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'The Dark Knight' rising to new heights

8:36 PM, Jul. 18, 2012

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Christian Bale is Batman in a scene from the motion picture 'The Dark Knight Rises.' (Gannett, Ron Phillips/Warner Bros. Pictures/File) / GANNETT

Written by

Bill Goodykoontz

Gannett

Filed Under

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Christian Bale is Bruce Wayne and Batman in a scene from the motion picture 'The Dark Knight Rises.' (Gannett, Ron Phillips/Warner Bros. Pictures/File) / GANNETT

‘The Dark Knight Rises’

Star rating:★ ★ ★
Rated: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some sensuality and language.

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Anne Hathaway appears in a scene from the motion picture 'The Dark Knight Rises.' / GANNETT

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Christian Bale as Batman in a scene from the motion picture 'The Dark Knight Rises.' Photo by Ron Phillips, Warner Bros. Pictures [Via MerlinFTP Drop] / Warner Bros. Pictures

The weight of expectations is heavy for “The Dark Knight Rises,” more so than any movie in recent memory.

And while at times it strains a little, for the most part it shoulders the burden well. It’s not just a big movie, it’s a huge one, with massive set pieces, mind-teasing action scenes and the (more-than) occasional giant explosion. No one at the moment is better at executing those kinds of elements and still managing to keep the movie about the people in it than Christopher Nolan, who directs and contributed to the screenplay.

The toys and gizmos are cool, as cool as you would expect. But the real question here is whether Bruce Wayne can redeem himself, let the Batman go, and if we didn’t care about that, all the tricks and twists wouldn’t mean a thing.

But we do care. If the film is not quite the achievement “The Dark Knight” was — and maybe that’s the real question — it’s still a fitting end to a most-ambitious series.

The movie begins eight years after “The Dark Knight” ended, with the late Harvey Dent being remembered as a hero and Batman (Christian Bale) as the thug who killed him, and who hasn’t been seen since. Commissioner Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) knows better, of course, and while the streets of Gotham are safer than they were when the likes of the Joker ran free, trouble is brewing.

We know that from the opening scene, a remarkable aerial sequence in which the feared criminal Bane (Tom Hardy), a hulking bald man who wears a scary-looking mask around his nose and mouth, pulls off a seemingly impossible escape. It’s all part of a larger plan meant to wrest control of Wayne Enterprises.

Or so it seems. Actually, it’s part of an even larger plan than that. Think of the Occupy movement led by an insane genius who lacks remorse and is willing to annihilate a major city to make his point. This goes back to the original of Nolan’s Batman films, “Batman Begins,” in which Ra’s Al Ghul (Liam Neeson), who is invoked several times here, believed the only way to save Gotham was to destroy it. It’s a brutal form of class warfare, at least on its face.

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Meanwhile Bruce Wayne has become a recluse. But he’s shaken from his doldrums in an usual fashion: by being robbed, by Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway), of both his mother’s pearl necklace and, more importantly, his fingerprints. A clever cat burglar — yes — she warns Wayne that a storm is coming, and “you’re all going to wonder how you could ever live so large and leave so little for the rest of us.” (See Occupy movement, above.) She stirs something in Wayne, and while he’s creaky after being out of the game so long, it’s inspiring when he’s finally weaving in and out of high-speed traffic on his Batcycle, accompanied by Hans Zimmer’s familiar score.

Another plot thread involves Wayne trying to save his business by turning it over to Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard), a rich philanthropist. And butler Alfred (Michael Caine) and Wayne executive Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) are still loyal to Wayne, even if he exasperates them. Wayne, and Batman, will need all the help they can get. In addition to Commissioner Gordon, that also arrives in the form of John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), the one beat cop in Gotham who understands the bigger picture, and how much is at stake.

“The Dark Knight Rises” is a bleak film, yet not without hope. Then again, as Bane points out, there can be no true despair without hope. So keep that in mind. …

Bale remains good as Batman and, more importantly, as Wayne. He’d love to hang up the suit for good but still struggles with how to make that happen. Oldman gets more screen time than before as Gordon, and more of Oldman is always welcome. As for the newcomers, Hathaway is surprisingly good as Selina — if you were worried about her being too light or frivolous, don’t be. She’s a cold-blooded thief, and good at it. Gordon-Levitt, meanwhile, makes Blake the believable ally Batman needs. Like Wayne he was orphaned, and knows a thing or two about how the Batman feels.

That leaves us with Hardy, a tremendous actor buried under his mask and left unrecognizable. Comparisons with Heath Ledger’s genuinely great performance as the Joker in “The Dark Knight” are unfair, and also unavoidable. Hardy is a plenty good actor to make any character magnetic — but the role has to live up to his talents. Bane doesn’t, ultimately. He boasts a frightening intellect, a few choice one-liners and literally back-breaking strength. But he lacks the shoot-out-the-lights personality of Ledger’s Joker. What character doesn’t?

It’s not a fatal flaw, however. Director Christopher Nolan has to tie up a lot of loose ends, and at times that proves tricky. But overall “The Dark Knight Rises” brings the Batman story to a close in enormous, satisfying fashion, not just on the massive scale it builds for itself, but on a human level, as well.

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