The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Well....No. It's not as good as The Dark Knight. But let me tell you, it is pretty d*mn close.

This film is directed by Christopher Nolan and stars Christian Bale as Batman/Bruce Wayne, Anne Hathaway as Catwoman/Selina Kyle, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Blake the "hot-head' cop who is an orphan, Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth, Gary Oldman as James Gordon, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate, and Tom Hardy as Bane. Now let me tell you that I will try my hardest to not tell you anything crucial to the plot in this review. If you are a purist and don't want to know anything about the film, why are you here??? Go watch it, it's fantastic. Now for those of you who don't care here is the review.

The basis of the plot is that, peace has stopped in Gotham. 8 years after the ending of The Dark Knight, crime has stopped. No crime means no Batman. No Batman means no playboy Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne stays in Wayne Manor in seclusion and also uses a cane. Surely Batman has seen better days. Then out of nowhere comes chaos and anarchy. Bane is in charge of this uprising. Joker was right. These people will eat each other. Safe to say that the story is fantastic. And the script is full of jokes that will always keep the audience entertained. Something that really stood out to me was the editing. Nolan writes scenes where ten things are happening at once and you still understand what was happening. The editor (Lee Smith) must have gone to great lengths to make the movie at it's final stage as good as it could be.

The directing is great though occasionally some scenes have a main character in focus while a battle(or something) is blurred. That bothered me because I wanted to see what was happening "back there." Other than that though, Nolan's directing is pitch perfect. Now to talk about the main characters. They of course are great. No other actors could do a better job. Tom Hardy really stood out to me though. It is not the dialogue that stood out to me but his stance. The way he intimidatingly just stands with a mask on his face. He stands as if nothing will stop him. While not the Joker he is still damn good. Another thing that bothered me though is Batmans voice. While it didn't stand out to me the last films, it did in this one. But that's just me nitpicking.

I have to say that this story was a memorable one. This one always keeps you guessing. More than the last Batman films. In the last Batman films, you knew Batman would survive. His friends might have died but not Batman himself. Since this film is three hours, and since you lose track of time while you are watching it you have no clue what will happen. Will he survive? You just don't know. I applaud Christopher Nolan with this trilogy. He preformed CPR on a franchise that desperately needed one. This was a fantastic movie. The acting was great, directing was phenomenal minus a very few annoyances, the writing was sharp, and the editing was perfect. And I didn't even talk about the action scenes. I want to give this a ten but since this a review, I just can't. In my mind this is just a little but worse than The Dark Knight but still a helluva great film.

9.8/10