The Dark Knight Rises is a compelling saga of a caped crusader whose journey finally comes to an end.
Director Nolan completes the whole cycle of Batman from where it started in Batman Begins. The movie is not as great as The Dark Night but I found it an apt conclusion for this trilogy.
In each of the previous Batman movies, Nolan has explored different themes. Batman Begins revolved around conquering fear, while The Dark Knight themes were more related to mental state. With this one he tries Physical strength and hope.
The movie starts with the introduction of the destructive Bane and it’s powerful. The movie is setup eight years after The Dark Knight when Batman takes the blame for the heinous crime of Harvey Dent and disappears. Now his alter-ego, Bruce Wayne lives in his mansion with his butler Alfred, thinking of his pasts. Bruce Wayne is shown as crippled and weak but soon Commissioner Gordan encounters Bane and urges Batman to return.
Will Batman return with a bang and destroy this monster or has this gap of eight years made him weak ? Does Bane breaks Batman’s back as depicted in comics? What are actually Bane’s intentions? All these questions will be answered in this movie.
The strength of Nolan has always been that he portrays the characters such that audience feels connected. Nolan very easily differentiates between the Batman and his alter-ego Bruce Wayne.
Christian Bale’s performance is a sheer masterpiece. Nolan gave considerably more time to Bruce Wayne than to Batman in this one easily exploring the more human nature of Batman. Even if Bane’s face was covered with a mask, his eyes spoke a lot. Bane looks menacingly destructive, powerful and pure evil. Bane tests Batman not only physically but even at a mental level. He wanted to kill him on the emotional level. He keeps him alive to watch Gotham turn to ashes, so that his soul gets trashed.
Many complained about the voice of Bane but it worked fine for me and I found that it added to the devilish nature of Bane.
Anne Hathaway and Joseph Gordon-Levitt provide refreshing performances. Nolan is able to extract the best out of his actors. Michael Caine as Alfred is caring, moving and as a guardian, he portrays his character excellently. Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox gives a good performance whenever he is on screen. However, I think the character of Marion Colliard was under developed.
The story and the screenplay is simply brilliant. Initially I thought, there were many sub plots going on, but as the movie unravels itself and all the loose ends start connecting, the larger picture comes to light.
Shots taken at the Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur are just brilliant.
Dialogues of the movie were amazing. Some still echo in my ears. “When Gotham is Ashes, you’ve my permission to die”. Woo!! That was awesome.
The scale, 250 million dollars, use of IMAX camera, all these can be seen on the screen. No penny was wasted I guess. The Football ground explosion, making the stock exchange hostage, Bat ride, just one word for all, extraordinary. The action sequences are superb.
And yes the music, is magical. It just adds to the grandeur of this saga. I can still hear those immense chantings.
Despite his dark story, the movie finishes with a ray of hope for the people of Gotham. This movie doesn’t just give you an adrenaline rush but a brain exercise as wll. And it’s an conclusion to Bruce Wayne and not Batman.
As a symbol Batman will always be there to protect Gotham.
In this time of commercial no-brainer movies, The Dark Knight Rises gives an excellent mixture of intelligent plot and entertainment. It’s an appropriate and convincing ending to this successful trilogy. It’s not as good as The Dark Knight which I think is the best superhero movie ever made but The Dark Knight Rises will surely be in the top three.
Its truly an epic. Don’t miss this one. Watch this movie and it will surely be a great cinematic experience for you. (I Bet on that!!!)
Sunil Kumar
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