Kevin Reviews The Dark Knight Rises

Chris covered a lot of what I had to say in his review, so I will do my best to not be redundant.  This was a highly anticipated film and I would say it lived up to its hype.  I was working as an usher on Friday before I saw it, and I was able to watch about 10 minutes of snippets of the film.  It looked great, and I was so excited to see it.  After seeing The Dark Knight Rises on Saturday, I was happy with the finished product.  It had many great aesthetic elements as well as great on-screen talent that Christopher Nolan did a great job of utilizing to make a great end to arguably the best superhero trilogies of all time.


I will dive right in and spout off what I liked about this film.  The soundtrack was awesome.  I remember one scene where Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character is racing to the hospital and he is running through the halls with a shotgun.  There was a great, wall-shaking percussion line that made the theater tremble, and made the whole scene much more intense than any other musical piece could've done.  Many scenes that showed Batman overcoming some obstacle or returning to Gotham was highlighted with the Dark Knight Theme, an unforgettable piece of music. 


I enjoyed the acting in this film, namely from Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Tom Hardy, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  Christian Bale plays a good Bruce Wayne and an even better Batman.  Michael Caine's performance was good, especially toward the end of the film.  I was actually surprised with Tom Hardy's performance as Baine.  There were big shoes to fill after seeing the Joker in The Dark Knight, and surprisingly, Baine was enjoyable.  Not nearly as much as the Joker, but it exceeded my expectations.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt is almost always great, and I knew that coming in.  His role in Inception and 50/50 were spectacular and I expected nothing less in this film.  On a side note, I enjoyed getting to see some of my favorite TV actors on the big screen (Desmond Harrington from Dexter, and Daniel Sunjata from Rescue Me).  I always appreciate a director who brings out the talent of little-known actors to the big screen.


I had one main complaint with this film: Anne Hathaway.  Her acting was okay, but I think someone better could've been cast.  Perhaps I am scarred by knowing she was in The Princess Diaries, and that made it hard to take her seriously in this.  I'm just not crazy about Anne Hathaway.  I also thought this character added more screen time, unnecessarily at that.  Yeah, she was tied in later to make it seem like her role was crucial to the plot of the film, but a few changes here and there in the script could have easily taken her out.


In conclusion, The Dark Knight Rises is a great film, but also predictable at times.  A good end to a great trilogy, Batman will forever stand as one of my favorite superheroes and superhero films.  I highly recommend this film as well as the other two Batman movies by Christopher Nolan.  He always does a great job creating a dark atmosphere and a believable Gotham City.  I am really looking forward to watching his future films.


MY RATING:

4.5 out of 5


Kevin A. Millward