My Review of "The Dark Knight Rises"

The Dark Knight Rises came out back in 2012. It's hard to believe that it's already been a decade since its release. This movie was to conclude the Christopher Nolan Batman Trilogy. I have to say they that they really threw everything at this movie to make it special.

This movie starts off 8 years after the The Dark Knight, which you have to watch in order to understand the context to this movie. Actually you should really watch both the previous movies before watching this one You don't necessarily need to watch the previous movies but it's a hugely beneficial for you as you might get lost in the context of what they're talking about.

Batman has now been retired from crime fighting after the whole fiasco with the Joker. There are thousands of criminals now in prison because of Harvey Dent. Commissioner Gordon and Batman have created a lie to the public to help keep these criminals behind bar. It's corruption but is it a necessary corruption?

Bruce Wayne, Batman's alter ego, is now a recluse and with a messed up leg. I'm not totally sure why they even made that part into the story but they thought it was necessary. He's been quiet for all these years and then a woman by the name of Selina comes in and steals his mother's pearls.

Oddly enough Bruce doesn't really care that she stole the pearls. He's more concerned that she stole his fingerprints. As a billionaire this could be very disastrous for him.

Meanwhile there's a new big bad guy in town by the name of Bane. He's running amuck in Gotham. I guess his motivation is to create balance in the world? His character had a few problems for me. I couldn't really grasp what he was doing by the end of the movie. The last 2 Batman movies made sense but Bane's motivation is changed constantly for plot twists. It's really weird and confusing at times. I really wished he had a bit more consistency.

The general story about Bruce Wayne does make sense in this movie however his relationships in this movie don't. His relationship with Alfred is a little off the mark. It kind of doesn't make sense how Alfred who is so loyal to him would ever abandon him. Then there's Fox, who has been Bruce's right hand man for all three movies.

In the end of the second movie Fox had tendered his resignation because of Bruce was violating the privacy of all the citizens of Gotham. Yes you can argue that the device was destroyed after they finished off the Joker. Still he didn't like the direction Bruce was heading towards. Then again it's been 8 years. It just felt like they tidied that storyline up so conveniently so that he was able to help Bruce.

As you can see there are a lot of holes in this story that had me questioning what was going on in this movie. It is a big action movie but I kind of expected more because the last movie was so good.

They did however up the ante with the visuals of this movie. Everything looks so beautiful on screen. I noticed no camera shaking for the big Imax shots in this movie rather than the shaky Imax footage in the previous movie. 4 years has brought on a lot of technological advances in cinema I guess.

I'm glad I was able to check these movies out back to back so I would be able to decipher the consistency of Batman's journey. This movie feels like more of a sequel to the first movie rather than the second movie. They sprinkled in the consequences of the second movie in this one but it's not totally related to that one.

Overall as a stand alone movie it's good but you really need to watch the first two movies to get the most out of it. Weirdly, if you have seen those other movies you'll still have questions because the continuity of the storyline can seem a little weird at times. I have to give this movie a 7.5 out of 10. It's very enjoyable and visually it's the most beautiful out of the trilogy.