THE DARK KNIGHT RISES MOVIE REVIEW

Director Christopher Nolan brings us his finale chapter to the Dark Knight trilogy, thus naming it ‘The Dark Knight Rises’.

The film is set 8 years after the Dark Knight, on the anniversary of Harvey Dents death. Through his death, The Dent Act was enforced which put a stop to all organised crime. Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) has written his resignation and wants totell the people of Gotham what really happened the night Dent died, but, decides it’s not the right time.

In regard to Batman, he hasn’t been seen since Dents death and Wayne (Christian Bale) has become a recluse. At the Dent anniversary party being held at Wayne Manor, Wayne catches Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) stealing his mother’s pearls and his fingerprints by obtaining them from the pearls safe. Kyle sells the prints to Stryver (Burn Gorman), the right hand man of Daggett (Ben Mendelsohn), who is also the business rival of Wayne. While Kyle sells the prints, she has kidnapped the congressman and led the police to the bar to find him while she sells to Stryver. This is when Gordon is led down into the sewers and is captured by ‘the masked man’, Bane (Tom Hardy). Gordon escapes and is found by Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), an orphaned policeman who has worked out Batman’s identity though their similar backgrounds. Through Blake’s good efforts, Gordon promotes him to Detective.

Wayne’s company, Wayne Enterprises has fell down the drain due to a fusion reactor project, which Wayne found pout could be turned in a nuclear weapon if fallen into the wrong hands.

Bane and his men attack Gotham’s Stock Exchange, using Wayne’s fingerprints, he bankrupts him. Batman returns in a lengthy road chase, which causes pandemonium as the police don’t know whether to go for Bane or go for Batman.

Alfred (Michael Caine), Wayne’s butler is fearful for Wayne’s mental welfare and tells him that his love, Rachel was going to marry Harvey Dent before she died. Alfred subsequently resigns from his post but believes if Batman returns he will have to face the inevitable.

Fearing Daggett (who Wayne thinks is Banes boss) will take over his company, Wayne turns to Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard) to take over the company, to which she accepts. Bane then kills Daggett, and then Kyle takes Batman to Bane, which he learns is a trap. Batman learns that Bane is here to fulfil Rai Al Ghuls mission to destroy Gotham, then Bane breaks Batmans back and takes him to a foreign prison where escaping is impossible. The inmates tell Wayne the story of Rai Al Ghuls child, who had a protector in the prison, and is the only person to escape the ‘pit’, so naturally Wayne thinks the child is Bane.

Back in Gotham, Bane lures the police underground and seals them in by explosions. He has also forced a kidnapped physicist to turn Wayne’s fusion reactor into a nuclear warhead and then kills him and uses the bomb to hold Gotham hostage.

After retrieving Gordon’s speech when he was captured, Bane tells Gotham what really happened the night of Dents death and then releases all the prisoners of Blackgate prison. Gotham is in panic, the rich are being taken from their homes, show trials judged by Dr Crane when sentence is either death or exile (exile meaning try and walk over the iced up waters without dying) and basically the city is hoping and praying no one blows the bomb.

Back in the pit, months of training and recovery, Wayne’s manages to escape and enlists Kyle, Blake, Tate, Gordon and Fox to help stop the bomb from detonating.

The police and Banes resistance army clash and Batman is defeating Bane, before he can finish him off, Batman is stabbed by Miranda, whose real name is Talia, Rai Al Ghuls child and her protector was and always will be Bane. Miranda tries to detonate the bomb without success thanks to Gordon who has blocked the signal, so she goes looking for the bomb, which is being transported around in a truck. Bane goes to kill Batman, but Kyle kills him with the Bat pod. Batman goes after Miranda in the Bat (his flying vehicle) in the hope to take the bomb back to the reactor to stabilise it. Miranda, who is now with the bomb, crashes and initiates the flood in the reactor before dying. Batman using the Bat takes the bomb over the water where it blows up.

Batman, presumed dead, is honoured as a hero to Gotham and has a statue erected in honour of him. Wayne Manor is left to the city to be used as an orphanage and the rest of the assets are left to Alfred. Fox learns Wayne fixed the Bats autopilot, but how could he is he had died? Gordon then finds a refurbished bat signal on top of Gotham’s police headquarters. Alfred is in Florence where he sees Kyle and Wayne alive and together – much to Alfred’s delight. Finally, Blake resigns from the police and finds the bat cave.

It is not very often sequels outsmart the original in the series; the Dark Knight Rises overpowered the series and became one of the greatest finales to a trilogy. The same crew is used (both technical and cast) in the 3 movies which makes this film flow even better. With the budget of $250 million, Nolan did not need to watch his limit!

Christian Bale is the only actor to have played Batman in 3 films and yet again he never fails to impress. As much as the role of Batman is a huge physical role, in this film, there is a huge amount of emotion/mental acting required. As Bale is remarkable for these kinds of role, he really impresses in what is seen as his best Batman movie.

