Can you think of a better way to spend your birthday then seeing the final chapter of the Christopher Nolan Batman series of films? I couldn’t think of one either and spent this morning going out to see The Dark Knight Rises. Be warned; there are plenty of spoilers ahead.
The movie starts roughly eight years after The Dark Knight. Batman is still a wanted fugitive after accepting responsibility for Harvey Dent’s death, and Bruce Wayne hasn’t been seen since. The debut of a new terrorist/mercenary force lead by a new villain named Bane causes Bruce to take up the mantle of Batman for one last ride.
The result was a story that combined elements of the Knightfall, Cataclysm and No Man’s Land storylines, with Batman having to recover from a crippling defeat at the hands of Bane only to save Gotham City from certain doom after it has been cut off from the rest of civilization.
That said, I think I enjoyed this film the most. I liked how intertwined all of the characters were and pretty much everyone knew that Bruce Wayne and Batman were one and the same. At the key of this film was the complex relationships all of the characters had with each other and issues of trust. Sometimes Bruce’s trust was violated (in the case of Bruce and Miranda Tate, who turned out to be none other than Ra’s Al Ghul’s daughter Tate and was seeking to avenger her father’s death from back in Batman Begins); other times it was earned (as was the case with Batman and Catwoman).
The other theme in The Dark Knight Rises is moving on. Alfred urged to Bruce that someday he would have to give up being Batman and have a chance to have a normal life. Bruce somehow manages to do that at the end of the film; saving the city and seemingly dying in an explosion. It’s a fitting end for the Batman persona, as he not only saves the city he so dearly cares about but finally sees the impact that he had on its citizens, as they openly mourned the loss of their dark protector. This allows him to resurface in Europe with Catwoman, who was also searching for a chance to start over, and start a normal life.
Although this is the end of the film series, they leave an opening for a new Batman to guard the city. Detective Blake (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) knew that Batman and Bruce Wayne were one in the same, and did everything in his power to help the vigilante come back to save the city from Bane. At the end of the film, he gets given access to Batman’s arsenal of crime fighting equipment.
There’s a whole bunch more I can talk about on this film but I need some time to digest. So what did you think about this?
Ridiculously Awesome 