The Dark Knight Rises (again)

WARNING: CONTAINS PLOT SPOILERS!

I thought I would give some more detailed thoughts on The Dark Knight Rises, now that I've seen it again, this time on a standard-sized cinema screen rather than IMAX.

The Dark Knight was all about anarchy, whereas The Dark Knight Rises is about hope. TDKR is set eight years after the conclusion of TDK, and Batman has not been seen since taking the blame for several murders and the death of Gotham's fallen District Attorney, Harvey Dent. Bruce Wayne still mourns the death of his beloved Rachel and has become a recluse, only brought out of retirement when he is provoked by Selina Kyle (Catwoman, though never named as such) stealing his fingerprints and his mother's pearls. 

The villain is the mercenary Bane, who bankrupts Bruce Wayne in order to obtain a mysterious clean energy device engineered by Wayne Enterprises, which is then turned into an immensely powerful neutron bomb. Bane holds a city to ransom, pretending to give Gotham a modicum of hope when his bomb's gradual decay means that the city's demise is inevitable. He likewise tortures Batman / Bruce Wayne, breaking his back and leaving him in the third-world prison where Bane himself was born and raised, the only glimmer of hope being the sunlight cascading through a seemingly-unreachable exit. Bruce has to slowly rebuild his body and soul before returning to Gotham to save the city one last time, where it transpires that Bane is actually under the influence of Talia al-Ghul, daughter of Batman Begin's chief villain Ra's al-Ghul, who is bent on achieving her father's aim of destroying Gotham.

No, the film is not perfect. There is a lot of exposition, which is not in itself a bad thing, but there is also not much Batman. The slow build up to his return to action after eight years could have resulted in a spectacular set-piece, but there's not much more than a bit of riding around on the Batcycle. It's hard not feel a little disappointed. Bane also can't quite match the Joker's brilliance as a villain. Many people have raised the issue of Bane's incomprehensible dialogue; I struggled on both viewings to understand everything said, but there was a definite improvement for my second viewing on a standard screen. Perhaps it's because IMAX is so loud that the purposely-distorted dialogue is even more distorted, or that it's partially drowned out by the booming background noises. Whatever the reason, I do think that any home viewings will require use of subtitles to ensure full comprehension of Bane's important speeches. And Marion Cottilard's Talia al-Ghul was not exactly convincing as Gotham's reckoning, but at least her character provided a neat link to the first film and allowed for a satisfying conclusion.

Ah, yes - the end! I liked the ending on the first viewing and even more the second time around. It ties up everything very neatly, with a few little twists to delight and reward fans. Batman gives his life for Gotham - or does he? In one last effort he uses the Bat helicopter to carry off the pivotal bomb into the distance, its explosion apparently signalling the Dark Knight's final sacrifice. I listen to the podcast of Mark Kermode's weekly Radio 5 Live film reviews and for once I have to disagree with his view that the ending is open to interpretation. I don't see where there is any ambiguity - there are frequent references throughout the film to the Bat's autopilot not working (leading us to believe that Batman could not have escaped the explosion), and then it is revealed to Lucius Fox by his engineers that Bruce Wayne had actually fixed the software some months prior. There is the executors' reference to the pearls missing from Bruce Wayne's inventory, which are obviously the same ones that Catwoman stole and the only thing that Bruce really values. And then of course there is that final meeting and silent exchange of glances in Florence between Bruce and Alfred, which links in with a previous conversation regarding Alfred's hopes for his master's escape from a brutal life... There's no suggestion that any of this is a dream and so it must be taken at face value. Bruce Wayne finally managed to escape - through Batman's death he found his salvation.

Perhaps the film should have been called Rise of Robin, as the character of "John" Blake (his real name revealed at the end to be Robin, in a gift to geeks everywhere) slowly loses faith in guns and the police department he works for. Batman's legacy is literally left to him through Bruce Wayne's will, and we see the potential for a new masked crimefighter. Would he also be called Batman? Or just Robin? Or even perhaps Nightwing, as in the comics? Whatever the case may be, a dark knight does indeed rise.

So where does TDKR stand when place alongside the previous two Nolan films? It's certainly not as good The Dark Knight, which was an absolute masterpiece, but it easily ranks alongside Batman Begins. It's a fitting conclusion to an epic trilogy, the likes of which may never be matched. Will there be some Robin films? Who knows. We can only hope...