So where to begin? This was easily my most anticipated movie of the year, and on the back of Inception and The Dark Knight I once again put myself in the hands of Chris Nolan expecting him to take me on this epic conclusion to the Batman mythology. The end result is a film big on ambition but ultimately leads to an unsatisfactory journey that is predictable, extremely clunky in parts, featuring undeveloped characters and an ending that is not all that satisfying.
I'll start with the positives. The acting in the film is top notch, Bale gives probably his best performance of the series, Bruce Wayne gives off very much a Howard Hughes vibe earlier on having become a recluse to society. He's lost all sense of living and is only awaken from his slumber by the arrival of Bane. For people wanting another Bruce Wayne film this is very much what you're getting, but it's mixed in the rest of the plots going on that his story almost gets completely lost.
Anne Hathaway is fantastic as Catwoman, she's sexy, sly, tough and resilient, but it feels like only the surface of the character is ever scratched, there's just so many more layers that could have been explored but sadly weren't. After a fantastic introduction in the first act the character all but disappears in the second, only to reemerge in the finale to help Batman. She's still probably the best version of the character we've seen but she could have been so much better.
The rest of the supporting cast is solid, Micheal Caine is again the soul of the film (and indeed the series), Gary Oldman again is great as Gordon even if his role feels more diminished this time around. Joseph Gordon Levits is strong as Blake and has a far more prominent role than anticipated, very much the spiritual sidekick in this film. Marion Cotillard is fine as always but her role is kinda minor for the most part.
And then there's Tom Hardy's Bane. A character that like Catwoman feels like the surface has only been scratched upon. There are moments when he feel terrifying, but they are so few and far between. I feel the weaknesses of Bane doesn't come from Hardy himself but from the way the character is presented. The voice is really distracting, it sounds pretty ordinary, not inaudible, but it sounds like an ADR recording, it's like there was no attempt to blend it in with the environment. I feel like so much more could have been done with the character but again it's like we're only given a glimpse of what he can do.
My biggest issue with this film is the story. For starters the dialog at times feels like it's being spoon fed to us, characters blurting out exposition that could have otherwise been shown in other creative ways, and it's borderline cringe worthy on occasions. Everything about Bane that the characters learn seems to come out of thin air, there's no great revelation that characters discover, stuff just kinda gets told to us again.
Then there's the story itself, the whole thing of Gotham being sealed off from the rest of the world never once feels real, and nor are the themes of of uprising against the upper classes ever really gone into great detail. Again, it feel like the subject is just left hanging for the most part after Bane comes out as Gotham's liberator. On top of that the time span of the story seems to fly by and in some cases defies logic. Of all the films in the series the story in Rises feels the most incomplete and frankly the struggle between Nolan trying to deliver a serious movie and playing to the conventions of a superhero film are never more paramount than here. It just feels so clunky.
Lastly there's absolutely no surprises in this film, just about everything rumoured about this film over the last year is more or less true, and even if you were a Batman fan who lived under a rock for a year avoiding spoilers you'd still figure where things were going. The big 'revelation' is about as surprising as finding a pickle on your Big Mac. I held out hope that Nolan would be far more creative and surprise us as to where he'd take things but alas no, the coming back to Begins thing is all too true I'm afraid. I was anticipating something along the lines of war film but sadly that never came into fruition.
Overall, Rises is not a bad movie, but by Chris Nolan standards it's a fumble. I will say though I am grateful for what he's done with the character in helping him get back to the top of the superhero film genre, but I can't in good conscious give The Dark Knight Rises the glowing review it's been getting from some others. By the end I was just so frustrated of feeling like there were some major pieces missing. Maybe I will have to see it again, but I admit there were times I was almost urging myself to like it, but I just can't rate it in the same category of it's two predecessors, for me it ranks a distant third in the series, the Dark Knight still remains the genres best.
7/10
