Crim at the movies: The Dark Knight Rises

(Here you go guys, a day earlier before it's release out of the kindness of my heart! )

It has been Eight years after Batman disappeared, blamed for murder for Harvey Dent, Bruce Wayne (Played by Christian Bale) is a wounded recluse who has spent his time retaining a somewhat normal life and Gotham City has managed to survive without him. That is until the masked terrorist Bane (Tom Hardy) decides it’s time to take the whole place down...



Being a movie in the Dark Knight series, this has had alot of anticipation. In 2005, Batman Begins rebooted the Batman series of movies showcasing the sheer amount of reputation that The Caped Crusader has earnt over his long career. We have seen Bruce Wayne transform from a charismatic billionaire to the badass saviour of Gotham city. In this film, we begin to grasp what the connection between these two “figures” and exactly who they are. We have Batman,Bane and Gordon....oh and Catwomen.

The third film has basically shifted into over drive where The Dark Knight (2008) left off. The movie basically starts with Commissioner Gordon saying “I knew Harvey Dent,” who was an unfortunate soul to go through his transformation from good to evil and was the district attorney who was cleaning up Gotham’s criminal scene like a poker match where everything was in his favour. Gordon is a good cop who stayed good as his appearance has been unchanged over the last couple years. There are several newcomers like Blake (another good policeman untouched by corruption) and Miranda Tate, a wealthy women who seems to be well....I don’t think I can say it here. Then of course we have our butler Alfred who has always stayed at Bruce’s side and we have the all mighty god that is Morgan Freeman playing Lucius Fox, who is basically a batman version of Q.

The Gadgets in this movie are very impressive and still remains its uniqueness in the series and The Batpod is still in the series. But the most iconic of these Gadgets is the angry car...tank...thing known as the Tumbler, possibly one of the most intimidating machines in cinema. This vehicle is best seen from far way from when bad guys are wetting themselves when they see this black beauty coming towards them. This time, we have a brand new addition to the vehicle family, a flying craft which Batman can use to zip around Gotham at amazing speeds and is super tough with its weaponry and armour. Lucius didn’t give it a good name however, simply calling it “The Bat.” Come on Mr Freeman, wake up, smell the ashes and also give this vehicle a better name.



Batman will need all the gizmos and strength he can get to defeat his newest and most dangerous foe, Bane. Bane is extremely strong and intelligent who was “born and raised in hell on earth”, not to mention that he has a really cool voice and that he reminds me of a modern day Che Guevara. When I watched this, I could not really tell what sort of accent he had. But I assumed that it was Middle Eastern or Russian. Right near the start, he launched himself from an airplane while in-flight, then later he was blowing Gotham’s sewers which leads towards an amazing scene where a Gridiron stadium collapses during a Gridiron game. Shame that these scenes were shown in the trailers, so we already knew that these scenes were going to happen. Curse you Nolan for spoiling some bits for the big event because these scenes would have been one hellva twist.

Who exactly does the Rising in this movie? Is it the Slacker Wayne or the mask wearing Bane (that rhymed: p). this is debateable, they both do some sort of rising, especially Wayne when he gets his a-game on. This Rising is helped with the Soundtrack which is impressive, but not the best i have heard. I tend to notice Game soundtracks much easier then Movie soundtracks so that might be because of that. But the music is still good.

Acting in this movie is superb; Christopher Nolan has done another fantastic job in making another film of brilliance. This is a challenging final film and sets to reconcile issues that were raised in the first two and brings an end to the story of Bruce Wayne in an epic conclusion while delivering dramatic speeches, action sets and twists and surprises that weave into the ending. I believe that Tom Hardy has done the best here as his role of Bane, not only did he look tough, sound extremely charismatic and intelligent but it turned out that Hardy was putting a voice on for the entire movie. When Bane said “You have my permission to die”, I got Goosebumps at the fact of it being a meme and possibly one of the coolest villain conclusions ever which was delivered in absolute perfection.



The only thing that i can say about this movie that is bad is its length. It is almost three hours long or 165 minutes long if you want to get technical. I found myself getting drifted away at parts only to be hooked shortly after. With this Batman movie being possibly one of the best ever made, I personally think that it comes close to Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker in The Dark Knight. Nolan has not disappointed here, I can say that now.

This is honestly one of the best movies that i have seen for a while now, while some might cringe at the thought of Batman being on the silver screen this works here. If you have seen the other two, you must watch this to see the epic climax of the series. Will the Dark Knight rise to glory in the superhero genre? You have a yes from me.



This movie has received Four and a Half out of Five Lionhearts