The Dark Knight Rises

Okay. Where to begin? "The Dark Knight" would be a tough act for Christopher Nolan to follow and the final installment in his Batman trilogy isn't a disappointment in the traditional way we think of it. Basically, there are only a few ways to follow such a quantifiable success such as TDK and they are make a lesser movie, make an original movie, or make a balls out, relentlessly assaultive, nonstop, epic length blockbuster that barely lets you breathe. You can probably guess which one the filmmakers opted for. Working with his brother Jonathan and David S. Goyer, the same team that developed the first two films, Nolan delivers a spectacular film with a less than inspired script. Now following eight years of relative harmony in Gotham, Batman is still playing the fall guy for Harvey Dent's crimes while living in seclusion at Wayne manor. Now, the League of Shadows sense the time is ripe to hatch chaos and destruction, sending the brutal Bane (Tom Hardy) and his gang of miscreants (seemingly lifted from the Occupy Gotham movement) to get the job done. Meanwhile Gordon is injured on the job, one of his intuitive young detectives (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) takes some initiative, a humanist (Marion Cotillard) becomes involved in a massive environmental deal with Wayne Enterprises, and Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) shows her claws. Again, Christian Bale plays a diminutive role and even during the overlong running time of the film, it seems like we hardly see him on screen. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman return adding very little to the table this time around as the troubleshoot and offer cautionary advice. An unrecognizable and largely incomprehensible Hardy is appropriately menacing, but hardly fills the large shoes left by Heath Ledger. There are also major problems with the two major female additions to the cast. Both of their relationships to Wayne are poorly realized and nonsensical, and as for Hathaway, I still cannot understand how someone can be so good at parts and so off-puttingly horrendous at others, and her wild inconsistencies greatly affect the film. Another point is how well things wrap up in the finally, only for the filmmakers to cop out and offer a patted, sequel promising ending. Don't get me wrong, there are some really fine set pieces, and I think I was the only one in the theater who wasn't whooping when THE DARK KNIGHT RISES finally flashed on the screen at the conclusion. During the proceedings though, as was the case with "Inception", I again felt like Alex from "A Clockwork Orange" with my eyes bolstered open as I was bombarded by endless amounts of sound and fury for nearly three hours.