The opening weekend of The Dark Knight Rises was marred by some pretty gruesome stuff, but the star of the film really showed how awesome The Batman can be. This tragedy has shadowed possibly the best big-budget movie I've ever seen, and I really hope you get out there soon to show your support for this movie and its great stars.
Director and Co-Writer Christopher Nolan tried really hard to pull Batman out of fantasy and into reality, grounding the comic book hero in the real world, with real evil and real outcomes. This is something that really shines through in TDKR. It seems like the whole series of Batman films done by Nolan and his brother were to this end. I wondered how they'd close out this franchise (Nolan has famously said he's absolutely done making Batman movies and that he always knew he had a precise story to tell), and without spoilers, I'd like to say that I think they did it pretty darned well.
It's clear that Heath Ledger's death affected the movie they wanted to make (The Dark Knight seemed to be a Joker introduction for a bigger piece in the following film), but Tom Hardy picks up the mantle as Batman's nemisis Bane quite nicely in this one. For those of us with a bit of comic book Batman as a background, too, introducing Bane seems just right for so many reasons. Tom Hardy is a terrific actor, and as you see in the trailers, he wears a very intense head mask thing. But because of the quality of Hardy's voice acting and the expression in his eyes, he pulls Bane off magnificently (best line, "Do you feel like you are in charge?" said so calmly, so intensely...it was just perfect).
The other huge surprise for me in this one was Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle (aka Catwoman). When we first heard internet rumours that Selina Kyle was going to be in the film (and everyone made it clear that this wasn't Catwoman) and that it was going to be Anne Hathaway, I have to admit, we were beyond skeptical. But she really does a bang up job. And her costume? Amazing!
She's not wearing "cat ears" either. Those are her goggles, which, when flipped up give the appearance of cat ears. There's no tail on this cat-burglar, but all claws.
Chris Nolan really knows how to pull out the best of emotions in his actors, and Michael Caine is no exception here. His Alfred has always been spot on, but this time he was just so beyond good, I got very teary more than once.
Sure, there are probably nit-picky things here and there that I could bitch about, but the movie was 2 hours and 45 minutes long and I had to pee like 30 minutes in, and I was GLUED to my seat. GLUED.
Nolan shoots a lot of stuff on IMAX cameras for the theatre and I really wish more people would. IMAX technology is far superior to all this 3D garbage I've been seeing lately and is worth far more in the long run than 3D in my humble opinion (and a Canadian company/invention!).
Tragedy aside, this movie is so fantastic that I highly recommend you get the sitter. It would probably help if you had some idea of what happened in the previous films though, because I really believe that Nolan has set this franchise up to be watched from start to finish.
I just really hope no one tries to revamp this in 5 years like they did with The Amazing Spider-Man. Yesh.
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