Our new villain, Bane, played by Tom Hardy is a fantastic depiction of this masked man both terrifying in appearance and mentally. Hardy, having to gain 30lbs for the role, won his breakout in film through Nolan’s other smash film, Inception. Tom Hardy is like a chameleon; he can turn into any character and give a performance to cement his career in Hollywood.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt was eventually casted as Blake (note – character was offered to Leonardo DiCaprio, Ryan Gosling and Mark Ruffalo) and again, thanks to Nolan he too has cemented his career and has now went onto bigger movies – and why shouldn’t he, he is a very talented young actor who has a brilliant career ahead of him.

Our main females in this film have been given great parts. Normally Nolan’s films are male orientated, where the female characters seem flimsy, yet, the characters of Miranda Tate and Selina Kyle are very different and are written very well and best of all they are played out beautifully by 2 Oscar winning actresses.

Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and many others in this star studded cast are all brilliant. Normally, a movie such as this, there is only certain characters emphasised more so than others, however, Nolan has knitted every character into this huge finale to create the perfect cast ensemble for acting.

It is very hard to find faults in a Nolan film. He visualises his films in his head and makes them as he sees them. This is what makes a great director. His direction of the Dark Knight Rises is magnificient. A key scene of this magnificence is seen through Bane storming Blackgate prison. As Bane speaks a fantastic speech, it is followed by matched cuts – so as he says it, we are visualising the action, as Nolan done in his head. The scene will go down as one of the greatest scenes in Hollywood history for also the acting of Tom Hardy in this scene. The emotion of Bane, is both terrifying and somewhat realistic of what could happen in the real world and it gives us that uneasy feeling that this could happen from a man like Bane (although, hopefully not with the mask!). The score is done yet again by none other than Hans Zimmer, who is a fantastic movie composer, he like Nolan visualises fantastically and that is key to a movie such as this.

The Dark Knight Rises is a thrill ride, thought the reception was slightly dampened by the Colorado Massacre; it still managed to smash the box office. This movie was highly anticipated, there was a fear of it being ‘overhyped’, however, and there is no such thing as overhyped for this movie. It is brilliantly pieced together to create the epic finale. Another commendable point to Nolan is he is very old school in certain areas, like stunt work. All the stunts were real and not CGI, though there were many injuries on set, the vision paid off for its realism. He also refused to shoot in 3D, which should be saluted as 3D is not what it’s made out to be. Nolan did shoot some sequences for IMAX viewing, to which is great in the IMAX experience.

The Dark Knight Rises is no way boring, far from it. From the minute the film starts, you are on the edge of your seat. Nolan not only created an epic finale, but he also makes you think about it – what if that happened to us? How would we act? Would we have a hero? And that is a mark of an intellect. Nolan’s vision has a great realism feel throughout, another great example is the sequence of the bomb countdown. Nolan depicts this in ‘real time’, so when the bomb shows 11 minutes to detonation, the whole sequence works to 11minutes. In a matter of opinion, this ‘real time’ method will become one of Nolan’s trademarks.

The Dark Knight Rises is a phenomenal movie. An epic conclusion that will not disappoint. Through the cast, music, camera work and best of all its direction. This is a movie that cannot be missed and will forever be known as visually artistic phenomena.

