BUY FROM AMAZON: CLICK HERE!
MSRP $35.99
RATED PG-13
STUDIO Warner Bros. Pictures
RUNNING TIME 165 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES
• The Batmobile (Documentary)
• Ending The Knight – Featurettes
• Art Gallery
• Trailers
The Pitch
Batman attempts to climb out of a large plot hole.
The Humans
Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Marion Cotillard, Christopher Nolan
“Yes, I know it hasn’t changed since the last film. No, I don’t care.”
The Nutshell
Eight years after the death of Harvey Dent, Batman is in exile. Gotham is a much safer place due to the Dent Act, but this peace is predicated on a lie: that Harvey Dent died a hero. Jim Gordon knows the truth, however, and it weighs heavily upon him. But Gordon is unaware that Gotham will soon need Batman more than ever when a ruthless mercenary known only as Bane comes to town.
The Lowdown
All right, I’m coming out swinging. TDKR is one of the biggest cinematic disappointments of 2012. Sure, it’s a thrilling action film that definitely ties up the trilogy, but it isn’t the film Bat-fans deserved. I think Chris and Jonathan Nolan knew they wouldn’t be able to top The Dark Knight. Instead, The Nolans delivered a clumsy threequel that completely ignores the best thing about the previous entry (the Joker, obviously). The word “Joker” isn’t even uttered in TDKR, and for good reason. No Heath Ledger, no Joker.
Officers Johnny Oldtimer and Earnest McJawline, reporting for duty.
The film opens surprisingly strong, with an aerial sequence that ranks as one of the best action scenes in the whole trilogy. The rest of the first act is dedicated to getting Bruce back into the batsuit, as Bane sets up shop in the strangely cavernous Gotham sewers.
Speaking of Bane, let’s establish that he is, undoubtedly, the film’s biggest issue. He had tremendous potential as a villain in this film, but it’s ultimately pissed away. Tom Hardy is physically terrifying as the masked mercenary, but the voice is mostly laughable. For a character who has no visible mouth or nose, the vocal performance has to tell us a huge amount about the character. But he sounds fuckin’ silly. I know Tom Hardy is capable of providing a great performance, but I think the character was poorly conceived from the start.
“Hrn furza bff mnn, Mr. Wayne.”
The film spends the vast majority of it’s running time establishing Bane as a terrorist revolutionary, capable of organizing mass mayhem. But the film’s ultimate reveal completely neuters Bane. All the fear that the film attempted to build is drained away in an instant. It’s a terrible waste of potential.
In addition to a weak villain, TDKR has plot holes so big you could drive the Batmobile through ’em. The script makes some huge leaps in logic. Are we to believe that a magic knee brace can instantly fix Wayne’s completely blown-out knee? Will we buy that he can miraculously recover from a busted spine in a world where miracles don’t exist? How does Bruce get back to Gotham? After making such a valiant effort to ground the series in reality, Nolan now expects the audience to believe some incredibly dubious plot points.
I’d let her borrow my ride. Just sayin’.
The climax of the film relies on the most hackneyed of clichés: a comically large bomb. Need an ending to your comic book movie? Threaten to destroy a city with a huge-ass bomb. It’s sure to bring an end to your film whether it goes off or not. Can we lay off the bombs for a while, cinema?
Okay, enough of the bad. Let’s talk about what the TDKR does right. Casting Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle was a truly inspired choice. She struts around and chews the scenery just enough to have fun. Joseph Gordon-Levitt also does a great job here, playing the most earnest cop in Gotham. Michael Caine also deserves a nod for his heartbreaking line deliveries.
“WHURRRRS THE TUH-RIGGURRR?!!?!”
Wally Pfister’s cinematography is still great, showing off the gorgeous sets in all their glory. The Batcave, in particular, looks cool as hell. Batman’s new flying vehicle, The Bat, is so badass we don’t even need a Batmobile. Much like the stunning opening sequence, the rest of the vehicular action is brilliantly shot and choreographed.
Some of the issues that other viewers have brought up don’t irk me as much. You see, Nolan doesn’t have to play by the rules. He’s been cleverly breaking them all along, but die-hard fans didn’t seem to notice until TDKR came out. Bruce Wayne’s seemingly endless supply of cash can run dry. Batman can be crippled. He can retire. And he is definitely mortal. Alfred doesn’t always have to stand by, watching Bruce destroy his own life.
There goes Earnest McJawline, showin’ off that jaw again.
