The Dark Knight Rises (Part 1 of 3)

The Dark Knight Rises (Part 1 of 3)

The Dark Knight Rises is a very entertaining wrap up to the Nolan Batman trilogy.  While I am torn if this is better the second movie, this one wraps up many of the threads and themes from the first movie nicely.  To be fair, this movie is closer to a sequel to Batman Begins than The Dark Knight.  Not everything gets paid off, but you will be leaving the theater feeling the story is complete.  There were a few emotional scenes where I was a bit misty-eyed.  I am not going to lie. The movie is very good, but there are a few plot flaws.  But, I really loved the movie. 

Basically, it has been eight years since the second movie and Gotham city is a cleaner city with police actually winning the war on crime.  Batman hasn’t been seen in those eight years.  Bruce Wayne has been recluse too.  Suddenly, a powerful villain named Bane appears and turns the city upside down.  Think of Bane as the leader of an Occupy Movement and the Tea Party. 

As I wrote before, this story has a connection to Batman Begins with all kinds of threads and arcs from that movie.  Fear is the central theme of the entire trilogy.  It is interesting to note that the first movie is about facing your fear and controlling it.  The second movie has the theme of people turning their fear outward, while this movie is about embracing fear.  Batman has to learn the complete opposite of the lesson learned first movie.  He has to fear “the end”. 

Also, this movie is closer to comic book version of Batman than the other two movies.  The story is loosely base on No Man’s Land with the end of the world stuff.  It also has strong elements from The Dark Knight Returns with a burnt out Bruce Wayne that has to get back into being Batman one more time.  But, the biggest influence to the script has to be the Knightfall/quest storyline that introduced Bane to the DC universe. 

Bane is a different villain from the Joker in the first movie.  He’s cultured and brutal that the same time.  He’s an unmovable force that crushes and smashes people.  He has no problem instantly killing people.  It took me a few seconds to get use to the voice, (which was enhanced for the release), but I really liked what they did with it.  He bellows out over everyone else.  The facemask was a brilliant choice for the character. 

Tom Hardy made a great choice with the voice, and not making it a Latino accent.