As someone that has spent the entire past semester doing practically nothing but read Batman comics, a lot of my friends have asked me the question "What if the The Dark Knight Rises actually sucks." To which I would respond, "Honestly, I love Batman too much to be disappointed." While The Dark Knight Rises is not the perfectly crafted masterpiece that its predecessor was, it is still one heck of a movie that has done nothing but proven why Chris Nolan is one of the greatest directors out there. The Dark Knight Rises takes place 8 years after the events of The Dark Knight, Gotham has been on a steady incline of improvement since the latter years of crime, almost to a point where Batman (Christian Bale) is no longer needed. That is, set aside from one terrorist group leader who goes by the name of Bane (Tom Hardy) decides to show his mask. To any fan of the Nolan's Dark Knight saga, I can honestly say this is the perfect ending to the trilogy. The climax and conclusion of this film makes the end of Harry Potter look like something out of a Michael Bay or M.Night Shymalan movie. Without a doubt The Dark Knight Rises is the most Epic of the trilogy. As far as the plot goes, I honestly feel bad saying it, but it lacked in the creativity and mind-blowing-ness that made The Dark Knight the perfect movie it is, however it is still much better than just about every movie released in the past year. It has many twists and turns, that unless you are a hardcore gothamite such as myself there's no way you will see it coming. The next big question you are probably asking, is how do Bane (Tom Hardy) and Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) compare to The Joker (Heath Ledger) and Two-face (Aaron Eckhardt). While, for obvious reasons, I prefered the acting of Heath and Aaron, Chris Nolan has made a great choice in picking villains that are essentially the opposite of them. I truly enjoyed Tom Hardy and thought his acting and portrayal of Bane to be nearly Identical to how I have interpreted Bane in the comic series Knightfall. At some parts in the movie I found saying "what?" when Bane would speak, but a few words later I caught up to what was going on so this issue is but minor. Next is one that only comic fans would understand, I would have liked to see them show bane's "power" with the drug, venom, as well as some explaining for those who do not know Bane, how his mask ties into it. It would have made an already epic movie even more so to see during one of the fights between Bane and Batman, to see Bane activate the venom to gain the upper hand on Batman. Anne Hathaway shines as Catwoman, I thought she did a spot on A+ portrayal of bringing Selina Kyle to the big screen. Too many times in the past has there not been enough of a balance between the sexiness and the mysteriousness that Selina Kyle/Catwoman has, both on screen and in comics. Chris Nolan has found the perfect balance of the two by focusing mainly on the struggle Selina has in her personal life and giving the sexiness the backseat, even with this choice she is still much better looking and less skanky than Scarlett Johansson's portrayal of Black Widow in The Avengers. Honestly my only complaint with Anne's portray of Selina Kyle/Catwoman was that she went off screen. Christian Bale has made the right decision and turned the down the grumbly yell that he had in The Dark Knight, in my personal preference I think Christian's balance of the Scumbag Steve act that Bruce puts on to hide Batman leaves him as my personal favorite actor as Bruce Wayne/Batman. Joseph Gordon-Levitt shines as John Blake as well as Milia Cotillard as Miranda Tate, although I would rather not go into too much details to avoid spoilers. The soundtrack, although it is not Hans Zimmer's best work, a master piece on its own. In conclusion if you have not seen this movie yet than you need to shut your computer down, go on fandango and purchase tickets this instant, If you have already seen it, than go watch it again, Chris Nolan has done nothing but make another phenomenal movie that has blown is competition of The Avengers away by a long shot. So sit down, buckle up, and prepare to be amazed.