From a production standpoint, it’s hard to argue that TDKR isn’t a well-made film. The lighting, cinematography, editing, music, and direction are all superb. It’s not very well written, but that was the weakest aspect of the previous two films in the trilogy. I can appreciate Nolan wanting to have a sense of finality with this film, and it certainly delivers a final punch. Too bad that punch that is watered down by several trite scenes in the coda. As long as you can accept the many shortcomings of The Dark Knight Rises, I think you can have a fairly good time with the spectacle of it all. It is, however, the weakest member of Nolan’s trilogy.
The Package
It might be the weakest film in the trilogy, but I’m happy to report it has the best Blu-ray package of all three. The past two releases have been a bit lacking in terms of extras, but this set is fuckin’ loaded. There’s a large library of revealing featurettes that comprehensively detail every stage of the film’s production. There’s also a great, hour-long documentary about the Batmobile, which covers most of its incarnations. It’s a surprisingly emotional piece, especially when the Tumbler shows up at a children’s hospital.
“Seriously? That’s all it took? Wow.”
In terms of audio and video quality, this Blu-Ray delivers pretty well. The aggressive 5.1 DTS-HD mix tends to favor Hans Zimmer’s bombastic score a little too much, but otherwise it’s a solid mix. A 7.1 mix would’ve been nice, though. Video quality is sharp with gritty black shadows, frosty blues, and fiery oranges. I would’ve loved to hear a commentary from someone, but no such luck. The amount of featurettes helps make up for that, though.
Rating: 
Out of a Possible 5 Stars
16 comments
My biggest Disappointment with this one was BANE. He instilled no fear. He came and went throughout the film in such uneven strokes he never became anything more than a placeholder for where the villain should have gone. Also, it was over long in my opinion. I’ve heard/read all over the place of a TON of bane’s material getting cut from the film. That’s something I’d be interested in seeing someday but with the way Nolan operates I doubt that’ll ever happen.
The use of IMAX cameras was jarring as fuck in this movie. Worse than for Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen. I mean, luckily with flatscreen TVs you can zoom to get rid of the issue, but when I watched the blu ray for the first time I was damn mad.
My biggest overall gripe about the movie is that it’s a Batman movie with NO BATMAN! Well, very little, and it makes this thing feel like a chore to get through at times. I mean, what a fucking bummer to find out that Batman has done NOTHING since the events of Dark Knight. It really gets this thing off on the wrong foot. It takes an hour to get Batman back, he’s back in action for like 10 minutes, and then he’s taken out AGAIN. It’s not that impressive to me that Bane took out a guy that ten minutes ago had been getting around with a Caine. Then he’s gone for another hour, and we get him back in Gotham just in time to head into the endgame. He went from being hated to being the hero again, but it doesn’t feel earned. Unlike the previous films in the series, I didn’t find the Bruce/non-Batman stuff all that interesting, and once Bats was back onscreen, they tried like hell to blow right through it. If any series deserved a two-part finale, I think it would have been this one, because it feels like there’s about half a movie missing. The first hour of the first part of a two-parter could have had the exact first hour of this film, but they could have spent some time re-establishing Bats and then ended on a cliffhanger when Bane destroys the rejuvenated Bruce Wayne. The first part of the second half could have had all the prison stuff and we may have gotten more of a sense of several months passing during the separation of the two parts. The next hour after that could have been Batman back in Gotham, again taking time to re-establish the character and getting people to rally behind him before the re-match. Oh,and how about making Bane’s demise more important? The first time I watched this, I had forgotten he’d been killed, because it was practically played off as a joke. Ugh, yeah, I don’t think this was disappointing just as a follow-up to Dark Knight, but just a disappointment as a movie, period.
I totally agree. Nolan doesn’t like to do alternate cuts, and tends to think of his theatrical cuts as kind of sacred. It’s a shame. Thanks for commenting, Eric!
I get what you’re sayin’, man. When I first bought The Dark Knight on Blu, I was confused when the aspect ratio kept changing. Once I found out it was because of the IMAX scenes, I was OK with it. Luckily, the DVD/Digital copies included with these sets keep the aspect ratio consistent throughout.
I totally agree with just about every gripe you have, man. There’s hardly any good Batman action in the film. The only scene where he stalks enemies from the shadows is just a quick montage. The finale taking place in the daytime was a dumb idea.
Thanks for taking the time to type all that out, dude.
You’re welcome. It’s a conversation I’ve had a few times though and I type really fast, so please don’t think I’ve been sitting here typing away all day while growing a beard of epic Alan Moore-like proportions!
Alan Moore’s beard really has gotten out of control.
I believe that Alan Moore’s really been dead for quite some time and that his beard, which gained sentience years ago, has been dragging him around “Weekend at Bernie’s”-style.
