#1 - The Dark Knight Rises

#1 - The Dark Knight Rises

Sometimes when you are waiting for months to see a movie, your expectations are unreasonably high. With "The Dark Knight Rises" this was certainly the case, considering its amazing predecessor "The Dark Knight". The more upsetting it is, when the movie disappoints you. 

Let's start with the good parts of the movie. The main cast was absolutely fabulous and really lived up to the expectations. Christian Bale was charismatic as usual and especially convincing in the moments, where we see his character struggle. Anne Hathaway was (at least to me) a surprising choice for "Catwoman" but did a great job. She managed the character's balance between villain and ally believably. Gary Oldman, Sir Michael Caine and Liam Neeson proved once more, why there are among the greatest actors, although one would have wanted more screentime for Liam Neeson and Sir Michael Caine. 

Unfortunately Tom Hardy as the villain Bane couldn't match the rest of the cast. Maybe it was because of the mask his character wears (Which to me seemed like a "Bikini-Version" of the Darth Vader costume) and the voice (which I assume was tweaked electronically) but his acting wasn't convincing at all. In large parts of the movie his character seemed almost ridiculous and in no wy scary or dangerous. Especially if one remembers the amazing villains in "The Dark Knight". 

The action scences are solid at best, but lack creativity. There are too few Batman scences to actually consider this a Batman movie and the once there are lack the dynamics of the first two movies. I haven't stopped it, but it felt like Catwoman got more screentime in costume than Batman. 

*spoilers*

As for the story I was disappointed completely. Not because there was something missing I expected to see, but the other way around. The movie in my point of view tried too much and failed. Large parts reminded me of "Iron Man 2", where we also see our hero struggling until he gets his mojo back. 

Then we have the mourning of the lost love, the nuclear threat, the good guy struggling, the young guy reminding the hero of what he fights for, the love triangle, apparant defeat etc. There were enough story elements for three movies and therefore there wasn't enough time to work them out properly and the story barely scratched the surface. 

There are also large points that are not explained and therefore seem illogic. Maybe the Nolans didn't consider these points important e.g. how does Bruce Wayne get back from a prison in the middle of what seems the Russian Federation, with no money or passport, to Gotham City within a few days? As a writer I get the impression they just didn't want to think of an explanation. Most people might not be bothered by these things but a lot of people are and to me it makes a different between bad and good writing. 

The preparation of Blake as a potential future Batman came too early and too obvious, but the character was built up nicely and definetely could make a worthy successor. 

When Alfred walks out on Bruce Wayne the viewer gets the impression Mr. Caine walked out of the movie, as we only see him back in the end and only very briefly. 

The idea with the pit was a nice touch but again we lack sufficient explanation to really get into it and instead of diving into the scences we are stuck, asking ourselves the questions the movie doesn't answer: Where is the pit? How does Bane control a prison he was an inmate of? etc. 

To sum it up: The movie is in many aspects solid, but at best an average movie. Sometimes less is more and in this case, less story elements worked out better would have done wonders to the movie. The cast did mainly a great job, that saved the movie for me. 

5/10 Points