Christopher Nolan - (2012) The Dark Knight Rises [Review]

Yep. Christopher Nolan finally closes the deal with The Dark Knight Rises. I know, I know; I'm not really a Batman fanboy so I don't know a lot about the actual story as it is written in the comic series. Nevertheless, Nolan's representation of Batman is pure genius; the cast and crews are outstanding while the plot is breathtakingly engaging like the two previous entries in the trilogy.

Bruce Wayne, the billionaire orphan, whose alter-ego has cost him to be hunted down by Gotham police, is now retiring in his mansion. However, a new fire rises from the depth and it is ever-raging to consume Gotham City until it leaves nothing but ashes in its wake. Here we have Selina Kyle, an equally capable master thief who has earned herself tonnes of criminal records and now she decides to erase her decadent past, and start afresh. In light of recent events, Commissioner Gordon refuses to reveal the truth about circumstances surrounding Harvey Dent's death. Bane, the excommunicated member of League of Shadows makes his public appearance with one thing in mind; destroy Gotham City. Thanks to Bane and his band of mercenaries, Bruce Wayne is declared bankrupt and all his stock exchange implodes and as such Fox decides to bring Miranda Tate as the new manager for Wayne Enterprise energy division.

Things quickly get out of control; Gordon is hospitalised the rest of the police force is torn between catching Batman or Bane's loyalists. Alfred leaves Bruce Wayne after he reveals the truth about Rachel's choice of choosing Dent over Bruce, and that Alfred burnt the letter to spare him the pain. At the same time, the stock exchange crash is perpetrated by John Dagget, an executive member of Wayne Enterprise who has always been wanted to own the company to himself. With Selina's help, Bruce fingerprints are needed to complete the bankruptcy process. It is this moment when both Batman and Bane make a show; Bane and his soldiers infiltrated every part of the city including Wayne secret Applied Science Division. The meeting between Bane and Batman is a trap set up by Selina so she can get Bane's fighters off her back. Batman loses the fight and his back is effortlessly broken by Bane, which then allows him to be imprisoned in a hellhole somewhere; a place where Bane comes from. With Gotham police force launching city wide search for the criminals under pretense of routine exercise, a network of deadly traps has been set in place while police are heading into the city tunnels. Blake, who has been a friend of Wayne since childhood knows who Batman is and he is relaying information to now hospitalised Gordon. Blake then goes to investigate the connection between the tunnels and Bane, only to realise that the construction workers are actually a bunch of crooks hired by Bane to plant explosives throughout key areas of the city. When the Superbowl game begins, Bane detonates the explosives, killing dozens of people including Gotham mayor while trapping thousands of police officers beneath the rubble. The explosives also cut off the main exit routes from the city, preventing locals from escaping. Bruce Wayne, now beaten and broken, watches the attack helplessly from his prison cell. Angered, he works hard to recover with the help of fellow inmates who also reveals Bane's origin; a warlord daughter falls in love with one of his mercenaries. They secretly marry. The warlord finds out about their secret and the mercenary is thrown into the prison. Somehow, he is released and then banished instead. Little does the mercenary know that his wife pays the price for his freedom and she is condemned to the pit, who by then already has a child with her. Well, prison is where the bad guys are and the mother does not survive the encounter.

Meanwhile, Selina Kyle is put behind bars in connection to the kidnapping of Gotham congressman. Bane reveals the speech that Gordon supposedly reads at Harvey Dent's memorial service. Gordon lies to save himself and his family and put the blame on Batman. All the criminals incarcerated under the Dent Act have been freed in what Bane refers to as 'giving back Gotham to the people'. They are now armed and have become more dangerous than ever, serving as Bane foot soldiers. Crane, the previous drug dealer is now the city's judge, sentencing anyone deemed by the revolution as 'criminals' with death sentence. Chaos devours Gotham City. Lawlessness prevails. People are now under daily threats of terrorism as Bane steals an armed nuclear warhead from Wayne Enterprise which is supposed to be a source of clean energy who has been entrusted to Miranda Tate. At the height of the crisis, Bruce Wayne crawls out of the prison and returns to Gotham, much to Selina's surprise. She agrees to bring Wayne to meet Lucius Fox, where she later frees both of them. Gordon plans to disarm the the nuclear device but there are many decoy trucks carrying empty cargo with no nuclear in them. They are caught in the surveillance process by Bane's mercenaries and received death sentence by Crane. Batman shows up and saves the day and he frees the police who are trapped underground. Bane looks at the blazing monolith of Batman's return in disbelief, telling his soldiers to keep a close eye on Tate.

