It’s here!
Fair warning: I will be spoiling the shit out of this movie…
THE BAT-FILM: How do you follow up The Dark Knight? If you’re Christopher Nolan, you decide to end the story of Batman. When The Dark Knight Rises was officially announced, much hullabaloo was made of it being Nolan’s last entry in the series, as well as definitively ending the story he set up for Bruce Wayne. Is the film a definitive ending? Well… yes and no.
After the phenomenal success of The Dark Knight, Nolan was able to prove that he could make a megahit without Batman in 2010’s Inception, where the director continued sharpening his big-budget spectacle skills. Much like Batman himself, his training serves Nolan well here, as he stages destruction and mayhem on a vast, citywide scale. If Batman Begins was an epic adventure, and The Dark Knight a hardened crime thriller, then The Dark Knight Rises is an all-out war movie. Lacking the propulsive energy that hid many of The Dark Knight’s flaws, The Dark Knight Risei holds up to even less scrutiny, again staging a pretty far-fetched plot to destroy Gotham City. But none of that prevents the movie from being sublimely entertaining, flaws and all.
Christian Bale gives possibly his best performance of the series here as a Bruce Wayne who’s given up the Bat-mantle due to overall irrelevance. Harvey Dent’s death had quite an impact on Gotham City - new legislation passed in his name has pretty much cleaned up the city. With no real purpose anymore, Bruce has taken to being a recluse over the last eight years - never leaving the manor and now walking with a cane, the effects of being Batman finally taking their toll. But the peace of Gotham is only the quiet before the storm that is Bane and his secret army, and once Jim Gordon is hurt Bruce decides it’s time to throw on the cape once more. Although more disconnected from the world than ever, Bale’s performance as Bruce Wayne is livelier than ever - far more winking and light-hearted than the brooding portrayals from the last two films. Which is not to say it’s all fun and games for the character - Bruce goes the wringer, becoming bankrupt and destitute; emotionally and physically defeated as Bane fully breaks him and forces him to watch his city die. He’s kept in a prison on the other side of the world - a pit from which the only escape is to scale the far-reaching walls. Watching Bruce build himself back up in the prison is some of the film’s most gripping stuff, and should have been the main focus of the movie rather than some of the other subplots running throughout.
Another element getting the short shrift is Michael Caine’s Alfred. Bruce’s emotional center here is also at the breaking point, tired of seeing his surrogate son waste away before his eyes. When Bruce decides to become Batman once more, Alfred decides that enough is enough, and leaves the manor and Wayne’s employ. Their last scene together is especially heart-breaking, Caine’s trademark broken delivery eliciting tears in a movie whose main character dresses like a bat. No matter how ridiculous and unbelievable the story gets, the emotional reality is never lost - a fact driven home by Caine’s performance. The only problem is he virtually disappears from the movie thereafter, only showing up again at the very end. I agree that the split between Bruce and Alfred was a necessary one, but Alfred should have come back into the movie sooner - possibly joining up with Bruce when he comes back to Gotham to stop Bane.
Gary Oldman completes the arc of Jim Gordon, truly coming into his own as a leader. By the time the movie begins, Gordon is ready to throw it in as Police Commissioner - he has the same beaten-down, world weariness Bruce has. He gets injured early on by Bane and his men, and is bed-ridden until the moment Gotham falls, rising up himself and taking control of the situation whenever and wherever he can - effectively setting up a resistance to fight Bane. Oldman is truly fantastic here, as he was throughout the series - convincingly portraying the evolution of the character of James Gordon over three movies. Morgan Freeman’s Lucius Fox doesn’t get quite as complete an arc, and although he’s an active participant in the story throughout, never really becomes anything more than Bruce Wayne’s armorer. He still has that mischievous spirit though, which goes a long way to enduring us to Fox over all three movies.
And that brings us to our first newcomer, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as John Blake, a young Gotham City beat cop who’s quickly promoted to detective - a wise move by Gordon, considering Blake has correctly deduced that Bruce Wayne is Batman. The character as written could have come off as extremely bland, but Gordon-Levitt brings a natural likability along with his considerable talents as an actor to the role. Blake is also really the only “normal” in the movie, as he’s neither a figure possessing much authority or power like the other characters. His character is in the movie primarily to show Batman’s impact on the city at large - Bruce started the idea of Batman as a symbol, hoping to inspire people to be better versions of themselves. In the second film this back-fired, as he instead inspired the hockey-pad wearing copycats. And here in the third, Bruce finds a driven young man not all that different from himself - an orphan from a shelter Bruce visited years ago. I don’t think it’s any surprise that the film ends with the possibility of JGL taking up the mantle of the bat, making Bruce’s dream come true while also allowing him to carry on with the rest of his life. Nolan said fairly early on that Robin would most certainly never appear in any of his Bat-movies, but the director has found a way to make it work in the universe he’s created with John Blake, who’s real name is, wait for it… Robin.
