Official Misguided Geek Movie Review: The Dark Knight Rises
Before reading this review, or any review, I encourage you to see the movie first, just do it, go, you will thank me I promise.
There, now, to the review, which I will try and make as short and to the point as possible. The Dark Knight Rises is not a perfect movie, it drags a little bit, the story jumps around too much, and for an action movie there were long stretches with out any, you know, action. So yes, its not perfect…. but it is close.
Christopher Nolan set out to make an epic, and he succeeded. The Dark Knight Rises is an intense film, worthy of being one of the best Batman stories period, up there with the Killing Joke, Long Halloween, and yes The Dark Knight Returns.
Nolan has excelled in humanizing Batman. It can be hard to identify with demigods, men in armor, war heroes and super powered teenagers, yet if you strip away the money and gadgets, Bruce Wayne is just a hurt guy, trying to rediscover who he is after a great loss. Something many of us can understand.
Nolan matches up the, now very human and vulnerable Bats with the very inhuman killing machine Bane. Unlike the Joker, Bane is driven, focused, with a clear cut plan. Where the Joker was a forest fire, Bane is a tacticle strike cruise missile.
And then there are the supporting, no means minor characters, Selina Kyle, Commissioner Gordon, new comer John Blake, as well as the ever present Alfred Pennyworth. Much like what he did with Inception Nolan intertwines all of his players to create a tapestry of events and arcs which bring the three movies together, and then give them the bitter sweet ending that they, and we the fans have deserved.
Make no mistake, the ending is definitive, and I must say as the movie was winding down, I became surprisingly emotional. Like many of you, I have known these characters my whole life, and although I know there will be more movies (eventually) and tv shows, and video games, and of course more comics, Nolan has done a masterful job of retelling the old story in such a new and refreshing way, that I am sad that the run is over.
Avengers had the flash, and it has been the superhero movie of the summer, but The Dark Knight Rises has the heart, and the soul that was missing from Marvel’s summer epic. You have to go see it, its as much watch as any movie of the summer, and it does not disappoint.
*This review was written before my awareness of the tragic events that occurred last night in Colorado. This review is not meant to be insensitive to those events, merely a review of the movie. My thoughts go out to the people and community affected.
