Nordling here.
THE DARK KNIGHT RISES is a juggernaut of a movie, and that's not necessarily a compliment. At times it simply overpowers when subtlety would have worked just as well, if not better, and there's nothing in Christopher Nolan's way in this movie. He got the clout to make the movie he wanted to make, and so THE DARK KNIGHT RISES is probably the biggest scale movie you'll likely see this year, IMAX notwithstanding. By the way, IMAX is the only way to see this film - no ifs, ands, or buts about it. There are moments where even the IMAX screen doesn't feel big enough to hold in all the splendor, and if anyone gets an Oscar from this, it should be Wally Pfister.
But there are moments - only a few of them - where the movie shuts up for a moment and lets the quiet in, and for me those moments might be the most effective of the movie. Most of those involve Alfred (Michael Caine) whose face is so emotional and expressive that even Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) can't look at it without almost breaking into tears himself. For me, Alfred is the heart of THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, and I wanted more of him, and of those moments.
It's Alfred who is desperately trying to get Bruce Wayne back into the world - 8 years have passed since THE DARK KNIGHT and the night Harvey Dent fell to his death, and for Bruce, he hasn't recovered, physically or mentally. He still pines for Rachel - he doesn't know about the letter that she gave Alfred before she died, choosing Dent over Bruce - and Wayne and Commissioner Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) have allowed the lie that Dent died a hero's death at the hands of Batman to fester and grow. That lie has given way to the Dent Act, a provision in the law that made it easier for Gotham to prosecute organized crime. The lie is eating at Gordon too, and even young cop John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) can't break Gordon of this malaise.
However, Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) is in town to loot the rich and powerful, specifically the rebuilt Wayne Manor, and in particular, Bruce's fingerprints. But she's merely the harbinger of something far worse and deadly - Bane (Tom Hardy) is coming to Gotham, and he will finish what Ra's Al Ghul and the Joker failed to do - destroy Gotham in any way possible. His plan - a bit convoluted and too spoilery to go into here - involves a fusion reactor that Bruce sank much of Wayne Enterprises' finances into before discovering that it was too dangerous. Because of that venture, Wayne Enterprises is in financial trouble, and Bruce has to turn to Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard), a wealthy philanthropist, for help.
So, the pieces are placed on the board, and for the first 40 or so minutes of THE DARK KNIGHT RISES Christopher Nolan has set the house of cards quite elegantly before taking a sledgehammer to the table. Bruce Wayne must be brought to his lowest point before he can truly save Gotham, to a place where even Lucius Fox's (Morgan Freeman) gadgets can't help him. Bane is a force of nature the likes of which Batman has never experienced - while the Joker was pure chaos, Bane has a plan in mind to break Batman in every way possible.
For those keeping score, or needing an easy reference point, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES simply isn't as good as THE DARK KNIGHT, and a lot of that may be due to expectations that the audience may have. When Nolan made BATMAN BEGINS, he brought some real-world semblance into a very comic-booky origin story, possibly to make fans of the character happy as well as other, less-steeped in Batman lore audience members. THE DARK KNIGHT, in comparison, is mostly real-world, inspired by Michael Mann's HEAT and even crime films like THE GODFATHER. The Joker may be an over-the-top villain, but in the way he was written, as well as performed by Heath Ledger, the character became very believable. THE DARK KNIGHT also had its politics to play with - the War on Terror is very prevalent in that film, some places fairly obvious and some not so obvious - and it really felt like the movie was a commentary on America at the time.
THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, though, gives the audience a bit of a tonal whiplash. This third film is very much a comic book movie, much more reminiscent of the first film than the second. Some of the plot contrivances represent nothing close to reality, and any political statements that the movie might want to make are lost in the scale and the bluster of it all. You can sense at moments that the movie might be wanting to comment on the whole Occupy movement, and even the Tea Party movement, but THE DARK KNIGHT RISES isn't sophisticated enough to follow through with those ideas, and really, it shouldn't have even bothered, because the movie works best when it dispenses with the serious, weighty self-importance.
