Great Balls of Fire: Christian Bale & Tom Hardy bring their A game to the final act of the Dark Knight trilogy, the Dark Knight Rises
The Dark Knight Rises review by Ronald H. Pollock
The Dark Knight Rises….and Bruce Wayne LIVES!
I absolutely loved this movie and I can’t wait to see it two more times…this time in IMAX (seriously every IMAX showing including 3am and 6am showings all over NYC were sold out till…next Weds)…life in the Big City cuts both ways.
What a BOLD and unprecedented and creative way to complete the journey of Bruce Wayne as Batman. I have to respectfully disagree with what Cyrus said about the first two thirds…breaking down Batman was necessary to re-center this story about Bruce Wayne. We saw this mistake in the previous run of Batman films. Burton’s decent start quickly turned into Rocky serials, catering not to fan boys but gamers who interpret sequels as one up-man ship, ” Next Level! FIGHT!”
Chris Nolan, a director with brass cajones who gets it right. Bring BACK to what made this character iconic by questioning his motivations and finishes the story with conviction. It still gnaws on me…all the Un-necessarily hatred he received. Diatribe “OMG you’re WRONG! You got Catwoman wrong!” just by a bunch set photos taken by amateur photo-journalists not even invited on set.
Get ready for a mudslide diarrhea coming from the mouths of cretins on this site (see activity bar)…
Batman Begins: Reborn by vengeance. Bruce learns how to be the bigger man motivated by the deaths/words of his father. Fueled by the love of his childhood sweetheart.
The Dark Knight: Sacrifice. The Joker’s point about human nature was so terrifying, the death toll so staggering, that every one sacrificed something in order to bury a lie.
The Dark Knight Rises: Rebirth by Hope. When Desmond fails to turn the key and all the suppressed evil and lies comes bubbling forth and drowns Gotham, Bruce finds redemption to his damaged soul that was eating him alive like a cancer.
Christian Bale gets the opportunity to FINALLY flesh Bruce Wayne out like he’s NEVER been fleshed out in the history of the comic book. In the source material, Bruce Wayne is most often an after thought until Frank Miller took over (sorry that’s the facts) and gave him dimension.
Because this isn’t Batman’s story…its Bruce’s story.
Tom Hardy was MENACING…I disagree with Leon. I did NOT want an elaborate hand to hand combat scene. That shit always looks like a dance. Might as well put a rose between Bats’ teeth for the Bat Tango. NO. The second match is epic and SOLD by the PIERCING STARES of two forces colliding…When Bats finally gets to Bane it’s a RELEASE of adrenalin, “YES!!!!” followed by the line Bruce had waited to say, “You have my permission to die now…” And it wasn’t a fight of physicality but a brutal boxing match of spirit.
Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman was similar to Jim Balent’s 90s look but the feel of this character was soooo perfectly fit. This is the part of the movie where I was a little worried. Her dry dark sense of humor molded to a girl who never stopped running. I always imagined her as someone who needed to keep doing jobs because the juice was on.
The most underrated scene (for me): was the one between Joseph Gordon Levitt as “Robin John Blake” and Gary Oldman (Commissioner Gordon) about staying “clean” in the business of maintaining order. I think this scene was the most emotional for me because there are so many times I want to drop my ID and unload my rage on treating prisoners and excons: rapists, killers, pedophiles who have tested me 7.5 hrs every night at work.
What’s a “good cop.” and what is the greater good for citizens? Who has the right to make those decisions? How do you deal with apathy, corruption, etc…Again, VERY emotional for me.
The last 30 minutes was dynamic but…its nothing without Nolan’s themes colliding to give it all meaning. What is the true journey of a hero? It’s defined here. Batman dies…but Bruce Wayne lives. Yes, there is a way out of the well that Bruce fell down. RISE!
I will not live in fear of terrorists and a homicidal gunman in Colorado…been through too much after 9/11. No, I want to beat the living shit out of them after seeing the Dark Knight Rises.
Rating: 10 out of 10 hand jobs.