BATMAN BEGINS

Christopher Nolan (Memento, Insomnia) delivers the reboot to Batman, telling the story of how Bruce Wayne becomes the iconic caped crusader. He called it ‘Batman Begins’.
It follows Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale – The Machinist, Empire of the Sun) from when he has to come face to face with Chill, his parent’s murderer. Chill is willing to testify against his boss, leader of the underworld, Falcone (Tom Wilkinson – The Full Monty). Wayne, full of revenge plots to kill him, but Falcone beats him to it. So Wayne disappears and becomes a criminal and is arrested and put into a Bhutanese prison. It is there he meets and is taken in by Henry Ducard (Liam Neeson – Rob Roy, Love Actually) and is to be trained by the League of Shadows. He completes his training and the Leagues leader – Rai Al Ghul plans to destroy Gotham. So naturally, Wayne refuses and burns the building to the ground, killing Rai Al Ghul and saves Ducard.
Wayne returns to Gotham as a new improved man – a playboy and has a keen interest in the family business where he meets Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman – Shawshank Redemption). Fox introduces him to the ‘applied science’ technology including the Tumbler and a body suit that protects you against the majority of things – these would later become major accessories to Batman.
Wayne then finds an entrance to a cave under Wayne Manor and confronts his fears of bats and takes their identity to become Batman.
His first job is he takes down one of Falcone’s drug shipments and delivers Falcone to the police leaving him hanging off a spotlight in the shape of a bat. From then on, a friendship builds between Batman and Sgt Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman – Bram Stokers Dracula, Air Force One), who years previously sheltered Wayne away from the media after the death of his parents.
Soon after this, a microwave emitter prototype belonging to Wayne’s company is stolen from a ship, leaving all crew dead; no traces of where it could have went.
Back in Gotham, Dr Crane (Cillian Murphy – 28 Days Later), head of Arkham Asylum has been sending Falcone’s henchmen to the Asylum as they are ‘mentally unfit’ for the world. The actual reason is Crane is using Falcone to import a drug that acts as a very powerful hallucinogen. As Falcone starts to ask too many questions, Crane intoxicates him with the drug wearing a burlap mask, calling himself Scarecrow.
Later, Crane then intoxicates Batman, but, through the genius mind of Fox, he is give an antidote and days later (his birthday) comes to and is cured.
Wayne’s oldest friend and DA Assistant Rachel (Katie Holmes – Teaching Mrs Tingle) goes to Arkham as she is very suspicious and then Crane also intoxicates her. Batman rescues her and literally gives Crane a taste of his own medicine, where he tells Batman that Rais Al Ghul is behind the drug shipments.
When the police arrive at the Asylum, Gordon finds out that a compound has been put into the water supply over some amount of time and the effects wouldn’t kick in straight away as it needs to be absorbed through the lungs. 
Through all this drama, Wayne throws a birthday party for himself where he meets the REAL Rais Al Ghul – Henry Ducard, where he then burns down Wayne Manor, only for Alfred (Michael Caine – Zulu, The Italian Job), Wayne’s trusted butler to save him.
Rais Al Ghul is also behind the Microwave emitter theft and begins to burst open the water supply from the drug Crane was putting in there to create mass panic and hallucinations. Batman kills Rais Al Ghul with the help of Gordon and Batman becomes the hero who saved Gotham.
Wayne also becomes in charge of his families company, firing the head boss and promotes Fox to lead the company with him. Normally the hero always gets the girl, in this case, Rachel who now knows her oldest friends is in fact Batman, tells Wayne she cannot be with him as long as Batman is needed.
The film ends with Gordon and his bat signal, to which Batman appears, to learn Gordon has been promoted to Lt, that is not the reason he called for him, however, a new criminal is plaguing the streets of Gotham, leaving his mark wherever he goes – a Joker card. Batman goes to investigates and it ends.

Christopher Nolan is a very skilful director, who taps into the psychology of movie making. This is very prominent in Batman Begins as the split personality (so to speak) of Bruce Wayne/Batman progresses. Not only is this seen through Batman/Bruce Wayne but the film as a whole is very psychological, including the psychotic doctor running an insane asylum (ironic really). The movie itself is based on the graphic novel side of Batman, and so the darkness both visually and mentally is truly magnificent.
The cast itself is remarkable, from Christian Bale being an amazing Batman (he is used to his psychological roles, most notably the Machinist and American Psycho) to Michael Caine – a superb British acting great, Liam Neeson who plays a villain as well as playing the good protagonist in his movies. Morgan Freeman plays Lucius Fox, playing the Technology expert with some humour and with such magnificent charisma. Gary Oldman plays Gordon perfectly, which was a huge gamble as he tends to play the antagonist in his films (example Air Force One, the Fifth Element and so on and so forth). Instead, seeing Oldman in the reversal gave his acting career a new boost and a new direction. Our psychotic doctor Crane, played by rising star Cillian Murphy is played like a typical wacky horror villain, like Jack Nicholson in the Shining, he is very unhinged, but, puts across the madness brilliantly, his role in Batman Begins will probably be one of his best works to date as now he is catapulted into stardom, thanks to Nolan’s creative mind.
As well as the brilliance of Nolan at the helm, music in films is arguably one of the main aspects to create a film. Zimmer and Newton Howard are legends at doing this. The music of Batman Begins is remarkable and gives the film more life as it creates the darkness of Batman, notably the sequence of bats coming as ‘back up’ to Batman as he saves Rachel. Both the music and cut sequences are perfect and create the definitive meaning of Batman.
Another technique used which was very rarely done is the use of ‘back to front’ credits. The name ‘Batman Begins’ does not appear until the end of the movie, in its place at the beginning is simply the bat symbol and bats. This is a very effective technique; again with music choice it creates originality and better still, an icon.
Batman begins is a truly remarkable film. It brings Batman from the first appearance in 1939, to the Adam Wests cheese in the 1960s to the gothic Tim Burton style of 1989 to the return of cheese through the vision of Joel Schumacher of 1995 into the modern day of 2005. It shows that no matter how long Batman has been running for, it still can be adapted into all shapes, sizes and style to create fun, gothic, cheese and now darkness. Christopher Nolan’s Batman will go down as not only one of the best cast ensembles in movie making (note only 4 of the significant cast are NOT British; Katie Holmes, Morgan Freeman, Rutger Hauer and Ken Wantabe), but as a one of the greatest movies in history, and to think it’s actually British makes it all the better!!