The Dark Knight Rises

Finally after what seemed like forever counting down the days, The Dark Knight Rises finally hit the UK cinemas yesterday and I could not wait to see the most anticipated film of the year. The plot to the third film in the Nolan trilogy shows Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) at one of his lowest points. It is eight years after the events of The Dark Knight and Wayne is still hiding away from the public, relying on a walking stick to help his crippling leg. He is then fooled by Anne Hathaway's sexy and seductive new character Selina Kyle (Catwoman) who robs him, showing the true stealth of this cat burglar and Hathaway showing she is a better Catwoman than Michelle Pfeiffer and Halle Berry. She has a love/hate relationship with Batman at the start, she worked against Batman at first - helping Bane get to Batman - but their relationship grew stronger as the film progressed, which ended with a kiss. However, Hathaway's performance did not make this film so great, it was Tom Hardy's role as the hulking villain that is Bane. Heath Ledger as The Joker will probably always be the best Batman villain there is, but Tom Hardy's Bane was terrifying. Usually in superhero films you can tell what is going to happen and what the villains are planning on doing, but Bane mentally attacked Batman (just like The Joker did) and physically attacked him, showing that it would be very hard to tackle this great beast as Bruce Wayne is getting older and weaker he is getting stronger rivals and casting Bane with the English accent - which worked well - was a smart decision by Christopher Nolan. The brute force of Bane worried me sometimes as I wondered how Batman would get himself out of this one. During the film Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) is kidnapped and taken to Bane where after struggling to get away is left in hospital, leaving the investigation of Bane's terrorist plots to police officer, James Blake, who is played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who was once an orphan and brought up through the orphanage that Bruce Wayne formed. He steps into a pivotal role in the film and although at first James Blake's role seems unimportant, a great twist makes his character important. Then we have French actress Marion Cotillard who plays Miranda Tate, an executive board member for Wayne Enterprise who encourages Wayne to get back out into society and for some part of the film his love interest. Without Collitard's character, the ending would not be so special. The great thing about this film is that every character has a purpose. Even minor characters in the third film such as Michael Caine (Bet you said that in a Cockney accent) and Morgan Freeman (You're saying that in his voice, aren't you?) playing Alfred and Lucius Fox, we would not understand how hurt some of his closest friends are emotionally, and without Fox, Bruce Wayne's return might never have happened. Although at the start Wayne is weak and is broken down by Bane, he grows stronger as he is imprisoned in a prison that is almost impossible to escape from, then with great determination, he escapes and returns to Gotham City all to stop Bane from destroying the city and leading a huge revolution against the police and the government. The action  in the film is incredible with moments like the American Football match where the ground disappears from beneath the players and the robbery of the Stock Exchange Market which makes this film a stand out - with the other two Nolan Batman films - to most films out there. To conclude on what has been my favourite trilogy, just before Batman Begins, many of my friends thought Batman was a cheesy superhero, and I agreed, but nowadays, it is rare to dislike Batman after such great films which made superhero films cool again. The one thing that saddens me about the film is no more Nolan, and that scares me because for the next Batman films to be better, the director will need to be Jesus-because it will take a miracle.


Rating: 10/10