Synopsis:
Eight years after the events of The Dark Knight, Bruce Wayne must pull himself out of hiding to do battle with the ruthless mercenary Bane.
My opening statement;
TDKR has certainly lived up to the hype. It's bigger, louder
and ups the epic level from the already high octane The Dark
Knight. The threat is also MUCH larger, so large I can understand
why the director wanted to end it here as the spectacle becomes
insane by the end, anything more than this and it would just verge on
stupid, thankfully Christopher Nolan knows this and gets the balance
perfect. Certainly after what Batman had to go through in the
director's second outing you'd think it hard to do so but he pulls it
off in his stride. Despite throwing a heavy number of action
sequences at us, he is able to tone the piece down and bring about
the heart that really draws the viewer in. It probably helped he had
over two and a half hours to play with. This may have been a
hinderence however as particularly in the beginning it tended to drag
and took a while to get into the bulk of the story. But often a slow
build can be a good one, as it tends to add more longevity to the
piece. By the end of the film you feel like you've been on a journey,
that you've been a part of the ups and downs, and I feel that if
you're going to give anyone over two and a half hours for a movie,
who better than Nolan?
Obviously we can't talk
about Batman without mentioning the villains. The villains are
arguably THE most important characters of superhero fiction. The
heroes are made to be cool, granted, but it's the villains that bring
the dis-equilibrium. In a sense there has to be something about them
that makes them more powerful and cooler than the hero, so that
eventually that hero can overcome the odds and take out a superior
opponent, adding to their legacy. I suppose that after his first
feature film appearance I was actually surprised that Nolan went with
Bane to be the primary antagonist. Previously he came off as a
second, maybe even third tier, boss in Batman and Robin.
Thankfully Bane came across an absolute beast here. I did notice a
couple people having an anti-nerd-gasm after the showing, “I didn't
like Bane because... well... in the comic books his mask gave him
steroids and he was a... blah.. blah.. blah...” shut up. Did you
not watch the film? Everything about him, from his voice to his
demeanour to his back story was on point and interesting. Nolan is
known for trying to keep things realistic(-ish) and I think to have a
ginormous, CG'd, steroid abusing Bane hulking around during the whole
film would have been ridiculous and I'm glad Nolan decided to use the
more efficient and speedy frame of Tom Hardy. Plus an old-school Bane
would come across far too brutish and would fit in more of a
bodyguard type role where as here Nolan has crafted a character both
strong and intelligent. Plus he genuinely comes off as unbeatable and
makes Batman look like a bitch which is always a good thing. It's
just so refreshing to see Batman overwhelmed and outmatched here and
it really adds to the tension. Is he better than the Joker? To be
honest no. The Jokers modus operandi is untouchable in terms of
intrigue and unfortunately for Bane Nolan actually down right puts
him back into secondary villain territory in a highly underwhelming
twist. So all that build tends to fly out of the window almost
immediately. Our interest in him dies and it really is such a shame
considering the great work Tom Hardy did with his portrayal.
Anne
Hathaway as Cat Woman (okay she isn't directly called Cat Woman but
we all know) was great. She looked great, acted her socks off and
really becomes the character, of which suits her brilliantly. I
think, given Bane's level of badassery that Anne Hathaway's
performance would be overlooked but certainly during the first half
of the film, and even throughout the rest, Cat Woman comes across as
the coolest character on-screen.
Alfred
is also great (of course) and although he wasn't the one to come out
with the stand out line this time round, that honour belongs to a blind prisoner, he still comes across as the epitome of wisdom.
The dialogue he and other characters bring to the table is very
important as Batman throws around some painfully corny one-liners.
The rookie Blake, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is also fun to
watch, along with Gary Oldman, who hold their own in a film crowded
with out-of-this-world characters. Bale plays his part too as always,
HE IS BATMAN. Over this trilogy he has made the iconic character his
own and it's safe to say no one has portrayed him better, particular
in a film where he really has to show another, more vulnerable, side.
Overview:
Although
a great ending to the trilogy I can't help but feel Nolan made some
questionable decisions towards the end. I'm sure WB will dig it up
again after ten years but after the bar has been set this high is
there really any point?
Rating:
★★★★
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