The Dark Knight was a master class in building tension and excitement, so much so that the lightning pace of the movie never really allowed you to stop and wonder about some of the logical and thematic inconsistencies. The Dark Knight Rises never reaches those same heights, and as a result the movie feels rather weightless at times. In the last one audiences where on the edge of their seat for each and every one of the Joker’s nefarious schemes. Here the entire city is under siege, with the added threat of nuclear detonation looming, but the film just never gets the impact that The Dark Knight did. The film’s already overstuffed with a nearly three-hour length, but some added scenes of war-time Gotham would have been able to make the threat more immediate, and also show some of the reaction from regular citizens. Nolan is not lacking in the sheer scale of the destruction of Gotham, but in the end it still feels like it’s not enough. He gathers together massive amounts of extras to wage war in the streets for the climactic battle, but cuts away almost as quickly as it begins.
Nolan does continue to grow as an action director, particularly the two fights occurring between Batman and Bane. You’ll remember Liam Neeson instructing Bruce in the first film “This is not a dance,” and here it most certainly is not. The first fight isn’t so much a fistfight as it is the systematic breaking of every part of Batman's body. The fights are brutal and crunching, and Nolan films it all with a steady eye. And while the various chases are every bit as exciting as those found in The Dark Knight, they never reach the level of the “Lower Wacker Drive” scene from that movie.
One thing the film has going for it is it’s not afraid to get downright goofy at times. Nolan’s previous Bat-films were always so concerned with being all serious and realistic, but here Nolan isn’t afraid to have a little fun with the proceedings. He still stages several dark and gritty scenes, but there is a certain wacky thrill when we first see Bane’s underground lair or the Bat dodging missiles through the buildings of Gotham.
THE VILLAINS: After Ledger’s performance in the last film, it was going to be hard to meet up with similar expectations for the villains here, so once again Nolan stacks his deck with some of the best actors working today.
Anne Hathaway joins the film as Selina Kyle (never referred to as “Catwoman” in the entire film), the cat-burglar who changes sides at the drop of a hat. Much like Ledger in The Dark Knight, I don’t think we knew just how good of an actress Hathaway is, as she disappears into the role of Selina as a master con-woman. Hathaway plays her like a classic femme fatale, wooing and using men by the dozen to get what she wants. Starting the film as totally self-centered, we always suspect that there’s something more going on beneath all the lies and deceit - something we find out when she decides to join up with Batman at the very end to stop Bane and his minions. The film ends with Bruce and Selina running off together after he‘s faked his death, but - like all the best versions of Catwoman - you can never really be sure what she‘s going to do next…
Tom Hardy plays Bane, the masked mercenary who takes it upon himself to finish the job Ra’s al Ghul started in Begins. Originally a luchadore-esque thug who pumped a steroid-like drug into his body to bulk up, Bane is reimagined here as a former member of the League of Shadows, scarred and in horrible pain all the time - pain which is kept in check by the drugs fed to him through his mask, which he can never remove. Having to wear the mask for the entire runtime ultimately hurts Hardy’s performance, but the actor is talented enough to pull out a great turn nonetheless. Bane provides the perfect threat for Batman in his last outing, the biggest challenge he’s had to face both mentally and physically. Hardy also gives him an erudite, almost Bond villain voice that sounds fantastic filtered through his gas mask (although you can definitely tell it’s been altered in some scenes, where the exposition is more important to understanding the plot). If I have one complaint it’s that Bane isn’t in it enough. Ledger’s Joker was all over The Dark Knight, a literal force of nature that hovered over the entire film. Here we don’t get that with any of the characters.
