The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Four years after Christopher Nolan took the movie world by storm with The Dark Knight, a sequel to his better franchise reboot Batman Begins, a third and final Batman adventure has hit the screen. The only way I could explain how enormous this movie is would be to point out that I am writing this review two days after its wide theatrical release, and I am way behind the times. Nolan's Batman movies have taken on a religious following entirely separate from other superhero movies. The Dark Knight is one of the most iconic and widely-seen movies of my lifetime, and to criticize it or this new movie is fatal, due to the enormous lashing out of the millions of fans. Regardless of this fact, I say the popularity is unfounded.

It's really very eerie watching The Dark Knight Rises. This is partly because of the recent movie theater massacre that occurred at a midnight screening, but also because of how uncommonly close to home all of the violence is. Superhero movies were originally based on stories of fantasy, even whimsy, but nothing that pleasant can be found here. Nolan intended from the beginning for his movies to be as realistic as possible, so instead of an entertaining morality tale of good vs. evil, we get an utterly dismal story about real terrorism. I will admit, there are elements of the film that I liked. Anne Hathaway has a small role that is vibrant with personality, even though she randomly appears and disappears like an afterthought. There are some scenes that are so sensationally crafted that they can't help but inspire awe. But for what purpose? Besides literally being one of the most pointlessly depressing movies I've seen in years, the villain named Bane, played by Tom Hardy, gets a ridiculous amount of screentime. The Dark Knight was a flawed movie that was saved by the eccentric performance by Heath Ledger as the villain, but Bane has none of that charisma or interest, and is really just plain boring. Nothing he does surprises us, yet the movie is entirely about him and how he is taking Gotham City hostage for reasons never sufficiently explained. All this while Batman himself has a mere two scenes in a three hour movie that was supposed to be about friggin' Batman.

I can't say that Nolan's final chapter of his cinematic vision is a bad movie. I am certain it was made exactly the way it was intended to be. I can still say that it's basically a waste of time, unless , I suppose, you're a blindly die-hard fan. I couldn't get into it. All of the action, violent and otherwise, was happening at such a distance, failing to draw the viewer in. It is the worst movie of the trilogy, but only because it's so committed to being a solid wrap-up. Everything comes to a close very neatly and sharply, but also very expectedly. I suspect that it is more well-liked in the video game playing crowd than by someone like me, who thinks it's rather hypocritical for a nation to mourn a handful of real-life deaths, while simultaneously cheering scores of similar false ones. They say we don't actually do things because we saw them in the movies. I'm not so sure.

7/10