3 gibbles out of 5

Director: Christopher Nolan

Even though it’s not perfect, even though it’s pretty clunky, and even though it’s the most Hollywood-filmy of the Nolan Batman trilogy, “Dark Knight Rises” is a satisfying conclusion to the films, and probably the best balance for an ending / new beginning we could’ve hoped for.  (Although I think we would’ve done fine without Catwoman.)

We start 8 years after Dent fell, the story decided upon at film 2’s conclusion having been perpetuated by Commissioner Gordon and the celebrated “Harvey Dent Day”.  The Dent Act is keeping all the mobsters in jail and the streets are primarily clean.  So The Batman is no more, and Bruce Wayne haunts Wayne mansion, rarely appearing before anyone but his butler.  He limps, he’s unshaven, he hardly looks like the driven Bruce Wayne we saw in the previous two films.  Until our villain comes to town.  Tom Hardy plays the imposing Bane.  Bane is imposing because he’s massive, and no one knows why he wears a mask.  In typical movie villain fashion (which is the first time in the trilogy something has felt so typical), his plans are super complicated and not immediately apparent and something something take over the world something something blow things up.  It takes more shape and becomes more clear as the film wears on, but though Hardy does an excellent job of making even the initial shell of the character creepy (helped by the script’s imposing sets and Nolan’s chosen angles and cold cinematography), Bane lacks the build-up of Ra’s Al Ghul or The Joker.

Soon, Gordon runs afoul of Bane and word spreads back to Bruce Wayne.  It rouses him from his stupor to re-don the cape and cowl.  Without much ceremony though, leading to the first of several loud and big sequences that, true, would’ve taken another two hours to smooth out and effectively introduce, but nonetheless, feel much more like filler than anything in the previous Batman movies.  They’re still well-shot sequences, but similar to the lack of impact of the villain, our hero’s presence is similarly underwhelming.  It turns out to all be slightly front-heavy for a reason – to tie back into film one’s “Why do we fall?” mantra.  When The Bat does fall, during our middle stretch, the film expands impressively in scope, the timeline going over months and swooping through a massive storyline that’s lightly stripped from the comics’ “Knightfall” and “No Man’s Land” storylines.

And it ends massively, a Gotham-wide street-sprawling battle.  Does the trilogy conclude?  Well, the script finds a way to conclude and leave it open that doesn’t feel like a cop out.  I mean, we can’t kill Batman, right?

So the movie.  Nolan has made several big films now, but they’ve all been successfully thematic, giving us a reason to watch beyond simple entertainment.  The Dark Knight Rises doesn’t sacrifice this quality, but it’s too big for its britches, causing what could’ve been heavier moments to look more like normal action set pieces, loud and proud and not enough logic to make them feel justified.  The performances are all up to the quality of the series – Anne Hathaway proves capable of bringing the deeper Ed Brubaker thief/avenger era Catwoman to the screen – but there are many names and faces to know this time, adding to that cluttered feel.  And though the script tries hard to find a reason for Catwoman, she really could’ve been anybody in the script, giving us a haunting glimpse of one-liners that the film mostly was able to stray from previously.

But the criticisms are easy because it’s thus far been such a respectable series.  And the third one is no slouch.  It’s no Transformers by any means – just action for action’s sake – but it feels like a sequel.  Batman Begins was an inspiring surprise, which built to the paced dark majesty of film 2.  This was the appropriate direction to take for the third film, and Nolan and troupe tried to push it as far as possible with the near 3-hour runtime, but the story they wanted to tell easily could’ve taken up double that.  Looking at the three films overall is nice – the vague bat logos at the beginning of each acting as titles, the day, night, and now cold color schemes chosen for each film – and the expectations were always going to be hard to beat.  “Dark Knight Rises”  may not be as impressive out of the gate, but it will make an excellent night of repeated viewing at home, the theater’s soundtrack not rumbling so loudly in your ears, and more time to understand Hardy’s accent to appreciate his performance.