Review: Bleaker and bigger 'Dark Knight Rises' is worth the wait

Film: The Dark Knight Rises
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Morgan Freeman
Rating: ***1/2

After getting tired of those pesky police dogs snapping at his heels and the snide comments of his English butler on the caped crusader profession, billionaire Bruce Wayne (Bale) has thrown in the towel. (Actually it was the loss of his only love Rachel Dawes, and the popular belief that he did in poster boy District Attorney Harvey Dent, but moving on…)

Before the slippery cat burglar Selina Kyle (Hathaway) enters his life, Wayne’s devil-may-care playboy persona collapses into a Howard Hughes-style portrait of reclusiveness. His once-booming Wayne Enterprises reflects his rotting condition because he does not heed environment-conscious board member Miranda Tate (Cotillard). 

Wayne’s home, Gotham City, which world-weary Commissioner James Gordon (Oldman) thinks is in need of a hero, vilifies Batman and venerates Dent for his former zeal while being completely blind to his psychotic side. But the city has much worse things to worry about than a masked vigilante with the menacing mercenary Bane (Hardy) lurking beneath their feet.

Dark Knight Rises mounts like a tidal wave, albeit ponderously in places, to sweep you completely away. Nolan uses Gotham City as his largest-ever canvas, turning it into a stark portrait of despair and desolation as Bane unleashes a mad reign. Among the better parts of the script was the conflict between Alfred and Bruce over the latter’s supposed self-destructive ways to bring succour to the city that mostly despises his masked persona. The unsubtle prodding of ‘hothead’ cop John Blake (Gordon-Levitt) into the spotlight gets annoying. Just as twists abound, so too are there blanks areas which the narrative doesn’t bother to throw much light upon. What is cool, though, is how the film looks over its shoulder to Batman Begins (this reviewer’s personal favourite of the trilogy). Nolan’s lack of deference to kitsch and the overly fantastic and supernatural also helps (Spoiler Alert: those of you who would think hearing the characters utter the word ‘Catwoman’ would make you cringe, worry not; those expecting Ra’s al Ghul to return, worry).



Bale's tortured artistry is one of the things that add weight to the notion that Nolan’s trilogy pushed the films about the ‘world’s greatest detective’ far above the murky depths of popcorn cinema. In the beginning of the film, Wayne’s devil-may-care public persona collapses into a Howard Hughes-style portrait of reclusiveness, feigning infirmity even. This signifies that the loss of a beloved one (the previous film’s Rachel Dawes) is far more effective at breaking the spirit than the wiles of the villain lurking around the corner (or in this case, underneath his feet).

But Bane is no pushover. As the head-snapping Hardy is more than the bundle-of-muscle hulk as depicted in the inept Batman & Robin. Dedicated to becoming Batman’s rock and hard place rolled into one, he is the man who believes he can impair the dark knight with his superior brain and brawn and sustain his life long enough to watch him flatten Gotham to the ground. Pitting his self-assured performance against the crazed antics of Heath Ledger’s much-acclaimed take on the Joker is a comparison that does no one any good.

Hathaway and Cotillard's roles dispel the notions that Nolan has a ‘woman problem’ ie his films do not take much account of them. And lets just say both do justice to their indispensable characters. Old hands Freeman and Oldman, as expected, sweeten the deal considerably.

A story-heavy film borrowing quite a bit from the Knightfall storyline and Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, it isn’t wanting in visual pyrotechnics (balm to the much-peeled eyes gazing through the dense narrative involving myriad new characters) and the Hans Zimmer’s score is uplifting and, in one memorable scene, even cathartic. However, between Batman's rasp and sometimes Bane's muffled mouthings, an ENT check-up is advisable (though picking a screen with subtitles, would be a more sensible option).

The Dark Knight Rises is a film that not only raises the Dark Knight but the also the stakes, placing everything the already-broken hero holds dear in a juggernaut of a villain's crosshairs. Bleaker and bigger, it was well worth the wait.