Let me begin by saying that Batman Begins was a terrible, boring, and instantly forgettable movie. Not only did it feature unexpectedly bland performances, but the villain stank and the entire 'League of Shadows' thing was a little too much. It was ludicrous.
The Dark Knight improved on it, but not by much. The only good part was Heath Ledger as The Joker, maybe the greatest screen villain of all time. But Christian Bale was boring as always, and the plot was just too damn twisted. Fortunately, it was mainly able to avoid the pitfalls of the previous installment by removing any mention of Liam Neeson's character and the League of Shadows. It was still massively overrated and overhyped.
And now The Dark Knight Rises. For the first half, it improves on almost everything from the other two movies. It has better developed characters, more in-depth storytelling, and Anne Hathaway as Catwoman.
The villain, Bane, is not as good as the Joker, although he is a worthy follow-up. He might occasionally feel like a Darth Vader rip-off, but he's creepy enough by himself to stand apart. Unfortunately, I had a few major problems with this movie: The first being the underlying theme. Bane is basically a communist, whose master plan is to free people from Gotham's prisons, raise an army, and 'Give Gotham back to its people'. The main issue with this is that it seems like an unnecessary swipe at Occupy Wall Street. Those people are barely capable of forming drum circles, and you expect us to believe that they can conquer an entire city? No. Not even close.
Also, the final act disappoints beyond belief (SPOILER ALERT). Apparently, Wayne's business partner (played by Marion Cotillard, you can see how Nolan likes re-using his actors) is the daughter of Liam Neeson's character from Batman Begins, and she is back to finish what he started. Her plan to destroy Gotham, however, is thwarted when Batman flies the nuclear bomb out over the ocean and it detonates, supposedly killing him. Then there are a lot of slow-motion shots of various secondary characters mourning him, until Alfred stumbles upon him in Vienna. It's not good.
Not only this, but TDKR seems to have awakened something in the fans, one of whom put on a gas mask and massacred numerous people at a theater premiering the film. So, out of fear that I'll be assaulted if I give this a bad review (see my previous post, No Comment), the final score for The Dark Knight Rises is: 7/10 stars.
Bye!
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