As morning comes, a war broke out between Bane-led terrorists and the city cops. Batman almost defeats Bane when his mask begins to wear off, causing Bane to limp in pain. While interrogating Bane about who is the actual triggerman for the nuclear warhead, Gordon leaps onto a truck that contains the bomb and places the signal blocker. Miranda Tate stabs Batman with a knife, revealing herself to be Talia Al Ghul, Ras Al Ghul's daughter. She is the child that climbs out of the hellhole and it is Bane who helps her to escape. With this twisted revelation, Talia fails to detonate the bomb. She then pursues the truck to reactivate the device. Bane is about to shoot Batman in the face when Selina fires full force on his chest with Batpod mounted cannon, saving Batman. Realising that Talia has overridden the device, Batman anchors the warhead to his aerial combat vehicle and flies outside the city limit into the ocean, where it finally detonates, forming a giant mushroom cloud. Seemingly, Batman is dead, but not before hinting at Gordon about his real identity.

In the aftermath, Wayne Enterprise is closed down. Alfred weeps during the funeral, regretting his alleged failure to take care of Bruce Wayne. The manor is made to house Gotham orphans. Somewhere in Europe, Alfred sees Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle on  a date and they nod to each other. Finally, Blake inherits the Batcave.

Wow! What a movie, is it not? A friend of mine told me that Nolan's final chapter is destroying the originality of the Batman franchise. I understand his disappointment because he has been reading the comics since childhood. Just like when I gravely disappointed that Paul W.S. Anderson decided to bring Resident Evil to silver screen. What I find interesting about this film is the fact Nolan wants people to feel the realistic nature of Batman. In the past, the live action movies are downright crappy. Not to mention the storyline itself is so mainstream. However, Nolan must have thought abut every single aspect that makes Batman to be so believable to the audience; the idea behind a symbol is that Batman can be anybody. After all, the film downplays the elements of superhuman that characterised Bane as he is portrayed in the comic, making The Dark Knight Rises to be grounded in reality. Whereas the need to be masked is to protect people that Batman cares about, even though he spent most of his time to himself. Fighting crimes often come with a terrible cost; say a police commissioner combating mafia can have his wife and children murdered because the criminals know a person's vulnerability, which is the inability to let someone hurt their loved ones. This is the most painful way to go and this also the choice made by Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight when his sanity collapses thanks to Joker's agitation. Also, Bane character in this film is totally relevant to the current state of the world. Look what happened in the Middle East where countries like Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and Syria have been ravaged by coalition forces in the name of democracy. What did Bane say during his public speech? He said that he is a liberator that will give Gotham back to the people, not the corrupt conglomerates. We've heard this before, aren't we? But unlike in this film, those Middle East countries will never see peace in anytime soon and there's no one to stop the NATO-backed terrorists from overturning the ruling government and make a regime change that is friendly to the West.

This film has little to less witty catchphrase compared to the second installment. However, this is compensated by the question of hope, fear and anger. Hope that Gotham citizens need, a hope to live another day, a hope to be freed from these so called liberators. Fear as in Bruce Wayne refusal to see Gotham crumble before his very eyes and fear that he could not do anything to save it. Fear, that will place him a great deal of regret if 12 million Gothamites are reduced to flaky pile of ashes. It's the fear that drives him angry and the anger starts to change the world. Bruce fears not death, but he cares for the people he always tries to protect, the people of Gotham. And this goes back to the hope, where it is the last thing he will ever give to citizens of Gotham City, a hope to live free from fear.

So, in essence, I give this film a strong 9.5 out 10 for creative storyline, awesome casts and crews, superb special effects and realistic take on what it means to be a superhero, a symbol of hope for the people. Until then I hope my review gives you a little bit of an insight as to why I think this title is the fitting end for this trilogy. We shall now wait for another hit, Man of Steel.