Characters spend a lot of time reflecting in The Dark Knight Rises. Liberal use of clips from Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are used to illustrate the inner workings of its heroes as they head into this third and final installment of director Christopher Nolan’s dense, epic trilogy. All that reflection gives the movie a definite sense of finality. Dredging up old themes, old grudges, and at least a couple of old friends, that sense of inevitability permeates everything about The Dark Knight Rises. This is Nolan’s victory lap, and he is ruthless in giving his distinct vision of the Caped Crusader the fullest closure possible.
Picking up eight years after the events of The Dark Knight, this film showcases a Gotham changed. The death of deranged district attorney Harvey Dent was willingly pinned on Batman (Christian Bale), a move designed to let the public continue to think that Dent died with his hopeful image for Gotham City intact. Dent’s death acted as a wake-up call to the citizenry, and nearly a decade later, Gotham is crime-free, the fugitive Batman hasn’t been sighted in years, and Commissioner James Gordon (Gary Oldman) is the only one who knows the truth of what happened the night Dent died. Batman was sacrificed so that Gotham City might live.
Batman’s alter ego, billionaire industrialist Bruce Wayne, isn’t faring much better. Living in Howard Hughes-like seclusion in his mansion and hobbled by injuries sustained while wearing a bat costume and beating up criminals, Bruce is attended by his loyal butler, Alfred (Michael Caine). Bruce is eventually drawn back into nocturnal service by two seemingly unrelated events, daredevil cat burglar Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) infiltrating his mansion and a guilt-trip from concerned cop John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) when the body of a runaway washes up in a sewer drain. The amorous attention of an idealistic business rival (Marion Cotillard) and Bruce’s put-upon CEO and Bat-armorer, Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), add further complication to Batman’s return.
If all that looking back teaches us anything, it’s that in Nolan’s circular bat-universe, there are no coincidences, and all plots lead sinuously back to muscle-bound baddie Bane (Tom Hardy, doing an asthmatic Sean Connery impression behind a mouth-covering mask). Far from the agent of chaos The Joker was in the previous film, Bane has a definite plan, part of it a very personal one against the Batman and part of it a grudge with the whole of Gotham. In a plot that includes – but isn’t limited to – corporate espionage, mid-air escapes, and a whole city on the brink of extinction at the whim of a madman, Bane’s confident villainy leads to an explosive confrontation with the Dark Knight. Violence ensues.
Rises is much like its predecessor, The Dark Knight: ambitious, complicated, probably about 20 minutes too long. It’s also just as rich with rewards for those who care to look hard enough. Bane comes as something of a shock, especially after the instantly iconic Joker portrayal in The Dark Knight, though he proves a formidable villain in his own right. Hathaway’s Catwoman is slightly underused, sensual and sulky when she does show up for hero-villain fraternization. The movie strains and chafes under the weight of its own spectacle and complexity, but rarely does it overextend itself. Its most trying sequence is also its most tense, a lengthy stretch of triumphant evil that resembles a James Bond villain’s plot, with all the scope and logic problems such a comparison implies. It all adds up to a not-shocking shock reveal. (Devotees of the comics will have an easier time figuring it out than most.) Bane’s plan may be needlessly convoluted, but it gets Batman where Nolan wants him to be: The champion is now the underdog, laid low, paying for past transgressions and needing to raise himself up, both literally and figuratively, to be the hero he had once been and better.
Nolan isn’t always subtle about it, but he knows what his characters want; co-writing the script with his brother Jonathan, he infuses his characters with enough determination and wounded humanity to forgive the more credibility-straining aspects of the plot. The theatrics of summer superhero movies aside, there’s still a heart and a brain behind The Dark Knight Rises. Knowing this is an ending, Nolan brings his Batman to a close in a way that’s occasionally clunky, gorgeous to look at (thanks to his longtime cinematographer, Wally Pfister), and rife with exquisite angst. With a long look to their shared past, both Nolan and Batman take a bow and wait to see what happens next.
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Film: The Dark Knight Rises
Starring: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Marion Cotillard
Directed By: Christopher Nolan
Written By: Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan
Story By: Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer
Based On: the DC Comics character created by Bob Kane
Produced By: Christopher Nolan, Charles Roven, and Emma Thomas
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: Approximately 165 minutes
Website: thedarkknightrises.com
Budget: $250,000,000
Genre: Action, Drama, Superhero
Release Date: July 20, 2012