This movie, more so than the other two, is about Bruce Wayne's struggle, and Bale has never been better as Bruce Wayne/Batman. Even the gravelly voice of Batman feels subdued, beaten. Wayne is a ghost of a man, barely in his own skin, wanting nothing more than to fall away from the world, and Bale plays him with a hesitancy and a subtlety that's been missing from the first two movies. But that may be due to the arc of the character - this isn't the cocksure Batman of the first two films. Gotham may have won something when Harvey Dent died, but Bruce has lost everything, and Bale finds that pain in the character and makes it palpable.
Anne Hathaway also does good work as Selina Kyle - she adds a good bit of physicality to the role and plays Kyle as a conflicted jewel thief who is intrigued by Bruce Wayne even as she tries to rob him blind. She also knows how to handle herself in a fight, and even when her conscience eats at her she is still a very self-reliant character. She's never mentioned as Catwoman, by the way, but the movie doesn't have to; her presence does that all by itself.
Tom Hardy's Bane isn't nearly as charismatic as Heath Ledger's Joker, of course, but Hardy has the harder part in a lot of ways here. His face is mostly covered by a mask, and his voice guttural even through the rich British accent, Hardy has to put most of his performance in his eyes and his physical presence. He dominates the screen when he's on, and you can believe that this is the man who could easily defeat Batman in hand-to-hand combat. We've seen Bruce at his most frail, and with Bane Hardy has made a villain that could easily crush anyone who stands in his way.
My favorite performance, though, lies with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the optimist of the piece and the ray of hope that shines through an otherwise pretty bleak movie. His John Blake is a cop who wants to do the right thing, who looks at Wayne and sees a fellow orphan, and even serves as a kind of inspiration to Jim Gordon and Batman. It's during the heavy midsection, when Batman is at the lowest he can sink, that Gordon-Levitt ups his game and becomes the hero that the audience needs. There's a vitality to his role that makes us pay attention when he's onscreen; even when his story gets clunky he charms us through the rougher parts of the plot.
And does this plot get rough. Those complaining of the various plot issues of THE DARK KNIGHT might want to pop their knuckles and go to work - from a daylight chase scene that inexplicably turns into night, to the convoluted plot and some of the twists that defy logic, Christopher Nolan blasts through these story issues with a confidence that either audiences won't notice, or they'll be enjoying the movie's bombast too much to care. It reminded me, actually, of Nolan's THE PRESTIGE - when the third act revelations come in for that movie, you're either on board or you aren't, especially with some of the odder plot turns. Like BEGINS and DARK KNIGHT before it, there is very little grace in the story, but it's Nolan's skill as a director that plows through and smoothes out the edges. In retrospect, people will unravel this movie like a cheap sweater, but while you're on the ride, you're just having too much fun to notice. The last hour, especially, is Nolan unleashed and it's worth seeing a great director, with his wonderful toys, fully at play.
As the final entry in a very successful trilogy, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES is a fitting end. It's big in scale - bigger than the first two by far, and I was surprised where this movie was willing to go in some sequences. THE DARK KNIGHT feels almost intimate by comparison. And still, one can't help but feel that Christopher Nolan should have simply embraced the comic book nature of the material and not planted one foot in reality and one foot in fantasy. That more than anything else gives the movie a confusing tone - when the movie cuts loose and doesn't even attempt to stay close to reality the movie really takes off; although THE DARK KNIGHT's reality-inspired storyline works better for that film, this movie seems more aware of its pulp-comic roots. But it's almost as if Nolan is embarrassed that he's making a comic book movie here, and that's unfortunate. THE DARK KNIGHT RISES is a good movie, and at times almost touches greatness. It's a hard job to approach this material without being silly, and while THE DARK KNIGHT RISES skirts it from time to time, it feels like the movie takes itself too seriously, almost as if Nolan's afraid of going there. It's in the quieter character moments, and when the movie lets go and embraces its nature, that the movie really soars.
