8 years after the end of The Dark Knight, and Gotham city has come to an uneasy peace, with billionaire Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) hiding from public view. But a new threat is rising in Gotham's underground, as the criminal underlord Bane (Tom Hardy) is pushing a devastating plan that will bring Gotham to its knees. The Batman is needed once again, but even he is hard pressed to stand up to the might of Bane, and he will need all the help he can get if he is to stop the madman.
Honestly, since The Dark Knight I think I haven't been alone in expecting the sequel to not measure up. The second film was just too good. But now I can say without doubt that The Dark Knight Rises is easily as good if not more so than its predecessor (although they could've tried harder with the name). Every second is filled with 'edge of your seat' action and suspense, and every moment of this film is without question fantastic.
The first point that needs to be spoken of is Bane, the new villain trying to fill Heath Ledger's shoes. The Joker was a fantastic villain and terrified audiences to the core, an unstoppable force of chaos and death. The Bane most people will remember is the one from Batman and Robin or the original cartoon series: a mexican wrestler with drugs to make him big and strong. A lot of people were worried that Bane couldn't be meet audience expectation, but thankfully he truly does. Bane is a whole new type of villain, and is just as good for different reasons as the Joker: he is more of a dominating force of power that is trying to destroy Batman utterly and Tom Hardy gives a mesmerising performance. Catwoman also makes an appearance (portrayed by Anne Hathaway) and she was a worrying idea for audiences too (given as our previous experiences with the character didn't leave us too hopeful). But, faith in Nolan, he created another great new character, given a solid grounding in realism and Hathaway brings the character to life.
Moving onto the rest of the film, the story is an epic that has to be seen to be believed. The only problem so far is that the focus seems to have shifted from the original cast members. Caine, Freeman even Oldman all have much smaller roles this time and all their usual levels of performance seemed to have dropped down a peg. Bale too seems to have slipped a notch, but at least he does more in this film. The story nows seems to focus of new comer Blake (Joseph Gorden-Levitt) and although it still has all the action and thrill of the previous Batman films, the lack of these cast members is all too noticeable. The cinematography, editing, pacing are all fantastic, but the shining jewel in this crown has got to be the musical score. There is a theme music that echoes in your mind for hours to come after watching the film and really brings all the power of the story to a head. The action and Nolan styled battles are all amazing, and Batman brings more and more bad-ass gadgets to the front.
All in all, The Dark Knight Rises may have its flaws, but it is still a fantastic story and a great end of the Nolan Batman series. Or is it?
