Dark Knight Rises Review- By Michael Carlisle

Title: Dark Knight Rises
Year: 2012
Director: Christopher Nolan
Country: US
Language: English

It may come of a shock to you, but Dark Knight Rises is actually better than its much loved prequel The Dark Knight. It is a more serious film with a more serious villain. Why so serious? Because this film holds much more drama and much more suspense. The villain known as Bane (Tom Hardy), though not as entertaining or well acted as Heath Ledger's Joker, can actually get things done without saying much of anything. Dark Knight Rises is the older brother of The Dark Knight and every other superhero film before it. Doom approaches incredibly close, and hope seems to have vanished. Fun? What is fun about the apocalypse?

Christopher Nolan's conclusion to HIS Batman trilogy (there will undoubtedly be more Batman films by other directors) is ambitious and action packed. However it isn't as entertaining as Dark Knight, which is somewhat of a shame because I enjoyed how the action sequences had some humor to them.On the plus side there isn't as much Batman, which I feel is definitely a good thing. The lack of a hero to defend Gotham from Bane helps in creating a more hopeless mood. Though we see a great deal of Bruce Wayne, we see him more as a crippled figure than the young knight in shining armor he once was.

Is that makeup or did Batman give you those black eyes?

Bane is a worthy adversary for Batman. Stronger, faster, deadlier. Though his mask robs him of a personality, it seems that he doesn't need it. Bane is much more threatening when he isn't talking. Yes Heath Ledger's Joker was more entertaining, Ledger definitely deserved the Oscar, but was Joker really all that powerful? I remember seeing quite a few scenes in Dark Knight where he was getting the crap beat out of him by Batman. Where Joker killed a few people and held lots hostage, Bane had the entire city of Gotham in the palm of his hands. He created an apocalypse-like scenario.

Of the newer supporting cast which includes Catwoman (Anne Hathaway), Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard) and a young cop (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) I much prefer Catwoman. She brings sexy, seductive and intelligent atrtributes to her character and proves to be better in that role than any other actress that played Catwoman before her. Her character is necessary and the plot "twist" associated with her adds another dimension to her character. Miranda Tate is a pointless character with a ridiculous plot "twist", the film would be much better if the character was removed.

I enjoyed the fact that the film made me want Batman to save Gotham. I enjoyed that it made me loathe Ban and feel for Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman), Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) and many other characters. I found it interesting that now you can see batman as a metaphor for the average Christian man's messiah known as Jesus. He is the savior of Gotham and I can't really point out any other similarities or I'll completely spoil the film. I also found it interesting that Dark Knight Rises showed what Fight Club failed to show effectively; the downside of anarchy. While anarchy and chaos can seem like a good idea, the best laid plans of mice and men go easily astray. You may think of a non-police society would be peaceful but there are many nuts who would be completely violent in that situation, which is why police exist. Not to harm, to protect. Though there are a few assholes in the police force, it doesn't mean all of them are bad.

In conclusion, while I enjoyed Dark Knight's humour and villain more, I cannot deny that Dark Knight Rises is a better made film. It is full of doom and destruction, it is full of hope and hopelessness. It is the first superhero film where I actually cared about the outcome instead of how entertaining the villain was.It is a shame that the Colorado shooting happened, but this film shows that there is hope for mankind. Evil will prevail in the end because hope and love are too strong. 3.5/5