After eight years of living under the grid, Batman (Christian Bale) feels compelled by the overwhelming violence erupting in Gotham to come out from hiding. He can tell by the children’s desperate faces that all hope seems lost. Their faith has been broken. Batman comes to save his beloved city. “I’m not afraid,” he says. “I am angry.”
Filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s final installment of his “Dark Knight” Batman trilogy “The Dark Knight Rises” does not disappoint. Filmed with large format IMAX cameras, the movie’s clarity and depth is stunning. Scenes like football players desperately trying to outrun the rapidly disintegrating exploding field will widen your eyes and jerk you upright in your seat.
This story’s villain, Bane (Tom Hardy), looks like a cross between Vin Diesel and Hannibal Lecter… on crack. Wearing a menacing metallic mask with Hulk-like neck muscles rippling, Bane refers to himself as “Gotham’s reckoning.”
The epic stakes are as high as the production values. Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) is electric in how she inhabits the role with her own brand of humor and catsuit beauty. In one scene getting into the Batmobile, she says to Batman, “My mother warned me about getting into cars with strange men.” As the Batmobile spirals up over the cityscape Batman replies, “This isn’t a car.”
Many supporting cast members are back. Bruce Wayne’s Butler Alfred (Michael Caine) says to Bruce, “I won’t bury you. I’ve buried enough members of the Wayne family.” Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) is still the genius behind the Batmobile and Bruce’s techno accessories. Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) is as distraught, and relentless, as ever and super villain Ra’s Al Ghul (Liam Neeson) remains one of Batman’s archenemies.
Marion Cottilard infuses her character Miranda Tate—rumored to be Talia Al Ghul, the super villian’s daughter—with a sparkling humanity that contrasts the jaw-dropping special effects.
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some sensuality and language. 164 minutes. Opens in theaters July 20, 2012.
Written for the Examiner