So, in this, the final installment of Christopher Nolan's Batman franchise, Bruce Wayne has hung up his suits (both the Bat and tuxedo varieties), and withdrawn from the world, letting himself and his company fall into ruin. Broken in body and soul ever since the traumas he endured eight years ago in The Dark Knight, he’s pretty much become a recluse at stately Wayne Manor. It’s only after – you guessed it – Gotham City really needs him that he gets back in the game.
As for the cast, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, and Morgan Freeman are back as Batman, Alfred, Commissioner Gordon, and Lucious Fox, respectively. New to the mix are Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a rookie cop who seems to be the only brave and logical man on the force; Anne Hathaway as icy, badass “cat burglar,” Selina Kyle; and Tom Hardy as Bane, a terrifying, partially masked, Darth Vader-y terrorist leader who takes the whole city hostage, and turns an energy fusion core, developed by Wayne Enterprises, into a nuclear bomb that’s set to demolish the city.
Suffice it to say, Batman and the citizen of Gotham wind up facing some insurmountable odds. Like, really, truly, impossibly impossible odds. That’s where the suspension of disbelief was truly tested for me. But, I’ve heard that critics who’ve written negatively about the film have gotten death threats, so perhaps I’ll get to the positive stuff first… Cool Bat vehicles. Elaborate sets, locations, and special effects. Amazing cast. Impressively unnerving bad guy.
Okay, now the not-so positive stuff. First of all, it was kind of overly ambitious, in both population and scale, which made it a bit cluttered and clunky. Sometimes just a tad less is more. Also, uh -- Bruce wears pointy ears, a cape, and fake torso muscles, but he has absolutely no wit or sense of humor. I find costumed people who take themselves too seriously to be really funny, which, I’m sure, was not the desired effect, so that was a little distracting. A little self-deprecating levity might have also made the little spinklings of bad dialogue, which are totally acceptable and sort of expected in action movies, a little more palatable. I was also a little distracted by a few questionable plot points that made the aforementioned suspension of disbelief a bit tough for me. Once “wait a minute, he couldn’t have…” starts rattling around in my brain, it’s a problem for me.
It’s been eight long years since The Dark Knight came out, so perhaps you’ve forgotten or never saw it in the first place, but this franchise doesn’t exactly produce the kid-friendly variety of PG-13 material. I take my six-year-old son to the occasional PG-13 movie, such as The Amazing Spider-Man, which was totally fine for him. But I would not take him to this one. Not only is it incredibly long (almost three hours – even I got a little squirmy), but it’s far more frighteningly sinister and intense than most comic book-inspired movies. He’s disappointed, of course, but this ain’t Xbox Lego Batman.
Anyway, it’s quite an impressive spectacle overall, and I’m pretty sure most serious Batman fans will approve. And, I suppose, if I can allow myself to shrug off the implausibility of a one-handed Nicolas Cage falling in love with Cher because she cries at the opera (yeah, I’m talkin’ Moonstruck, people), then maybe this movie can be forgiven for its little shortcomings.
The Dark Knight Rises is now showing in New Orleans. Go here for theaters and showtimes.
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