Much must be explained about why Christopher Nolan, who put together a trilogy of the most celebrated Batman movies of all time, would say that this one, "Dark Knight Rises", would be the last. It is most likely because he is now producing the upcoming "Superman" series as well, or maybe it’s the typical Hollywood excuse of, "I’m more than just Batman. I want to be more than just this." Whatever the reason, it’s a shame.
For the third and final outing, the anticipation may be better than the movie. It has a lot to follow up on after the second movie. "Dark Knight" blew up beyond recognition behind a posthumous Oscar winning performance by Heath Ledger. With a larger than life storyline and some characters existing only to make small stories come to life. Nolan has a lot on his table and was trying to make a gigantic splash for his last trip to Gotham.
The entire trilogy, beginning with "Batman Begins" has always been more about the man behind the mask than the man wearing the mask. "Dark Knight Rises" is no exception. Why does he do what he does? Why is he so special, other than the costume he wears that most of us would get laughed at wearing? Nolan answers all the questions and that may be part of the problem. For most of the movie, it seemed he was trying to cram every Batman apologue into his final hours before he left it. At one point, we know that Gotham’s fate is on a timer, yet Batman stops to kiss the girl and reveal childhood secrets to Commissioner Gordon before taking off.
Batman has been around since before World War 2 and many have taken liberties with the back-story and characters since. Nolan is no exception. Forget everything you’ve seen in the past or your expectations of what the villains Bane or Catwoman should be. I found the liberties taken here, were good ones, although Anne Hathway’s Catwoman was way too interesting to be way so underused. Along that same line, there are many surprises that you won’t see coming.
As far as movies go, "Dark Knight Rises" is a cut above the rest. It is epic and grand in its scale. It is emotionally involving and interesting from top to bottom. Although you really can see the wheel of fortune of storylines fluttering by in the first half of the movie as scenes jump from story to story. All of the storylines come to form eventually and mostly begin to flow better toward the middle.
As a Batman fan, I’m not sure if I’m disappointed that I know that there is no more future to Nolan’s Batman universe, or if the final trip there was less than I expected. Ultimately, I think Nolan crammed two movies worth of Batman/Bruce Wayne insight into one, knowing it was his last. That one hitch may be the movies only flaw, but that’s a big one.
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKRCG