Y! REVIEWS: ‘The Dark Knight Rises’

Director: Christopher Nolan

Cast: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon Levitt and Marion Cotillard

What is it about: Eight years after the death of Harvey Dent (or Two Face, as you would recall from ‘The Dark Knight’), Bruce Wayne (Bale) thinks Gotham City is now safe enough for him to hang up his Batman cowl and cape, until a ruthless criminal who goes by the name of Bane (Hardy) wreaks havoc as he vows to destroy the entire city and the legend that is the Dark Knight.

The good: With the pressure on Christopher Nolan’s shoulder, he made ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ what everyone expects it to be: a breath-taking, 'OMG, this is so awesome!' film about betrayal and redemption, fall and rise, good versus evil! In ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, Nolan points out Bruce Wayne’s vulnerability without his Batman suit. The film amplifies the gritty realism that Nolan’s ‘Dark Knight’ movies are famous for; that without his gadgets and cowl, Bruce is just a man that can be broken if you punch hard enough.  Tom Hardy was excellent as super villain Bane. Like Heath Ledger before him, Hardy’s portrayal as the Bat Breaker is convincingly very menacing. He makes you quiver with fear every time he speaks, and he makes you feel the gravity of destruction he brings to Gotham. Hardy makes Bane a formidable foe for Batman, and that is what this finale needs.

The bad: As you would expect from a Christopher Nolan masterpiece, the build up of the movie is excruciatingly slow, with Batman sightings few and far between. It is perfectly fine if you’re a fan of Nolan’s Batman films, but if this is your first Bat flick, you’ll lose interest and most probably threaten to quit 90 minutes into the movie.  Also, we find Anne Hathaway a little unconvincing as Catwoman. Sure, she undoubtedly looks extremely hot in that catsuit, but she lacks the cattiness everyone would expect from a Catwoman.

Final words: The one movie that you’ve been waiting for is here, folks! Christopher Nolan caps off an amazing superhero film trilogy with arguably one of the best – if not the best – superhero movies ever made. The cast, the acting, the action sequences, the unexpected plot twists and the soundtrack gels perfectly together. And in typical Nolan style, he’ll make you go “What the hell just happened in there?” by the time you leave the cinema. ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ is Nolan’s Rachmaninoff's Third, and the perfect ending to the perfect superhero trilogy.

'The Dark Knight Rises' official trailer