The Dark Knight Rises
As far as The Dark Knight Rises goes, I agree with fellow Starlogger GEO's review of the film (posted on the Starloggers blog) on many of his points. But I was not as impressed with the film because it has many flaws. It seems to be a trend today to make movies in a trilogy series where the second film is the best of the three. Think of X-Men 2 with Nightcrawler, Spider-Man 2 with Doc Ock and here The Dark Knight with the Joker. The third film of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy wraps up the storyline but falls a little flat.
The Dark Knight Rises (starring Christian Bale as Batman and directed by Christopher Nolan) has many twists but just as many holes in the plot and it drags in the middle.
For anyone still trapped under Gotham's streets, this film takes place years after The Dark Knight. Bruce Wayne has been long retired from his Batman duties but decides to don the cowl and cape when this hulking mercenary called Bane (Tom Hardy) starts attacking Gotham City with his army. It turns out that Bane outmatches him. A defeated Batman is imprisoned in another country while Bane cuts off Gotham City in an extreme version of Occupy Wall Street. It's up to Batman to get his act together and save the day again.
Fans know Selina Kyle as Catwoman, the film calls her a cat burglar, but how about having at least one or two cats in her apartment. Anne Hathaway was a good thief but dull as the character. Michelle Pfeiffer made the role memorable in Batman Returns.
Bane has Gotham City's bridges blown up early on to trap the city's residents, but somehow there is a bridge that Bane forgot about in the end. Catwoman, sorry, Selina blows open a tunnel for people to escape from Gotham but no one notices and uses it.
What’s up with Bane's voice? One of my friends described it as an old man "Pepperidge Farm" voice. Another thought of it with a Star Wars twist, a cross between Darth Vader and Jar Jar Binks! Loved him as a villain but the voice kept throwing me off, and half the time I strained to understand what he was saying.
An important female character has a scar on her neck but they never really do anything with that, it looks as if a scene was cut. Batman is known as the detective but is always a few steps behind here.
The doctor in the prison with Bruce Wayne speaks in another language then as time progressed he ends up speaking perfect English.
You get the idea early on that a new character will become Robin. Why is his last name Blake? How about going with Drake as in Tim Drake? Do they really need to create yet another Robin?
Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) resigns at the end of the second movie. Batman has been retired for years yet when they meet again Fox has spent all his spare time building new “Bat” vehicles. They had the camouflage tumblers but what is a Batman movie without a Batmobile?
The movie did have some really great moments and good scenes but doesn’t live up to the first two films.
Jim McLernon