Cinema Review: The Dark Knight Rises

Bane & Batman fight it out!

If like me you’ve found this year’s summer movie season a little underwhelming, the one film you might expect to buck the trend is Christopher Nolan’s final Batman film. After all, having directed two of the most successful and critically acclaimed superhero films ever made and with Academy Award-winning thrillers like Inception and Memento under his belt could Christopher Nolan do any wrong?

Before I go any further with this let me say first off that I really loved Batman Begins. Not only did it completely banish the memory of the godawful Joel Schumacher years, but it created an entire mythology around the Batman character that both celebrated and transcended the comic book source material. Then with The Dark Knight Nolan took things one step further and showed that comic book movies could be entertaining while at the same time taking on mature themes.

Unfortunately with The Dark Knight Rises, not only has Nolan made the weakest of his Dark Knight trilogy, but also his worst film to date.

Set eight years after the events of The Dark Knight, Gotham City is at peace, having all but eliminated organized crime due to the Dent Act, a miracle piece of legislation named after the late Harvey Dent. Physically crippled from the injuries he sustained as Batman, Bruce Wayne has become a recluse; no longer fighting crime but unable to move on and live a normal life, much to the dismay of faithful butler Alfred. But the peace can’t last and when a masked terrorist threatens the city, Bruce Wayne finds himself being drawn out of retirement.

Like a lot of people I went in to The Dark Knight Rises with some pretty high expectations – how could Nolan top a masterpiece? Could it even be done? Surely after so many quality movies Nolan couldn’t disappoint. And the fanboy in me really wanted to like this, I really really tried.

But half an hour into Rises, I knew I just wasn’t getting it. Worse, I was bored. It wasn’t that Batman was barely in it over the near 3 hour running time, or that Tom Hardy’s Bane sounded like a Darth Vader impersonator at a gay pride parade, it’s that at its heart, Rises suffers from a distinct lack of focus on what story it wants to tell.

The Dark Knight Rises takes clear inspiration from the Knightfall story arc which sees Batman being forced to take on a physically superior opponent, but the concept just isn’t developed enough. After the initial confrontation between Bane and Batman (as brutal a fight as you’d expect), the story sags noticeably, focusing instead on a bizarre plan involving stock market fiddling, corrupt bankers, left-wing revolution and weapons of mass destruction. If you thought that Ra’s Al Ghul trying to poison the citizens of Gotham with airborne LSD was nuts, it’s got nothing on this.

What’s worse, Rises lacks the emotional core that set its predecessors apart. While many people criticized The Dark Knight for losing the focus on Batman to satisfy the demands of a more epic storyline, it still put Bruce Wayne and his relationships with the supporting characters – Alfred, Lucius Fox, Jim Gordon and Rachel Dawes at the centre of the drama.

Rises loses even that focus. While there’s a reminder of the old magic in a few scenes between Bruce Wayne, Alfred and Lucius Fox they are few and far between, and mainly serve the purpose of blatant exposition. Alfred even inexplicably vanishes halfway through the film meaning that his relationship with Bruce Wayne is never given the closure it really deserves.

Rises introduces a number of new characters but few if any of them are given enough to do to justify their presence in the film. While there’s a brief attempt to create a new love interest for Bruce Wayne in the form of Marion Cotillard’s Miranda Tate, it simply doesn’t have the emotional weight of Bruce Wayne’s relationship with Rachel Dawes. Similarly, Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman seems to spend a lot of time standing around waiting for things to happen, and even Joseph Gordon Leavitt’s John Blake, who has the makings of an interesting character, feels underdeveloped.

In short, this film has neither a strong romantic interest for Batman/Bruce Wayne to fight for; nor does it have a charismatic real-world character like Harvey Dent to ground the film in reality. It’s almost as if the tone of Rises is at odds with the script – you can’t very well create a sense of realism in a film when your characters are cartoonish clichés.

In fact, the only character who receives a decent treatment is Bruce Wayne, which is arguably more to do with Christian Bale’s performance than with any strengths of the screenwriting. Bale imbues Bruce Wayne with a sense of world-weariness and real melancholy. Even before he puts on the batsuit again it’s clear that Wayne is a broken man, both physically and spiritually. It’s a remarkable performance from Bale and is arguably his best in the series.

Tom Hardy’s Bane on the other hand is a bit of a mixed bag. Having packed on nearly 30lbs of muscle while in training for the role, Hardy certainly carries a serious physical presence and is rather reminiscent of the Humungus from Mad Max 2. Unfortunately Hardy’s dialogue is so muffled by the mask he wears as to be nearly indecipherable. Reports surfaced about this earlier in the year when preview footage of Rises was aired at IMAX screenings of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Since then Hardy reportedly redubbed his lines to improve the diction, but it’s still difficult to make out what he’s saying, so much so that I found myself secretly hoping that he’d stick to words of one syllable.

At the end of the day, Bane just isn’t a very interesting villain – even though the film goes through the motions to give him a bit of a backstory, it’s little more than lip service to character development. Unlike Heath Ledger’s Joker, who created a real sense of unease whenever he appeared on-screen, Bane is entirely predictable. He shows up, shouts a bit and beats people. That’s it, if you’re expecting any more than that, you’re going to be disappointed.

Rises offers a few interesting action sequences, most notably with the Batpod and the new flying vehicle, The Bat, but there’s nothing that tops the high of the truck chase in The Dark Knight. There are some good fight scenes between Bane and Batman, if a little over the top in parts.

For me The Dark Knight Rises is one of the biggest disappointments of the 2012 summer film season. Threequels rarely live up to the promise of the earlier films, but you’d think that if anyone could make it work it would be Christopher Nolan. Sadly, all we’re left with is the promise of what might have been.