The Dark Knight Rises Review

So I know that this film has been out for ages and that most of the world has probably seen it by the time you read this but hey ho, I’m going to tell you my views anyway.

Obviously there was an extreme amount of buzz about this film when it was first announced that it was hitting the silver screen. Honestly I was a bit sceptical about how good the Dark Knight Rises could actually be seeing how successful the Dark Knight was. The Dark Knight also had, in my opinion, the greatest comic book villain ever, The Joker who was played to perfection by the late Heath Ledger. The character as well as the whole film was done so well that I struggled to see how the Dark Knight Rises could even come close to it. I was also a bit worried about how Bane was going to be portrayed since he was not the Venom fuelled thug that has been portrayed in the comics over the years. Well luckily all of my scepticisms went away as soon as the lights in the cinema dimmed.

As we find Bruce Wayne locked inside his house since the death of his love Rachel in the Dark Knight, Selina Kyle enters the fray, in my opinion played perfectly by Anne Hathaway (who also looked great in the outfit).  Selina acts as a nervous waitress taking up food for Wayne and then it also goes within a blink of an eye as she is caught with Bruce’s mother’s stolen pearls. Within an instant the sexy,
self-confident Catwoman that we all know and love appears. Just like with the comics and Arkham City (game) she dabbles on the fence between foe and enemy. As a fan and a viewer you feel betrayed when she sets Batman up to face Bane but you can’t help but feel sorry for her as she is just trying to create a new life for herself and her little sister. As you are watching you are a lot more interested in Catwoman as a normal person rather than a Batman enemy as  I found myself actually routing for her when she carries out the various jobs in order to get a clean slate away from Bane.

Talking of Bane, Tom hardy played an incredible part as the intellectual yet extremely muscular villain that ends up breaking Batman’s back, just like in the comics. I don’t know about other people but it actually pleased the nerd inside me. Christopher Nolan made sure that Bane was not just muscle but had a history of how he came to be. The only thing that I was a little disappointed in Bane was the fact that his use of Venom had been replaced for a fix of painkillers which help him survive. The whole reason Bane is such a dangerous enemy of Batman is that he uses the Venom to become a nearly unstoppable monster. I guess the reason that they didn’t use Venom is probably to do with the fact that Nolan wanted to create a more realistic character which people would actually believe in and be scared of him.

Throughout the whole film there are tense moments, twists and turns and just plain epic scenes. I was actually scared for the life of Batman when he carried off that nuclear bomb off out of Gotham city. Knowing that there wasn’t going to be another Dark Knight film I truly thought that Bruce Wayne had finally given everything to the people of Gotham in order to save them.  The film also raises a lot of emotions within you whilst watching as in parts you feel sad like Alfred leaving Bruce and the ‘death’ of Batman, Anger ,When Selina Kyle betrays Batman which eventually leads to his back being broken and just pure shock with the revealing that Talia Al Guhl has been helping calling all of the shots.

Like mentioned earlier, Christopher Nolan has done an amazing job at mixing tension and emotion with epic fight scenes like when Batman and the police face-off against Bane and his army.  The scale of all the amazing effects as well as the not over acted fight scenes adds a massive sense of realism to the film making you think that the two sides have actually band together in an attempt to fight the other.

Overall I think that this film is only second to Dark Knight but that has nothing to do with the directing, acting and writing of The Dark Knight Rises but simply to do with the fact that Heath Ledger played an amazing role as the Joker which I personally think that it can never be topped.