Ok, so the dust is beginning to settle, and we’ve decided to bring you a 4 way review of The Dark Knight Rises from our bunch of amazing writers. The original review is here, so here we go. And beware…SPOILERS WILL LURK IN THIS ARTICLE.
SPOILERS AHEAD…..
YOU SURE? THERE ARE SPOILERS BELOW…..
VICTOR BARRY
I have a huge hatred of the Robin character. I’ve always felt he was nothing but fodder and this was my biggest problem with The Dark Knight Rises. I felt it was a little bit cheesy and didn’t feel to Nolan like if truth be told. A much better ending in my book would have just been to leave Levitt’s character walk into the Batcave and leave it there. No ID cards, no Robin mentions. Anybody can be the hero behind the mask. Again, this is more of a personal gripe than anything else. But compared to the rest of the film, it just sticks out as cheesy. Bane’s voice is another small bone of contention. On at least two occasions I found it rather difficult to hear him and the way he died was a bit of a let-down , but other than that he was fantastic. Overall, I absolutely loved the movie and niggles aside, it still is a 5 Star movie and something that has got a number of repeat viewings for me until the Blu-Ray arrives, and then….god help the Blu-Ray player! It’s certainly one of my movies of the year and will be riding quite high in my Top 5 for 2012.
TOM WHITE
An enjoyable movie that definitely warrants multiple viewings, but some issues I had with the script kept me from enjoying it to it's fullest. The vibe of the whole movie was more in keeping with Batman Begins, but it felt like they were trying to keep the dark tone of the second film at the start which put it at odds when the story took a more comic book movie turn. The prison sections dragged for me, feeling just like an excuse to flesh out the back story of the 'child of R'as Al Ghul'. Also the reveal of Talia (probably the worst kept secret ever), neutered an otherwise great performance from Tom Hardy, making Bane an over glorified henchman, who was thrown away too quickly afterwards. But the good more than out weighs the bad, with the scale of the entire affair really impressing, fantastic action scenes, the hand to hand fight devoid of any music being the stand out, and some great performances, especially from Anne Hathaway and Joseph Gordon Levitt. 4 Stars
GER COONEY
Where do I begin with The Dark Knight Rises? For this reviewer it was a real treat, a great piece of cinema. All the hype was justified, make no mistake this is the real deal. The action sequences with Bane In particular are exciting and quite brutal at the same time. The way he throws Batman around the place is frightening at times and shows exactly what he's up against. Bane is an awesome adversary and the fight scenes are well choreographed. One thing that sets this film apart in the trilogy is that it is so vast. In The Dark Knight we got a bigger landscape for Gotham and in the final chapter It has expanded even more. The general rule in any trilogy seems to dictate that the second movie is always the best and many will argue that it also applies here. However this goes out with a bang and completes a fine trilogy. Action, packed, visually stunning and the cast really does it justice, I will be going to see this again soon and I suspect many will be doing the same, outstanding. 5 stars
ROBERT MCCARTHY
I wouldn’t recommend seeing any film at 5.30 in the morning, particularly if you haven’t slept prior to entering the cinema. But The Dark Knight Rises isn’t just any film now is it?
When I emerged I found it very difficult to mentally digest what I’d just witnessed, but what I was certain of was that I’d just viewed a magnificent ending to a magnificent series of films. As far as positives go, there are many; too many to list here but I’ll single out a few anyway. The performances are outstanding, particularly Bale and Hardy. Anne Hathaway also pulls a very good performance out of the bag. The story is epic in
scope and perfect in delivery; you don’t know what’s going to the happen next, particularly regarding the fate of our dark knight. The ending is as powerful and epic as they come, with the exploration of the notion of self-sacrifice delivering the most emotional moment of the trilogy. True to Nolan’s style, you are left in tense emotional purgatory right to the very end, and only then does he deliver his climax. Personally
my heart was fit to burst right out of my chest, only yielding when the credits started to roll.
On the negative side of things, there are a few minor aspects of the film that bugged me. The score is far too loud, despite its quality; there are moments when you struggle to hear what a character is saying. My inability to understand much of what Bane was saying for the first half of the film was made even more annoying when he was perfectly audible for the second half, when stuff got more important. Finally, the
most negative aspect of the entire film has to be Bane’s death scene. For a character of his stature; physical and charismatic, to be dealt away with in such a sudden and contrived manner didn’t sit well with me at all and almost borders on unforgivable. Granted, his character was so diminished in various ways prior to his death, but still, I felt Nolan could have given him a far more fitting end.
A word of warning to anybody who hasn’t yet seen this; check your expectations. That’s not to say that it is not an amazing film; it is, but just be careful that you don’t expect it to be a step above its predecessor. There is a very simple equation to working out whether you think this will be the best film of the trilogy. To this point, if Batman Begins was your favourite; this will replace it. If The Dark Knight was your
favourite; it may remain so, perhaps only being eclipsed by the ending. Begins was a very good show, The Dark Knight raised the bar to great, Rises stays at that level but does raise it to legendary at its conclusion. I’ll be seeing it another two or three times, at least.
