The Dark Knight Rises

Rated PG-13

Run time – 2 hours 45 minutes

Starring: Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman and Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Directed by Christopher Nolan

First, let me say that if you plan on seeing this movie, make sure it’s in a theater with comfortable seats. Because with a run time of 2 hours 45 minutes, you don’t want your ass to fall asleep.

Second, I read that Christopher Nolan shot most of this movie using 70mm IMAX cameras. So, if you want to get the full experience, find the nearest IMAX theater, pay the extra money and enjoy the hell out of yourself.

Third, if you haven’t seen the first two Nolan directed movies in this trilogy, go watch them before seeing this movie. If you don’t, you won’t know what is happening. You may still enjoy it, but you’ll be a little clueless on some aspects of the story.

This is the final installment of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, he has said he will not do another one. And I don’t think he should, not because this movie wasn’t good but because I feel he left us in a good place with the franchise. I’ve heard and read that some people didn’t like how the movie ended, but I did. I felt like everything was tied up nicely with just enough left to your imagination, so you could kind of write your own ending.

There were several new characters introduced for this installment and several brought back in small parts or in flashbacks. This movie is one that you definitely need to pay attention to, or you may find yourself asking wtf?

Bale does another good job as Bruce Wayne/Batman. Anne Hathaway makes for a good Selina Kyle/Catwoman, although they could have given her a bigger part in her catsuit. I read somewhere that it took three people to help her into the suit everyday and after seeing her in it, not only do I believe it but I now know the real reason that Christopher Nolan filmed this movie in IMAX. I was kind of ambivalent about Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s role in this movie when it started, but as the movie progressed I found myself liking his character and he indeed has an impact on things. Tom Hardy is practically unrecognizable in his role as Bane. He wears a mask that affects his voice making him sound, at least to me, like an amplified Sean Connery. There is one part of the movie when he talks through a microphone and I could only understand every other word he was saying.

When the movie starts, it has been 8 years since “The Dark Knight” ended and Batman hasn’t been seen since. He is a wanted felon for the murder of Harvey Dent (aka Two-Face) and he is feeling the effects of his previous injuries. There is some building up and when Bane hits Gotham, you-know-what hits the fan. Batman and Bruce Wayne both come out of a self-induced retirement to find things not as easy as before. There is a twist or two in the writing that I liked but won’t mention here. I don’t like spoilers when I read others reviews, so I’m not going to put them in mine.

I have to say this, as I was exiting the theater someone complained that the movie wasn’t very realistic. I wanted to turn around and shout, DUH! Hello, people the movie is about a grown man that dresses in a bat suit and fights crime. Maybe you should suspend reality when you buy a ticket for any superhero movie and enjoy it for what it is, entertainment and an escape from reality.

This movie is darker than recent superhero fare, but it fits the character of the series. Batman was always one of my favorite characters when I was a kid (I still like to use the phrase “deductive reasoning” that I learned from reading a Batman comic when I was young). I feel like Christian Bale and Christopher Nolan did the franchise more justice than any previous incarnation of the Caped Crusader.

Bottom line, go see this movie. But be careful on what size drink you get going in, because as previously mentioned, it’s a long movie and I can’t think of a single time where you could make a bathroom run without missing something important to the story.