Review - The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Hey guys, Chuck here. Hope everyone is enjoying this Easter Sunday. Well, as promised, here is my review of the final chapter of the Dark Knight Trilogy: The Dark Knight Rises. And even though this is a nearly ten year old movie, I'll do my best to avoid spoilers for anyone who hasn't seen it.
Eight years have passed since the events of The Dark Knight, and many things have changed in Gotham. Crime is at an all-time low, and Gotham's most violent criminals are locked up in Blackgate Penitentiary. Jim Gordon is the commissioner of the police, and Batman has been MIA for the past right years.
Elsewhere, a CIA operative interrogates three men on an airplane, all of whom work for a masked mercenary named Bane. Once Bane himself speaks, more of his men attack the plane and retrieve nuclear physicist Dr. Pavel, replacing Dr. Pavel with a cadaver before dropping the plane. Back in Gotham, during a celebration at Wayne Manor, a string of pearls is stolen, along with Bruce's fingerprints, from an uncrackable safe. The thief who stole them was a known jewel thief named Selina Kyle, who was after the prints, and took the pearls just because.
At the same time, Wayne Enterprises is under threat of hostile takeover by John Daggett, who hired Selina to steal Bruce's fingerprints. Daggett also snuck Bane and his forces into Gotham, hoping to use them to take over Wayne Enterprises by bankrupting Bruce. Commissioner Gordon, after finding Bane and his men in hiding in the streets of Gotham, ends up hospitalized.
After an incident at the stock exchange, where Bane and his men use Bruce's fingerprints to bankrupt Bruce, Batman arrives and chases down Bane and his men, with the police chasing after him instead. Meanwhile, Selina, now in a catsuit, breaks into Daggett's place to find what she was promised: the Clean Slate program, a device that erases anyone's criminal record permanently. Selina and Batman, after a confrontation with Bane's men, talk about what happened with Bruce's fingerprints. After returning to the Batcave, Alfred ultimately decides to leave Bruce.
At the suggestion of Lucius Fox, Bruce puts Miranda Tate in charge of Wayne Enterprises, and a clean energy project that was scrapped when Dr. Pavel published a paper on how such a device could be converted into a nuclear bomb. Batman, with help from Selina heads into the sewers to confront Bane, who knows that he is really Bruce Wayne. The two have a fight, where Bane reveals that he now leads the League of Shadows, and they are in Gotham to finish what Ra's al Ghul had started. Bane ultimately breaks Batman's back, and takes Bruce to a prison called the Pit, where the only escape is a climb to the surface. No one has ever escaped. And does Bruce escape and return to save Gotham? Well, you'll have to watch the movie yourself to find out.
The Dark Knight Rises feel more like a sequel to Batman Begins than it does a sequel to The Dark Knight, with the return of the League of Shadows, a spectral appearance of Liam Neeson as Ra's al Ghul, and so on. The returning cast of Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, and Morgan Freeman were, once again, terrific, and new additions like Tom Hardy as Bane, Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as police officer John Blake, and Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle were all fantastic. I really liked Anne Hathaway's Catwoman suit in this movie, as it's designed to be more tactical and realistic, and it's really good. Tom Hardy's Bane mask, while a major departure from the comics, was really menacing and looked pretty cool. However, a few things I didn't care for include a major twist involving the Miranda Tate character, which is absolutely obvious about two-thirds of the way into the movie, and the pacing. The movie jumps around in time quite a bit, and any non-comic book fan probably won't be able to keep up. Overall though, I feel like The Dark Knight Rises is a satisfying closing chapter to this legendary trilogy of Batman films, but, looking back on it all these years later, is only worth a rating of 4/5. This is Chuck signing off. See you guys next time, and have a great Easter.
Eight years have passed since the events of The Dark Knight, and many things have changed in Gotham. Crime is at an all-time low, and Gotham's most violent criminals are locked up in Blackgate Penitentiary. Jim Gordon is the commissioner of the police, and Batman has been MIA for the past right years.
Elsewhere, a CIA operative interrogates three men on an airplane, all of whom work for a masked mercenary named Bane. Once Bane himself speaks, more of his men attack the plane and retrieve nuclear physicist Dr. Pavel, replacing Dr. Pavel with a cadaver before dropping the plane. Back in Gotham, during a celebration at Wayne Manor, a string of pearls is stolen, along with Bruce's fingerprints, from an uncrackable safe. The thief who stole them was a known jewel thief named Selina Kyle, who was after the prints, and took the pearls just because.
At the same time, Wayne Enterprises is under threat of hostile takeover by John Daggett, who hired Selina to steal Bruce's fingerprints. Daggett also snuck Bane and his forces into Gotham, hoping to use them to take over Wayne Enterprises by bankrupting Bruce. Commissioner Gordon, after finding Bane and his men in hiding in the streets of Gotham, ends up hospitalized.
After an incident at the stock exchange, where Bane and his men use Bruce's fingerprints to bankrupt Bruce, Batman arrives and chases down Bane and his men, with the police chasing after him instead. Meanwhile, Selina, now in a catsuit, breaks into Daggett's place to find what she was promised: the Clean Slate program, a device that erases anyone's criminal record permanently. Selina and Batman, after a confrontation with Bane's men, talk about what happened with Bruce's fingerprints. After returning to the Batcave, Alfred ultimately decides to leave Bruce.
At the suggestion of Lucius Fox, Bruce puts Miranda Tate in charge of Wayne Enterprises, and a clean energy project that was scrapped when Dr. Pavel published a paper on how such a device could be converted into a nuclear bomb. Batman, with help from Selina heads into the sewers to confront Bane, who knows that he is really Bruce Wayne. The two have a fight, where Bane reveals that he now leads the League of Shadows, and they are in Gotham to finish what Ra's al Ghul had started. Bane ultimately breaks Batman's back, and takes Bruce to a prison called the Pit, where the only escape is a climb to the surface. No one has ever escaped. And does Bruce escape and return to save Gotham? Well, you'll have to watch the movie yourself to find out.
The Dark Knight Rises feel more like a sequel to Batman Begins than it does a sequel to The Dark Knight, with the return of the League of Shadows, a spectral appearance of Liam Neeson as Ra's al Ghul, and so on. The returning cast of Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, and Morgan Freeman were, once again, terrific, and new additions like Tom Hardy as Bane, Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as police officer John Blake, and Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle were all fantastic. I really liked Anne Hathaway's Catwoman suit in this movie, as it's designed to be more tactical and realistic, and it's really good. Tom Hardy's Bane mask, while a major departure from the comics, was really menacing and looked pretty cool. However, a few things I didn't care for include a major twist involving the Miranda Tate character, which is absolutely obvious about two-thirds of the way into the movie, and the pacing. The movie jumps around in time quite a bit, and any non-comic book fan probably won't be able to keep up. Overall though, I feel like The Dark Knight Rises is a satisfying closing chapter to this legendary trilogy of Batman films, but, looking back on it all these years later, is only worth a rating of 4/5. This is Chuck signing off. See you guys next time, and have a great Easter.
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