The masterpiece that is The Dark Knight Rises

Words can’t describe how much I loved this movie. It easily surpasses its two prequels in both quality and suspense. While The Dark Knight was more frightening, The Dark Knight Rises had a sense of futility about it, and had some serious themes going on in there.

The Dark Knight Rises opens eight years after the ending of The Dark Knight. Batman is no more, and Bruce Wayne is believed crazy or disfigured by the majority of the citizens of Gotham. But he is jolted back into the public by cat burglar, Selena Kyle, who steals his mother’s pearls, and sells Wayne’s fingerprints to a business rival, John Daggett. This facilitates an attack on the stock exchange by Bane, and Bruce Wayne is declared bankrupt.

Wayne is forced to turn to Kyle for help in finding Bane, and is captured. Before being imprisoned, Bruce learns that Bane took over the League of Shadows following Ra’s al Ghul’s death. He is then brought to a supposedly inescapable prison, from which only one child has ever escaped. With Batman gone, Bane unleashes wave of terror onto Gotham, cutting off the city from the outside world with the threat of a nuclear explosion. He then proceeds to trap the police underground, and to give (Or so it seems) the city to the poor and the middle class, with the rich being put to a trial, and given a choice ; Death, or take your chances walking across thin ice to civilisation. With Batman gone, is there any hope for Gotham?

That’s really all of the plot that I can give away. And now for the characters…

Bruce Wayne and Batman are once again played by Christian Bale, who does a remarkable job of bringing emotion and depth to the man behind the mask. After taking the blame for the death of Harvey Dent, Batman has disappeared, and Wayne locks himself inside Wayne Manor, leaving Wayne Enterprises to crumble, due to a clean energy project that was shutdown. Over the course of this movie, we see Wayne try to come to grips with what he has lost over the course of his time as Batman, and try to come back into the world. I’ve only been a Batman fan for a very short time, yet I really can’t see any other actor portraying this iconic character as well as Bale does.

Anne Hathaway does an outstanding job bringing to like Selena Kyle, the cat burglar. Kyle is looking for a computer program called “The clean slate” which can erase a person’s criminal record. She is a complicated character, and was forced into crime by her poor background. Towards the beginning of the film, it seems as if she’s fighting for equality between the social classes, but then it seems that she’s only concerned with herself. Either way, Kyle is a remarkable character.

The villain of the film is Bane. Bane was a member of the League of Shadows, but was excommunicated by Ra’s al Ghul. However, after his death, Bane takes over the League of Shadows, and seems intent on fulfilling Ra’s al Ghul’s plan to destroy Gotham. Bane wears a gas mask, as the mask controls the pain from an old injury. Tom Hardy plays Bane, and let me just say, he does so rather well, as he managed to expertly convey the sheer lack of mercy, and pure destruction that Bane shows.

Dun dun dun…

Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon

John Blake is played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. He is a young police officer, who believes in Batman, and guesses that he is really Bruce Wayne. He is an ordinary police officer, but soon into the film, he is promoted to detective by Commissioner Gordon. He is one of the few members of the police force that aren’t trapped underground during Bane’s reign of terror, and is a key member in the resistance. His character is a new one in this Batman trilogy, but definitely not a new one as regards to the story of Batman. Even if you’re not a fan of Batman, you know who he is, when he says his real name.

But I think my favourite character in the Batman trilogy has to be Commissioner Gordon. Played by Gary Oldman, Comissioner Gordon is still living with the guilt of letting Batman take the blame for Dent’s death, and for concealing the truth from the public. Gordon urges Batman to return, and proves to be a valuable ally throughout the film, as he has done in the past two films.

For those who have not yet seen The Dark Knight Rises, I suggest you stop reading now, if you do not want to know how the ending plays out.

The ending of The Dark Knight Rises, may be of the best endings to a superhero movie I have ever seen. Of course the Batman films are superhero films without the superhero, but you know what I mean. The first twist, when we find out that Miranda is Talia al Ghul, I kind of expected. I knew that there was something going on with Miranda, that there was something not quite right with her. But to be perfectly honest, I definitely did not expect her to turn out to be Ra’s al Ghul’s daughter, the only person to escape the pit. Well played Nolan, well-played…

When John Blake turned out to be Robin, and discovered the Batcave, I was completely surprised. I did not see that coming!

But the biggest and best twist was the last one. If you’ve seen the movie, you know what I’m talking about. When that bomb went off, I must say, I have never willed a character to live as much as I did Batman today. When Alfred looked up in that café I have never felt more relieved. Even though I’ve only been a fan for a few days, I feel like the Batman trilogy is one of the best trilogy of movies to be released in a long time, at least out of the movies I’ve seen.

So Christopher Nolan, I salute you for making the awe-inspiring Batman trilogy. I haven’t been a fan for long, but boy am I a fan…