This sequence, like so many in “The Dark Knight Rises,” is a stunning, dizzying and goose bump-inducing watch. It’s like something out of a James Bond movie, but on a larger scale. It boldly displays director Christopher Nolan’s preference for practical effects and stunt-work over computer-generated jiggery pokery, along with Hans Zimmer’s booming score and of course Wally Pfister’s staggering cinematography. It introduces terrorist Bane as a fearsome, hulking figure of brute force and cunning tactic. As played with startling physicality by Hardy, Bane is a sinister presence, his face obscured behind a respiratory mask that pumps his lungs full of life-sustaining anaesthetic and muffles his British-accented voice. This opening set-piece, when previewed to select audiences last December, was the recipient of widespread complaints regarding the incomprehensibility of Hardy’s wheezy line delivery. Rest assured that Bane’s voice has been altered and fixed, and much of his speech approaches crystal clarity, with the odd garbled line here and there.
“The Dark Knight Rises” is the concluding chapter of Nolan’s billion-dollar Batman trilogy, which rejuvenated and reinvented the superhero mould in 2005 with “Batman Begins” and went on to climb to unprecedented new heights in 2008 with “The Dark Knight.” In the closing moments of the series’ second entry, you should recall, Batman decided to take the fall for the vengeance-sparked murders committed by the late District Attorney Harvey “Two Face" Dent (Aaron Eckhart), whose Dent Act would effectively rid Gotham City’s streets of organised crime. Eight years later, Gotham is almost entirely crime-free thanks to the Dent Act, with Dent’s murderous actions reluctantly unrevealed by the noble Commissioner Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman, “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”).
Batman, meanwhile, has remained hidden from the public eye since that fateful night, condemned by the citizens of Gotham as the murderer of their beloved White Knight. Billionaire Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale, “The Fighter”), now an injured recluse silently hobbling through the master bedroom and marble hallways of a mansion he never leaves, has hung up his cape and cowl and turned into a rarely glimpsed shadow of his former self. “We all know he’s holed up with eight-inch fingernails and peeing into Mason jars,” snarkily comments a slimy board member, surely in reference to that infamously secretive movie mogul Howard Hughes.
Two characters, both new faces in the franchise, stir Bruce from his long-standing stupor and spring him back into action. One is Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman (a pseudonym that curiously goes unspoken), a dexterous cat burglar with feline-like flexibility who sneakily swipes an item close to Bruce’s heart. The other is Bane, who is discovered to be assembling an army of AK-47-wielding revolutionists in the sewers of Gotham City, for which he has plans of catastrophic proportions. I should also mention Officer John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, “50/50”), a young but wise rookie cop whose inexperience is compensated for by an uncanny instinct for trouble and a stubborn, heroic determination. Blake essentially acts as our secondary protagonist, and is earnestly performed with a convincing drive and spirit by Gordon-Levitt.
For a Batman movie, “The Dark Knight Rises” bravely features very little of Batman - in a picture that lasts a staggering 165 minutes, the Batsuit is given somewhere around 30 minutes of screen-time. For reasons I wouldn’t dare explain, the caped crusader is missing from action for the vast majority of the film’s second act, during which Bale’s co-stars take the mantle as Bane’s master-plan is set in horrible motion. There goes another thing I wouldn’t dare explain: I believe it would be much more dramatically enriching to watch Bane’s heinous scheme and the unbridled horrors contained therein unfold on the big screen with little-to-no prior knowledge. Its meticulously explored themes of despair versus hope, the body versus the spirit and good versus evil would pack more of a hard-hitting punch.
Fans of spectacle will be pleased to know that Bane’s plan leads to a grand assemblage of action-packed set-pieces, all of which are majestic in scope and breathtaking in execution. There’s that opening sequence, with its stomach-churning altitude and daring complexity. A build-up to an attack on a jam-packed football stadium, in which a small boy ominously chants the Star Spangled Banner into a microphone, is extraordinary in its raw power, and comes with an explosive pay-off. In a pulse-pounding climax, Batman gets to play with a new toy: a flying vehicle aptly named The Bat, which Batman sharply maneuvers between towering skyscrapers as he avoids the path of incoming missiles. Nolan’s film rivals Joss Whedon’s “The Avengers” in the field of lip-smacking razzle-dazzle, but here I was more emotionally invested in the action: I cared, and at times I was moved.
“The Dark Knight Rises" is more action-oriented than its immediate predecessor, but lacks that film’s sizzling dark humour: “The Dark Knight Rises" is an increasingly grim experience with an overwhelming sense of apocalyptic doom about it. This is reflected in the head villain: while the Joker of “The Dark Knight" was a cackling creator of anarchy and chaos, Bane is a creator of destruction and is seemingly bereft of a sense of humour. Several scenes in the film are also quite harrowing to watch, as Bane’s penchant for back-breaking brutality is unleashed in unflinching style by Nolan and crew. I strongly suspect that the BBFC will receive countless emails from angry parents regarding whether or not the film’s (admittedly bloodless) violence is suitable in a 12A-rated feature - if it happened for “The Dark Knight” four years ago, it will most certainly happen for “The Dark Knight Rises.”
As Bruce Wayne, Christian Bale gives a performance that is understated and, as it was in “The Dark Knight,” will most likely be underappreciated by many. Here is a man boundlessly dedicated to upholding the safety of his city to the point of obsession, screaming into thin air with rabid fury upon discovering that Gotham is to be destroyed. Here is a man who is to be admired for his selfless devotion to his quest for peace. Here is a hero we as an audience can get behind and root for, and maybe even shed a tear for. Tom Hardy, whose eyes and voice are mercifully expressive, makes for a ferociously menacing antagonist, intimidating both physically and mentally, but mostly physically - Bane is the first adversary that Batman finds not only matches his supreme fighting power but surpasses it, as shown in a devastating fistfight.
Anne Hathaway, who was inspired casting, wields an untamed swagger as Catwoman, a femme fatale in the purest, most devious sense of the term: she pounces from villain to anti-heroine at a click of her functionally questionable high heels. Marion Cotillard is endearingly strong and tenacious as Miranda Tate, a do-gooder executive of the Wayne Enterprises board for whom Bruce begins to develop feelings. But it is loyal butler Alfred, as played once again by the great Michael Caine, who is the heart of “The Dark Knight Rises:” he treats Bruce like his own son and protects him like a loving father would. In a poignant, heartfelt exchange at the bottom of the Wayne Manor staircase, Alfred tearfully pleads for Bruce to cease his exploits as Batman before he gets hurt, before Bane gets the better of him. We share his sorrow, and our eyes are as tearful as Alfred’s.
“The Dark Knight Rises” is a profoundly powerful, thematically prosperous and emotionally exhausting superhero epic. For almost three hours of utterly enthralling comic-book entertainment, Nolan’s film shreds the nerves and stimulates the intellect, providing us with a story that is intelligently written, ambitious in scope, ceaselessly compelling and, in many ways, inspiring. It is a deftly handled, completely satisfying conclusion to the Batman trilogy, a trilogy that now goes down in history as one of the greatest to ever be showcased on the big screen. This is an extraordinary piece of work that should be championed not just for its aspirations but also for its execution, which is difficult to fault given the awesome grandeur of it all. Once again, Christopher Nolan takes a sledgehammer to the so-called boundaries of the mega-budget studio blockbuster.
10/10
Saw it last night. A good ending to a good trilogy.
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