Probably the worst-kept secret of the production was the fact that Marion Cotillard’s character of Miranda Tate has a last minute reveal that she’s actually Talia al Ghul, the daughter of Ra’s and the one pulling Bane’s strings from behind the scenes. I’m the most torn over this character - I love the idea of it, and Cotillard is suitably fantastic in her dual role - but everything is so rushed, we never get the kind of insight I was hoping for. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn the story of Talia and Bane and Ra’s, all of it filled with some old-school, Lawrence of Arabia-styled imagery - but it never feels like enough. Nolan stages the flashbacks in pieces; never a full-fledged scene. There’s enough raw material at hand to make a whole other movie about Ra’s, Bane and Talia (a movie I would totally watch), but apparently Nolan was more interested in devoting screen-time to stuff like Matthew Modine’s agonizing character than any of the really interesting bits.
THOSE WONDERFUL TOYS: You can’t really improve on perfection, so the Bat-suit remains unchanged - as does the Batpod. The newest addition is a mean looking helicopter/jet combination, handily dubbed “The Bat,” which Batman gets to use to handle the wide-scale destruction occurring all over his city. His new gadgets consist of a gun-type device that appears to kill electrical signals, like an EMP, and a couple of Batarangs coated in a sleeper agent to knock out various thugs. It’s also interesting that Batman never once uses his cape to glide in the entire movie, as the last two were filled with such scenes.
Selina also has an impressive outfit, although how she acquired it is never explained. She has night vision goggles that handily fold up into cat’s ears when not in use, and has traded in her claws for a pair of razor-blade stilettos. She also sadly doesn’t carry a whip here, instead preferring a side arm. I guess the whip was just too kinky for the prudish Nolan.
THE BAT’S IN THE DETAILS: Will this be the last Batman film? Of course not - other filmmakers with different takes will come along and make their mark on the Bat for many years to come, surely. But the ending to Nolan’s story is still rather open-ended, leaving a world of possibilities for the further adventures of John Blake and/or an older Bruce Wayne. I think Nolan is done with being directly involved with the series, but I wouldn’t put it past him to come back in a producing capacity if Warner Brothers decide they want to continue the story. And while Christian Bale (or any of the other principals, really) probably wouldn’t come back without Nolan, I would say a lot of that depends on how his career trajectory goes in the next few years (and how much money they offer him).
Cillian Murphy returns as the Scarecrow in one of the film’s wackiest moments, as the judge/tribunal responsible for sentencing citizens of Gotham to death under Bane’s rule. It’s one of the most fantastical of images in the entirety of Nolan’s films, as Dr. Crane sits atop a mound of desks with the stuffing of his suit spilling out like a literal scarecrow. Wish he would’ve worn his mask, though.
Early on at a party at Wayne Manor, one patron comments that Bruce Wayne must be peeing in jars and letting his fingernails grow long - much like Howard Hughes was prone to doing. Nolan was once lined up to make a Howard Hughes biopic.
There’s a lot of really subtle references to the entire Batman legacy that feel almost coincidental, like Hines Ward (like Burt Ward) running the ball back while the field behind him explodes, or Batman’s death scene where, hey… some days you just can’t get rid of a bomb.
Liam Neeson returns briefly as Ra’s al Ghul as a hallucination to Bruce while he’s in the prison. Batman has more than a little in common with Hamlet, so this scene where Bruce is confronted by the apparition of one of his father-figures serves as a nice reference.
There’s a veritable cavalcade of actors in bit-parts, like Wire-vets Aiden Gillen and Robert Wisdom, Thomas Lennon, half of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and William Devane as the President of the United States, plus returning, eyelinered Nestor Carbonell as Mayor of Gotham.
Nolan can make a movie where characters often refer to each other as Bane and Batman, but Catwoman is considered too silly a moniker?
Matthew Modine’s character really needs to be cut. It adds nothing to the film, stealing away valuable screen-time from far more interesting characters and subplots.
BEST QUOTE: “A hero can be anyone. Even a man doing something as simple and reassuring as putting a coat around a little boy's shoulders to let him know that the world hadn't ended.” All throughout the movie I kept wondering why Batman didn’t just tell Gordon who he really was, considering most all the main characters already had it figured out. But it turns out Nolan was delaying the reveal so we would get this scene, one of the most touching moments throughout all three films - solidifying the important role Gordon’s had throughout Bruce’s life.
THE LAST LAUGH: Not as good as The Dark Knight, but even with its silly, undercooked plot The Dark Knight Rises still manages an emotional and exciting finale - the perfect capstone to the best take the character has ever had on film.
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