When I first heard about the "Untitled Batman Sequel" being announced in 2009, I immediately became excited. I started imagining what the great mind of Chris Nolan could come up with the finish off the trilogy. Considering that the death of Heath Ledger was a lot more recent, I figured that a tribute or several references would be made about the Joker in the new movie. This, of course, was not the case, and for good reason. In an interview with Christ Nolan right before the release of the movie, he stated that, "No Joker references were made purely because I don't want people to think about the Joker during the movie. I want them to purely focus on Bane and the current movie." In my opinion, this was definitely a good move. Tom Hardy gave a career making performance as the notorious villain Bane. In terms of comparing Heath Ledger's Joker to Tom Hardy's Bane in terms of quality of performance, Hardy played his version of Bane just as well at Ledger's Joker. I would ever dare to say that it was a damn near perfect performance. There is not an actor out there that could've made a better performance.
The story of Dark Knight Rises is a rough telling of the Knightfall graphic novel. The reason it's a rough story telling is because in Knightfall, the Joker plays a major part, so obviously that could happen in Dark Knight. The terrorist leader, Bane, comes to Gotham City to "liberate" the madness of a legacy that the former Harvey Dent left. Batman (Bruce Wayne), being wrongfully accused of killing Harvey Dent, has been run out of town and he has no plans of returning to the black suit. Only when Wayne saw the madness that Bane was causing and with a little help from Lucious Fox and his fabulous inventions did he decide to suit up once again, and with a little help this time. Anne Hathaway plays a fabulous Catwoman, who for most of the movie, is only worried about getting herself a new life on a clean slate. She is so caught up with this that she is willing to betray the only ally that she has made. Batman. She hands him over to Bane on a silver platter, and Bane quite literally breaks Batman. Catwoman quickly realizes her mistake. Now that Bane has defeated Wayne, he has freedom to take over Gotham in anyway that he pleases, and he chooses terrorism to do it. The famous words of Joker in The Dark Knight, "Let's induce a little anarchy" plays a major part in Bane's run on terror. By pouring cement that has been laced with explosives, he blows up the entire outside ring of the sewer tunnel system. This is the same system that the police officers at the same were traveling through in order to catch Bane. Bane was at a the Gotham football stadium showing off his new toy. Bruce has created a fusion reactor that is safely sustaining clean energy to all of Gotham. Unfortunately, with the forced help of Fox and a couple board members, bane is able to remove to core and create an atom bomb that is set to go off in 5 months. This brings the movie up the the very end of the rising action into the climax. Even though this is a review, I'm not going to give away the last 40 minutes of the movie. It is just too good for words with one of the best twists I've seen to date.
All around, The Dark Knight Rises is the best movie that I have ever seen. I will watch it over and over again once the Blu-Ray is released and I will more than likely see it a few more times in theaters. It is just that good. One of things that I loved about Rises more than the Dark Knight was that the ending was 1000 times better than the Dark Knight ending. It left me wanting so much more, and yet, I don't want anything else. It reminded me so much of the ending of Toy Story 3. As much as I want another movie to be made, I just know that it wouldn't be the same. It was a perfect ending to a perfect series, and I'm going to leave it at that.
Editing was top notch, the movie was extremely easy to follow. Cinematography was amazing. I have never seen better special effects other than the Lord of the Rings series. The Bat really looked like the machine was flying in the air. There was no hint of that corny CGI look that some movies have. Acting was some of the best that I have ever seen. Tom Hardy sells his character unlike any other, Christian Bale's re-prise as Batman was top notch as usual, and Anne Hathaway's Catwoman could not have been any better. Hans Zimmer is a master of composing in the modern age and he does not disappoint with the Dark Knight Rises. Every camera shot goes along with the music perfectly. The very last scene of the movie does this the best. My overall score for The Dark Knight Rises is plain and simply a 10/10. It could not have been any better and the ending could have been any more fitting. Bane was the perfect villain to finish off an awesome series. I can't wait to see it again. A+
