Huzzah! Finally got to see The Dark Knight Rises! I was deeply skeptical of this movie, but it turned out to be much better than I expected. The story-line flowed very well, the action sequences were intense, and the acting far above par for these type of movies.
As faithful readers and Rippers may know, I have been a reader of comics from the time I was four, and have never stopped. Batman and his related comics are ones I have read on and off, although there are others that I have been a more consistent follower over the years, led by my favorite Superman. Some of the Batman stories I have read have been very good. Others have been perfectly awful. He has wildly careened over the last seventy years between lighthearted camp, and then all way to unrelentingly somber and dark.
One of the story-lines I hated the most was the Bane/Knightfall period. I hated the whole thing where Batman's back gets cracked. It just seemed hokey, overly violent and a step too far. Bane was a very unattractive villain whom held no interest for me. When I heard that Bane was going to be the villain of this movie my heart sank a bit.
Now that I've seen it, I find that my fears were unfounded. Bane is menacing, carries an interesting angst, and is quite an interesting match for Batman. His face filter did make him at times hard to understand.
Christian Bale is a very affecting Batman. You can see the pain and grim determination pouring through his face. He successfully brings the audience into his terrible journey.
Gary Oilman and Michael Caine are two very experienced actors that bring great depth to the parts they play. Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the young, earnest cop who draws the best out of Batman is very good too.
But the surprise of the movie for me was Anne Hathaway as Catwoman. She brought out the rich complexities of Catwoman more than any other actress I've seen. She was strikingly beautiful and uh, agile, but you could see the conflicts pulling at her play against her face. Her reactions were worth the price of the movie.
My understanding was that the movie would play against our increasing division between rich and poor, and the collapse of our middle class. I detected that some but not as much as I hoped. And I'm not sure whatever Bane was trying to do helped bring it across.
There were a number of twists that were probably less surprising to comic readers than they were for the general movie-going populace, but I don't want to spoil anything so I won't go into it here.
Finally, there is the sad reality that there are many, many people who are seeing this and other comic book super-hero movies who have never read a comic book with the characters they are watching. The great source material for the an overwhelming number of our movies and TV shows is ignored by the vast majority of our citizens.
Final score: 9 out of 10.
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