The Dark Knight Rises

There will be a couple of spoilers from the movies first hour or so, but I'll try to be as vague as possible.

Directed by Christopher Nolan
Written by Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer

Cast
Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman
Tom Hardy as Bane
Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle
Joseph Gordon-Levitt as John Blake
Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth
Gary Oldman as James Gordon
Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox
Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate

It's pretty difficult to review a movie like The Dark Knight Rises after only one viewing. The movie is nearly 3 hours long, with every minute so eventful that it's hard to take it all in. But I'm going to do my best.

Picking up eight years after the events of The Dark Knight, a retired and reclusive Bruce Wayne spends all of his time in the East Wing of Wayne Manor living with the injuries to both his mind and body, still being served by loyal butler and father figure, Alfred who worries about Bruce's choice to shut himself off from the world. Meanwhile, Commissioner James Gordon is dealing with the aftermath of the lie he and Batman came up with eight years ago, framing Batman for the crimes committed by Harvey Dent. A lie which has finally wiped out organised crime in Gotham City with the introduction of the Harvey Dent act (which I interpreted as kind of like Gotham's version of the Patriot Act), but at a heavy cost to Gordon's soul.

The relative peace couldn't last for long, though, and after a gunfight leads Gordon down into the sewers, he is captured by an army living underground. He escapes, but is so injured that most of the police dismiss his warnings as delirious rambling. Except of course for the idealistic new recruit to the police force, John Blake. He has deduced Batman's true identity and it isn't long before he has convinced Bruce Wayne to return to his night job. Bruce for his part has already been investigating a burglar known by the media as "The Cat" who managed to crack his uncrackable safe and steal his pearls ("Oops... nobody told me it was uncrackable").

Surprisingly early into the film, Batman meets the leader of the sewer army, named Bane. It's at this point when all hell breaks loose. There had been people questioning how it was possible to top the anarchy caused by The Joker in the previous movie. Well this movie provides the answer... this is the greatest threat that Gotham has ever faced, with Bane setting out to break the city before he ultimately destroys it with Batman powerless to stop him (exactly how and why I won't say).

Needless to say, this is a huge movie in every sense of the word. Thousands of extras, mass destruction and massive action scenes are all present here. But this isn't just an action movie... it's a Christopher Nolan movie. Which means that as well as providing all of the thrills and spectacle of the usual summer blockbuster, you also get some of the greatest actors in the business giving the performances of their careeer. None more so than in the case of Anne Hathaway, an actress that like Heath Ledger before her drew skepticism of her ability to portray Selina Kyle, and like Heath Ledger before her, not only proves capable, but steals every single scene she appears in. Both one of Batman's most famous villains, and one of his greatest love interests, Selina has always been a complex character who plays by her own rules, and Hathaway nails every facet of the character seemingly effortlessly. Similarly, Christian Bale, who I've always said is the only person to be able to play all three characters that his part calls for - Batman, public Bruce and private Bruce all have very different personalities - actually manage to improve upon his previous two performances of the character to completely blow any memories of Michael Keaton still lingering in people's minds away. Michael Caine and Gary Oldman also manage to exceed themselves in some of the movies most emotional scenes, and Morgan Freeman is given more to do this time around.

Other than Hathaway, there are three more newcomers in The Dark Knight Rises in Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard. It might get boring if I just praise everyone in the entire movie, so let's just say that for the most part, everything I said in the last paragraph also applies to these three - with one minor but notable exception towards the end of the movie. Tom Hardy's Bane is no Joker (who, though less powerful than Batman managed to be genuinely terrifying), but he's still one of the best villains the franchise has ever had in any format. And despite being a remorseless terrorist and brutal murderer (why shoot someone in the head, when you can snap their neck?), when we begin to delve into his backstory, you'll find it quite tragic... even moreso during the big reveal.

Seriously... see this movie. It's dark, brooding and builds slowly to one of the worthiest endings a movie series has ever had. People are obviously going to be comparing it to The Avengers, but it honestly doesn't have enough in common with that movie for any comparison to really be taken seriously. I believe they are both equally good, but in totally different ways. Christopher Nolan has delivered again... not just a great Batman movie, or even just a great comic book movie, but one of the greatest movies of any kind. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll feel an immense feeling of dread when you see how far Gotham has fallen and remember all the times you've been reminded that this is end... Batman might not survive!

PS: There's been a lot of talk about this being a Capitalist movie that demonises the "Occupy movement". The script was finished in February 2010... about 18 months before Occupy Wall Street began. Whilst there is an element of the villain causing ordinary citizens to rise up and punish the wealthy ("There's a storm coming, Mr. Wayne") the "resemblance" to Occupy ends there. In fact, it's played pretty ambiguously, as out of all of the richest characters in the movie, only one or two aren't shown as corrupt in some way... and one of those is the title character.