film does it because it would be a major spoiler!
The film focused on the fall of Batman and his eventual rise back to his status as Gotham's saviour. Meanwhile, a new threat in the form of the the menacing Bane, moved into the city with plans of destroying it. Nolan did a fantastic job of telling this story and still providing enough action to keep audiences captivated. What aided in this feat was again, Nolan's stellar casting choices. Returning actors Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Gary Oldman continued their strong performances from the previous two films, helming this film's heart and soul of the story. New additions Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Marion Cotillard delivered refreshing performances, providing new allies and foes for the title character. Nolan's knack for recruiting astonishing actors is shown throughout his films, The Dark Knight Rises being no different.
Bale reprises his role as the titular hero and once again provides a notable performance as Bruce Wayne, who is now even more tortured after the death of his childhood friend Rachel Dawes, and has become a recluse. His performance as Batman is overshadowed by his alter ego but in a good way. In this film, the two dimensional role is heavily weighted on the man behind the mask, as he must discover "the power within", finally confronting the pain and loss he has avoided in the previous two films. According to Bale, this was his last performance as The Dark Knight, and with it, he provided a good ending for his development of the character.
Tom Hardy, who previously worked with Nolan on the critically acclaimed Inception (which in turn became his breakthrough performance), portrayed the villain Bane. Although producers wanted to feature The Riddler as the main villain in this film, Nolan went with Bane because he felt he would provide a greater challenge for Batman, both physically and mentally. Hardy was phenomenal as Bane. He was every bit the menacing terrorist but also showed that this villain was not just a physical being; he had intellect that was unfortunately misplaced in terrorism. He had some sure to be classic lines including the title of this blog. Though his accent and the obstruction of his mask often made it hard to understand him, when he did speak, you wanted to hear what he had to say. On a side note, I was surprised at how Nolan was able to make Hardy look taller and bigger than all other characters in the film as in reality, he is not a big guy.
Catwoman. This was a tough one for me. I was not sure including this character was the right move for Nolan. The on screen portrayal of Catwoman has been interesting to say the least. The last person to play this character was Halle Berry in the ill-fated 2004 film Catwoman. Since that bomb, critics and fans have been skeptical about who, if ever anyone, could really become Catwoman. Anne Hathaway puts in a valiant effort at accomplishing this goal. I have always been a fan of Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman in Tim Burton's Batman Returns. I still believe she played this role the best thus far. However, I don't think it's fair to compare Hathaway's character with Pfeiffer's. Where Pfeiffer's character was over the top, Hathaway's barely embraced the name "Catwoman". In fact, I don't believe the name "Catwoman" is ever really used in the film, though there were some clever allusion's to this name (for example, her goggles when placed on her head, made it look like she had cat ears). After the death of the Rachel Dawes character, Hathaway provided a romantic interest for Bale, the difference this time was the interest was not only for Bruce Wayne, but for Batman as well.
My inner geek swooned when I saw some familiar faces in this film: Cillian Murphy and Liam Neeson make great cameo appearances, Burn Gorman (Owen from the British TV series Torchwood) plays one of Bane's Gotham city minions, Stryver, Nestor Carbonell (Lost) returns as Gotham's mayor, Josh Stewart (Criminal Minds) plays Bane's right hand man, Barsad and Desmond Harrington (Dexter) plays a uniform cop.
Final Verdict: a definite must see. Not only for those who are Batman fans (like myself) but for those who want to see a superhero film that not only provides action, but a good story as well. The film continues the story of Nolan's caped crusader from the origin in Batman Begins to the collapse in The Dark Knight to the rise (redemption) in The Dark Knight Rises. A good end to this trilogy series.
Have you seen The Dark Knight Rises? Were you satisfied with the conclusion of the series?
No comments:
Post a Comment