Christopher Nolan, a very acclaimed film director reboot the ‘Batman’ successfully with a much darker and realistic tone with the film of ‘Batman Begins’ in 2005. Then, he continued to produce marvelous sequel for it, leading to ‘The Dark Knight’ in 2008 that receives major positive reviews and gain over 1 billion grossing. That is not the end yet. On this year, ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ which puts the epic franchise into trilogy is reported to be the conclusion. Hence, this film which is seen as one of the summer blockbuster is expected to gain more than its predecessors, but not in term of my review.
First of all, ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ is an extremely long movie, taking almost three hours with much of the time wasted on the slow pace of story development particularly in the first hour. The part that shows how Bruce Wayne (the Batman portrayed by Christian Bale) hide himself from the city of Gotham that feels that he is wrong and responsible for the death of Harvey Dent (in previous case back in The Dark Knight) is excessively long. I didn’t say its unnecessary, but that aspect is being delivered in a boring and draggy mode which is frustrating. Well, luckily there is a good interception in between, on which Selina Kyle is introduced as the Catwoman, portrayed by the gorgeous Anne Hathaway. Heavy emphasis is also given to a new character; Detective Blake portrayed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and that is a good addition too.
Hmm…I predicted the character of the Catwoman to be a little bad in the beginning but turns out to assist Batman on saving Gotham city later on. Well, there is no surprise there for the reason of introduction of this character. The main villain this time is Bane (portrayed by Tom Hardy), a physically strong pure-evil mask-wearing man who planned for destruction of the city in the underworld beneath all the underground sewage systems running throughout the city. I like the part on how his character and his evilness is introduced in the beginning of the film at the scene involving the plane. But then, I find his physical strength isn’t enough to make him really ‘evil’ on this film. I prefer ‘The Joker’ in the previous film over Bane. ‘The Joker’ managed to sort out wonderful plans to do the tricks and damages in simple ways that gets the attention of the audiences. All Bane shows over here is only his power in combat with the Batman on which he prevails but in the end killed by a simple shot firing by Catwoman using Batpod. So, it’s actually unnecessary to show ample of not-so-thrilling combat scenes between Bane and Batman. In the end, you could just kill Bane with a shot. And that huge group of police force shown in the film is a bit useless over there in such a situation.
Sorry for a bit of spoiler over there. It’s like inevitable not to show any spoiler over here when I’m writing down my thoughts over this film. There had been out-of-proportion character’s development to Bruce Wayne, whom is the Batman himself. That is what makes kids get bored of this film. Furthermore, the script is very good but is too hard for us to digest or absorb. I hardly understand some of the dialogues spoken which is supposed to be very meaningful but it’s hard even for me to get it. It’s just too complicated. Luckily, there is still a kind of surprise at the climax part (aah, I won’t reveal it here) which is an interesting twist to the elaborative plot. This time, there is not much intense content going on throughout the film compared to the many seen in 2008’s ‘The Dark Knight’. The performance by the casts who are mostly experienced are generally good.
What’s good about this film is the soundtracks produced by Hans Zimmer. Those soundtracks are so awesome to be heard during the movie and they fit into it perfectly. It provides extra dimension and intensity to the film, and helps to cover many parts which are not that interesting but is being turned into heart-stopping moments in the end. And one more thing, Batman is now equipped with much advanced tools and vehicles (now Batman has an auto-driven flying weapon machine called simply The Bat). Cool addition. Hmm…I like the ending as well. The ending is pretty intensifying, emotional, meaningful and puts the film to a very great end indeed despite going through disappointing path in the middle. It is a perfect ending to the franchise. Somehow, Christopher Nolan had successfully captured our ‘souls’ from his spectacular direction in the Batman trilogy he directed.
So overall, the movie starts off quite well but just for a while, then makes you bored for around one to two hours before getting you to a not-so-thrilling but surprising climax, and finally to an epic end. So, it’s imbalance and lengthy ride all the way. And that took me three hours which is too long for me. To be honest, it’s not that interesting or exciting for me, but I find there is a kind of substance on this work of masterpiece that would still adds up to a generally favourable review for it. Some parts should be cut off, then it should be a bit better. Anyway, it’s still a great outcome by Christopher Nolan. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ a total of 7.6. It turns out to be a a little letdown from my expectation and fails to mesmerise me, but I believe this film shall not be missed for any movie-goers.
(Images on this post are obtained from various sources throughout the world wide web)
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