Great review, but it’s funny, cuz aside from the production value, the only thing I liked about the movie was Bane. The conversation he has with his henchmen (“I was asking you,” “Then show me his body.”) and when he’s rubbing the face of the mob-financier (“Do you feel in charge?”) just make my nipples erect thinking about it.
But yeah, I’ve yet to buy this one as I agree, it’s the weakest, and as much as I loved Bane, I don’t think the $20+ is worth revisiting him.
This is kind of a backwards movie for me. It should have started with a full first half of Batman trying to stop Bane from taking over Gotham resulting in Bane breaking him. The Bat is missing for Nolan’s eight year period, healing his broken back, building a better reinforced suit maybe, determined to take down Bane in the end and therefore becoming the hero one last time. Pass the mantle then. Create subplots along the way. But do not try to make us believe that Batman ceases to exist simply because he made the choice that defines the character he chooses to embody. Letting Rachel die was the hardest choice to make but should have toughened his resolve to rid Gotham of crime, the crime that the League of Shadows is through the revengeful Bane. Make this about broken heroes, but with a more straightforward storyline that makes these broken heroes, Gordon, Selina Kyle, Bruce Wayne, Alfred, everybody in the damn city find redemption trough the actions of one man, The Bat.
Bane does have some good dialogue, and is given a few decent moments, but it wasn’t enough for me. The ultimate reveal of Bane’s true nature negated almost all of his badassery.
OK I understand what you are saying about the plot holes and the series being rooted in reality but you still have to remember that this is still based off a comic book. Bruce Wayne’s leg brace is based off an arm brace that he had in the Dark Knight Returns series Nolan just switched it from leg to arm. Also Bane was based off the Mutant Gang leader from Dark Knight returns as well. The mutant gang leader beat the shit out Batman and broke his arm and cracked a few of his ribs. The only thing about Bane that reminded me of the actual bane who damn near killed Batman in the Knightfall series is when he knee’d him in the back. Now in the Knightfall series Bruce Wayne’s back was cured by his doctor and love interest Dr Kinsloving who unbeknowst to Wayne had magic healing powers. So I understand Nolan’s delimma in getting Wayne’s back healed which was more acceptable than telekinetic powers which would have seriously screwed over the series finale. So with that being said now what do you think about the plot holes because this movie was a mash-up of the Knightfall series and the Dark Knight Returns series. With Robin taking over the mantle and all which is only suggested at the end.
@ PAJOHNDOE78 you need to read the Knightfall series of the comic and then I think you will understand the movies direction a little better. After Wayne was paralized by Bane he gave up the Mantle to another guy names Azrael while he recovered and Azrael almost went mad at the mantle and Bruce had to take it back after he was healed. I think if you guys read those series you will get a better understanding of what Nolan was doing.
I recently re-read Knightfall, which I dug when I was 15, but it REALLY hasn’t held up well aside from the iconic breaking of the Bat, because the Azrael stuff ultimately went nowhere when fans rejected the character as a replacement for Bruce, who eventually healed up, etc. I think you’re mistaken with the “Dark Knight Returns” comparison as well, because aside from the apparent demise of Batman at the end, it really has much more in common with “No Man’s Land”, which is where after one crazy disaster too many, the government said “Fuck that noise” and essentially turned it’s back on Gotham, leading to a similar situation to what we saw in the film where Gotham was cut off and ruled by criminals. What I was saying above was that they needed to take some time to re-establish Batman as someone we and the citizens of Gotham give a shit about before having Bane break him and put him out of commission again, which MAY have gone the way of “Dark Knight Returns” if done right, where we saw Bruce work off the rust a bit more, but instead he’s gone again as quickly as he showed up. Upon his return later in the film, we would have needed that again. Maybe Nolan could have had him come back earlier than the very day that the bomb was going off (how much time DID he waste doing the bat symbol on the bridge thing?), rally the police, re-gain the trust of the people, take down some mini-bosses on the way to Bane, and THEN go to endgame. Instead, again, he’s back five minutes before we get the big fight, and he’s not around long enough for the world to even KNOW he’s back before he’s gone for good.
And again, NO ONE needs to read “Knightfall”, or at least they don’t need to read past the breaking part. The Azrael stuff is straight early-90s cheese, and I was surprised in how uninvolved he actually was, he was just hanging around with Robin and Alfred, until Bruce said “You’re my successor even though everyone here is way more qualified, brah”.
im not saying the whole story of the dark knight returns but Bane to me was more based off of the Mutant Gang leader than the actual Bane from Knightfall also knoghtfall didnt have bruce wayne much after he was broken. Never read no mans land but i will check it out.
Comments are shown as archived from the original site; new comments are closed.