The Dark Knight Rises
Composite Score: 83.9
Starring: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Gary Oldman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Matthew Modine, Ben Mendelsohn, and Burn Gorman
Director: Christopher Nolan
Writers: Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan, and David S. Goyer
Genres: Action, Drama, Thriller, Superhero
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some sensuality, and language
Box Office: $1.08 billion worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
The Dark Knight Rises is the final film in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy of films about the superhero Batman and his endeavor to reduce the criminal element of Gotham City. The film sees the return of Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, and Michael Caine as Alfred. It also features Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle, Tom Hardy as Bane, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Officer John Blake, and Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate. The film picks up eight years after the events of The Dark Knight and finds Gotham City in a state of relative peace thanks to the laws passed in the aftermath of the Joker’s rampage and Harvey Dent’s death (and the cover-up of his crimes). The action progresses as the mercenary, Bane, an exile from the League of Shadows, comes to Gotham to complete Ra’s Al Ghul’s mission of bringing the city to its knees, drawing Batman back into action. The film brings a lengthy but satisfying close to Nolan’s trilogy of comic book films with plenty of quotable moments and strong action sequences.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
I have virtually nothing bad to say about this film, but I’ll try to take a step back from my own biases and nostalgia and give this review some objectivity. The Dark Knight Rises might be just a little bit too long for its own good. In its drive to bring closure to the trilogy, it strays a bit into bloated territory, particularly in its exploration of Officer Blake’s storyline. JGL plays an orphan turned police officer who has already figured out the secret identity of the Batman and wants him back to fix the problem of Bane and his guerrilla fighters, and if that’s all the character ended up being, I think we could forgive the convenience of his knowledge. Unfortunately, he sticks around as basically a smarter, younger version of Commissioner Gordon who isn’t quite as addicted to being a cop, making the two characters (and particularly Blake) feel redundant. (Also, Blake’s shoehorned Robin reference and cliffhanger discovery of the Batcave only serve to lessen the satisfaction of the film’s otherwise solid ending.)
I also want to add a critique of Nolan’s Batman as a whole here (because I refuse to put anything this strongly worded in my future review of The Dark Knight). Nolan took the vigilante Batman and made him into more of an instrument of the police as opposed to an alternative to the police in his trilogy. Nolan’s Batman embraces the American justice system in a way that past iterations of the Caped Crusader manage to avoid. Where the past Batmen worked specifically with Gordon as a way to keep their ear to the ground and maybe give a favor here and there, Nolan’s Batman has his climactic battle with Bane at the head of an army of police, facing off against an army of (misguided and perhaps excessively violent) vigilantes. After rewatching The Dark Knight Rises, I get where George Lopez’s line of “Batman’s a fascist!” in DC’s Blue Beetle trailer comes from. This iteration of the Bat (and those that have followed it) feel much more beholden to the American police force and less in defiance of it – defying police corruption still but not so much the brokenness of the American police and judicial system.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
Christopher Nolan knows how to make an action set piece like few other filmmakers operating today, and that can be said about basically any of his films, but it is on full display here. From the opening plane sequence to the attack on the stock exchange and ensuing police chase to the destruction of the Gotham football stadium (and canonical death of Ben Roethlisberger in this particular universe) to Bruce Wayne’s climb out of the Pit to the showdown between Bane’s guerrillas and Gotham’s police force, every action piece feels fresh and, for the most part, engrossing for the audience. I’d put the plane attack, in particular, up there with the best action sequences of the century so far. The whole film feels up to the task of bringing the trilogy to a close in spectacular fashion.
Additionally, The Dark Knight Rises does a great job of closing out Nolan’s story about Bruce Wayne, Batman, and Gotham. It gives closure to so many of the story lines and themes that were left untethered at the end of The Dark Knight. Can Bruce Wayne still exist without Batman? At the beginning of the film, it looks impossible, but Nolan develops Bale’s Bruce in such a way as to allow him the opportunity for life beyond Gotham by the end, should he choose to take it. Has Gotham reached a place where it both needs and deserves the hero that is Batman? By this point, the secrecy and underhandedness that got the city to this place finally feel deserving of such a brooding hero as Batman, and Bane provides the threat that necessitates the vigilante’s return. And finally, is it possible for the Batman to be both a symbol of hope to those in need and a symbol of fear to those in power? We see this question answered time and again in the film as different characters respond to appearances of the bat symbol around Gotham. Bringing it all to a close is one final scene between Michael Caine’s Alfred and Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne, foreshadowed by a statement made by Alfred earlier in the film, letting the audience know that they (and we) have “made it”.
Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy is brought to a satisfying and exciting conclusion in The Dark Knight Rises – a film full of thrilling action sequences and plenty of closure for one of the greatest trilogies ever made – earning the film a spot among the Greatest Films of All Time. Its overstuffed plot and questionable characterization of Batman aside, this really is one of the best action films of the 2010s and always worth revisiting if you’ve got time. It is currently streaming on HBO Max if you’re looking for a place to watch it outside of owning it in physical format – definitely give it a go when you get the chance.
