Yet another Batman movie Review: Dark Knight...RISE!

I adore Batman as much as I adore Sherlock. That is to say, passionately. I inherited this fondness for the darkest and most dysfunctional of all superheroes in the womb. My dad would play the soundtrack for one of Tim Burton's Batman movies, which apparently made me dance and get way stoked for how much more awesome Batman would be once I was born.

So I've always been a Batman girl. From the womb-music, to the dancing to "Na na na na na na na na BATMAN!" in the tub at a year old, to my blatant, passionate love for Nolan's Batman, Batman has been my superhero. Or, if you're fussy, hero with super gadgets.

People can get so technical about the classifications for "superhero."

So I've been stoked for the Dark Knight Rises since I first got wind of it. Catwoman? Bane, the Bat Breaker? All I knew was this movie was going to be one hell of a movie.

Can you say what I've been waiting for since 2010?  I can! 

Tonight (7/19), courtesy of a friend, I was able to attend a super-early showing free. I enjoyed the movie, even if it did feel a bit long at parts, but for me the trilogy peaked with Heath Ledger's haunting performance as the Joker. Bane was a plenty creepy villain, but he didn't have the dimensionality and the unpredictability that Heath's Joker did. Plus, he was sort of hard to understand...that face mask gave Tom Hardy's ultra-sexy voice the tinny resolution of a Transformer and made his pronunciation worse than that of Bale's famously growly Batman.

 Somehow, most of the time, I can understand Batman. But Bane? Understanding him proved to be much harder.

I remember walking out of The Dark Knight for the first time, mind blown, and thinking, "That will be a hard act to follow. I don't care if Nolan is directing. How on earth is he ever going to top that?"

As much as I loved Rises, I really don't think he did surpass The Dark Knight. I definitely think he made every effort, and it really was a close call. It just didn't enrapture and haunt me the way the Dark Knight did. Which, really and in all honesty, probably has something to do with this guy:

I mean, I was so inspired by his performance that I wrote a Batman fanfic novel (it's never going to see the light of day, but still).

Before I get beaten up or threatened, I really did like Rises. A lot. It kept me on the edge of my seat, and surprised me with a few really killer plot twists (I'm usually really good at seeing things coming, but this time I got blindsided once or twice, which was surprising but enjoyable). Anne Hathaway was fun as Catwoman, and she definitely stretched herself as an actor. I enjoyed watching her; and she is one of the number one people in this very dark and heavy movie who has comedic lines. Basically, she brings much needed-light to a movie that is relatively laugh-less.

What's that, naysayers? Anne Hathaway rocked it? DARN RIGHT SHE DID.

 As my number one celebrity look-alike (according to most) I was rooting for her to own the role, and I think she did. I can't really compare it fairly to Michelle Pfeiffer's alleged "Holy Grail" Catwoman performance as I've not seen all of that particular movie (we only owned it on laser disc, and then our laser disc player died, so I never got to finish it and then school took over); but I thought Anne did really really well. Nolan usually makes pretty smart decisions where casting is concerned (Heath Ledger as the Joker being the paramount example) so I trust him.

And although Bane as a character wasn't super ultra life changing or breath-stopping, Tom Hardy is a phenomenal actor. He was the forger in Inception, and he is the only Heathcliff I will ever remotely admire. I really despise Heathcliff as a character, and although I like Wuthering Heights because it's a classic, I am sincerely annoyed by 95% of all the characters. The protagonists (if they can be called that) are entirely selfish people bent on going out in a big fire-y blast and destroying everyone they can in order to get what they want: each other. Tom Hardy actually made that selfish, passionate intensity sexy rather than annoying.

I also liked the social commentary about the distribution of wealth. I enjoyed seeing fine performances by some of my favorite actors; Joseph Gordon-Leavitt, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, and Michael Cain, featuring, of course, Liam Neeson as Ras.

I don't want to include any spoilers, so I'm not going to say too much about plot, except that it was amazing! And, boy, was it hard for me to watch Christian Bale as Bruce in the black depression that the beginning of the movie finds him in. It just sort of broke my heart. I guess that's kind of the point; but he just looked so completely sad, sorta broken and run down physically, and by no means fit to step back into that cape.

And Alfred? Man. Did I ever feel bad for the guy. I just love Alfred. I wish he had been more present in this movie.

In fact, I love Bruce's Holy Trinity of father figures in all of the movies. He may not have a living biological dad, but he has Morgan Freeman (Lucius), Gary Oldman (Jim Gordon) and Michael Cain (Alfred). Not too shabby for a guy who got orphaned at the age of 8 or so.

I think there was a certain level of class shown by Nolan in respecting Heath's memory. The Joker isn't mentioned at all in Rises, and I thought it was fitting. I honestly wish that Heath hadn't died so that maybe the Joker could have made an appearance/co-starred in Rises. As much as I love my man Tom Hardy (any actor that can make me like/feel attraction to Heathcliff is a darn good actor), Bane just didn't capture my very imagination the way the Joker did, with his foggy history and mercurial, crazy, evil insanity.

Rises may not have left me completely entranced and hypnotized like The Dark Knight did, but it was a very fitting and  emotional ending to the Trilogy, and it was still a brilliant movie. It's NOLAN for Heaven's sake. I choked up, (ok, I cried) I laughed, I went along for the ride and it was still totally and completely worth every minute of the time I spent seeing it. I'll be watching it again in theatres for sure.


And now, I will deal with a  new Nolan-Batman movie-less future the same way I do with a new Harry Potter-less future: hope, complete and total denial, and an annual revisiting of all the characters and stories I love. Peace, Love, and Batman Forever.

I wrote this review on the night of the 20th before I had heard anything about the tragedy in Aurora, Colorado. My definite thoughts and prayers are with those who were affected by this violence.