The Dark Knight Rises. Laboriously.

I've been sitting on this for quite a while now, as you are most likely aware I am a massive fan of the Batman franchise. I really enjoyed Christopher Nolans first instalment of his trilogy 'Batman Begins'(2005) and agreed to be civil towards 'The Dark Knight'(2008) despite it's glaring incongruity with really important characters. Putting all that behind us, I went into my local cinema to see The Dark Knight Rises (2012) with quite high expectations, though I had a fairly good idea about what would happen after reading some of the comics and knowing the general plotline behing Bane.

I went to see this with boyfriend and my parents who had no idea what was going to happen. Tell a lie, my Dad nailed the Talia al Ghul bit, though who didn't? Please, the child even looked like her.

I'll give a general plot outline first, just incase your forgot it or haven't even seen it.

It's 8 years after the events of The Dark Knight, Bruce Wayne has become a recluse (again) and spends a lot of time being rubbish. Enter Selina Kyle/Catwoman. She steals Wayne's mothers pearls from under his nose, tempting him to come back into the world. We also find at this point that Wayne has basically no knees. Okay, that was a lie but it's basically what's happening, his cartilage has worn away and he has to use automotive braces to do anything strenuous. Enter Bane and his long winded story. Bane terrorises Gotham, beats up Batman and sends him away, then terrorises Gorham some more and blows up a load of shit and Batman teams up with Catwoman (ridiculously sexy outfit, by the way) to save the day. Aaaand that's it really, with out giving too much away.

Where to start? First of all, it's a classic Christopher Nolan mind fuck kinda plot containing some familiar faces from Inception, see Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and the great Michael Caine. As always it's very beautifully filmed, the dialogue is good with both humorous and serious moments that are not to overbearing, apart from the parts where Michael Caine cries, that's never cool. The plot is kinda alright, the last half which is 'timed' goes a little weird because 20 odd hours go in 15 minutes and then 15 minutes took nearly 40 minutes which I guess is acceptable because of filming constraints but still. The whole Bane vs Batman and Bruce Wayne part was really good but the Wayne 'rehab' section was really dragged out to with in and inch of it's life. Yeah, we get it, he wants to save Gotham but 'boohoo my back is broken, I'm not good enough for Gotham, I'm still hung up on a dead woman and refuse to move on and I'm letting the city suffer for it, whine whine whine' I really cannot abide this mopey uselessness. I was just waiting for Gordon-Levitts character to slap him and tell him to get a grip.

Which moves me to the characters. John Blake (Gordon-Levitt) was brilliantly written, though the little 'my name is actually robin' bit really annoyed me. Bane (Tom Hardy) was really well thought out, to say you can't see the majority of his face he portrays emotion and thoughtfulness really well. Alfred (Caine) is of course amazing, especially when he blind sides you by leaving Wayne. Bruce Wayne is both mopey and arrogant at once, as usual, not much else to say really. Miranda/Talia is perfect in her deception and execution of her plot line. I was very happy to see Gary Oldman reprise his role as Comissioner Gordon, a character I hold very dear in the Batman world, his character treads the line between loved and hated and he does it so well that you are generally confused as to whether to root for him or not.

This leaves the ending, I'm trying not reveal too much in this blog about the general plot or the twists so I'm not going to reveal what happens at the end. I'll just say that I shed at least 3 tears (that's a lot for me) and really enjoyed and appreciated the ending. It ended kinda perfectly looking back, I felt quite different when I first left the cinema, I felt almost robbed because I had seen all the twists coming and not felt like I had enjoyed it. Looking back however I think that Nolan nailed it. Yeah I have a few quibbles about some minor stuff but overall it was a really great film, I much preferred it to The Dark Knight and thought it topped Batman Begins easily. Definitely a must see for Batman fans and general film fanatics, it can stand alone quite easily too.