It's eight years following Harvey Dent's death at the hands of the Batman. Yeah...yeah...you and I know that Dent had gone dirty, but the rest of Gotham thinks he was a hero. To save face--well, at least the good side of Dent's face, Batman (Christian Bale) took the fall. This enabled Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) to continue Dent's work before he went bad. It worked. In the eight years since, the streets are clean. Meanwhile, Batman is nowhere to be found, nor is Bruce Wayne. The billionaire playboy has sunken into a recluse state, while Wayne Enterprises have as well. That's life in the days following the Joker's murder of Rachel. Bruce has seemingly lost his since of purpose and his get-up-and-go has, well, left. Enter Bane (Tom Hardy). Far from the Bane of Batman and Robin, where he was essentially a mindless brute, here Bane emerges as the militant general and strategist of the DC Comic series. Nice upgrade. Bane is an outcast of the League of Shadows, intent on Gotham's destruction as was his predecessor, Ra's Al Ghul (Liam Neeson).
Bane's appearance in Gotham puts Commissioner Gordon in the hospital and caught the eye of Bruce Wayne, prompting a reappearance of Batman. This shakes up the Gotham authorities, with the exception of Mark Baker (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). He's got Bane on his radar, along with Gordon. All the while, Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) is doing whatever evils she can to clear her name. You get the picture...there's A LOT going on here. But wait there's more...and I'm not talking Ginsu Knives here. Bane takes over Gotham, debilitates the Caped Crusader....Yadayadayada...setting up one epoch battle between good and evil.
Whew...it was tiring just going through those events in summary. No worries, mate. It's all good and well worth the nearly three hours of nesting at the local Regal Cinemas nearest you! I'll go with 4.0 Stars. It's true. There are a few flat moments with this one, but there's a lot of story to tell in 164 minutes. Sure there are moments that seem over-developed and a few that are under-developed, but Nolan's storytelling record remains untarnished. Bottom line: It's good and well worth a watch if you liked the others, or my name isn't Matthew Scott Trueblood. (It IS btw)
The core cast delivers once again and the newcomers are, for the most part, outstanding. Bale, Caine and Oldman were great, as usual. I know that Bale gets a lot of criticism for his antics, which I have not really paid much attention to, but his Batman is second to none. By 'none', I mean NONE! No body has portrayed Batman with as much believability and humanity...with as much reality...as Christian Bale. You don't have to look long to see a cast of solid actors who have tried. Michael Keaton was sound. Val Kilmer and George Clooney...yes, great actors (especially the latter), but they couldn't pull it off; at least, not like Bale. Much of that, could be very much to Nolan's credit. His emphasis throughout was on creating story-lines that were real and very human. With Batman Begins, we learned the lesson of overcoming one's fear in tale that came across genuinely. In The Dark Knight, chaos was the theme and it was lived through a very realistic and genuinely human psychotic in the Joker (as opposed to the clownish Joker's of times past--this Joker was real and truly frightening). Finally, with The Dark Knight Rises, it's all about overcoming pain. The plot doesn't disappoint. It's all quite realistic, considering how fantastical it is at its core.
As for the newcomers, Hathaway, Hardy and Gordon-Levitt are great. Hathaway is a great Catwoman/Selina Kyle--she presents a character that you want trust, but know that you clearly should not, which was the goal. Hardy was a great Bane. Sure, some will complain about the voice, which was at times tough to understand. In those moments, you're left thinking, "Uh...excuse me, Darth, but what the hell are you doing in Gotham?!?" That aside, Hardy was tremendous--and honestly, I had a tough time believing that this is the same guy from This Means War. Meanwhile, Gordon-Levitt enters the scene as Baker, a gutsy cop turned detective who has figured out the Batman mystery among other things.
All in all, see this one and see it BIG. Yeah, there are some flat moments throughout a long movie, but it finishes incredibly strong and is well worth the long playing time. I'm just hopeful of another installment, which a little birdie tells me that I think we will definitely see.
True...OUT!
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