Christopher Nolan's trilogy featuring the Dark Knight, also known as Batman, comes to a close with The Dark Knight Rises, in which Christian Bale returns to the leading role of the Caped Crusader. Unfortunately, this final film missed the mark on too many accounts for it to be deemed a success. While it continued to stand on a strong platform, I expected so much more and didn't get enough. There was so much more I expected.
With a long list of villains to choose from, the villains selected for this film include the robotic-masked Bane, played by Tom Hardy, and the manipulative, sexy Catwoman, played by Anne Hathaway. The two do not team up in anyway, but both cause their own form of mischief. Bane wants to cause destruction and obliterate Harvey Dent's law, which put plenty of bad guys in prison, as Catwoman wants to take from the rich in order to give to herself.
At the start of the film, it has been eight years since The Dark Knight and Gotham City is remembering the loss of Harvey Dent, who became Two-Face and was killed in The Dark Knight. Given the blame for this "mess" that occurred, Batman heads into retirement. After the issues being caused by Bane and Catwoman, Bruce Wayne, Batman's alter ego, is convinced to return as Batman and take down what these two have in store. One of these events includes the shooting of Commissioner James Gordon, who is planning to resign due to guilt over Harvey Dent's death. This all leads up to the climax in which Bane wants to destroy Gotham City with the use of bombs placed across the city and a big bomb that he intends to cause ultimate destruction with.
The Dark Knight Rises was meant to be judged on acting, storyline, and action. The acting remained a bit consistent as to what this portion of the series had to bring. Unfortunately, it was NOTHING like The Dark Knight from 2008. Much of that, though, had to do with who the villains were, and NOBODY was going to top the performance of Heath Ledger as The Joker. Nobody really knew that Ledger was going to do such a spectacular job, so surprises are always bound to happen. This film wasn't much about story line, but when it was, such as with Bane's background, was fairly decent. Catwoman, while a villain, has always been able to seduce Batman. In this film, her actions toward putting Batman into an awful financial situation and for stealing the pearls were left open-ended, and her portion of the conclusion (which I will not explain) was left unexplained. Bane, on the other hand, was an interesting choice for villain, but the destruction could have been so much better.
On the subject of destruction, I came into the film being told that there was going to be a boatload of destruction, that included a destruction of Heinz Field. All I saw was a destruction of the playing field. It was kind of like a giant doing a cannonball in a swimming pool in the backyard. It may do some damage to the pool and cause the water to overflow, but not so much damage to the yard. I expected all out destruction and didn't get it. As for the action between Batman and Bane, it was a typical fistfight. Nothing that involved incredible gadgets or sly moves, just something that could be seen at a bar after midnight in the event that two guys had to much to drink and pissed one another off in some way or another.
The Dark Knight Rises did not live up to expectations and is one of those comic book box office movies that didn't hit the mark. Would I recommend it? See it the first time to satisfy your need to watch another Batman film and then wait until it comes to DVD to satisfy your need to own the entire collection. There's no need to keep going back a second, third, fourth time, and so on, and so forth, because it's not spectacular.
Verdict: 6/10
On a final note, I want to make mention to those in Aurora, Colorado who either lost their lives or were hurt by simply expressing their love for the Batman series by attending the midnight premiere and were shot by someone who felt making news would be fun. In reality, it isn't, and people like that should be hunted down and either locked away or executed in the same way they executed the people in which they hurt or killed. For the victims attending the premiere in Aurora, Colorado, my thoughts and prayers go out to you.
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