With the ridiculously massive hype surrounding the film, due to expert marketing and the unfortunate responsibility to live up to its near-perfect predecessor, ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ seems doomed to fail. In the hands of an extremely capable director, however, the capper to Christopher Nolan’s gritty and realistic take on the Batman saga is a fitting and satisfying conclusion, even if minor issues prevent it from being better than 2008’s ‘The Dark Knight‘.

It’s only been four years since the previous film, but in Gotham it’s been a lengthy eight years since district attorney Harvey Dent (aka Two-Face) was killed and Batman went into exile. Since then, Gotham has been more peaceful than ever before with organized crime nearly extinct due to Harvey Dent’s apparent symbolic heroism. While the world around him has moved on, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) has kept himself isolated and alone. He’s been living depressingly as a scruffy-bearded hermit inside his mansion with only his loyal butler Alfred (Michael Cain) keeping him company.

When a new menace arrives in Gotham and plans to destroy it from the inside out, Bruce is forced to don the bat-suit once more. This new villain, Bane (Tom Hardy), is a terrifying force to be reckon with. Whereas The Joker was a psychological opponent to Batman, Bane presents more of a physical challenge. Bane is literally a huge brute of massive proportions. He’s a terrorist with a special breathing mask meant to repress a past injury. The mask looks very Hannibal Lector-ish, and Bane’s heavy-breathing and muddled voice is like Darth Vader.

Old characters from previous films return, as well as a slew of newcomers. James Gordon (Gary Oldman) is back as the honorable commissioner of the Gotham City Police Department. Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) is still running Wayne Enterprises and supplying Bruce with nifty gadgets. New are two possible love interests for Bruce and a young cop. One of the women is the enigmatic Selina Kyle, aka “Catwoman,” portrayed by Anne Hathaway. This version of the femme fatale is less silly, yet still a lot of fun. Kyle is an expert cat burglar whose goals are never really clear. Hathaway is impressively sexy, sly, and playfully dangerous all at the same time. The other woman is Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard), an environmentalist and member of Wayne Enterprises’ executive board, who helps Bruce get out of his slouch and return to the outside world (as well as to help the company from going under). John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is the new cop, an idealist whose dark past fuels his determination to keep the streets of Gotham clean. Blake is one of the few policemen who doesn’t believe Batman is the bad guy and actually hopes for the Bat’s return.

It’s clear that this film boasts an incredibly talented cast, many of whom were a part of Nolan’s previous film, ‘Inception‘. The talent of these actors and actresses help make the characters, especially the newer ones, feel multi-dimensional and believable. The newest characters are all given equal importance, never feeling wasted.

Unlike the previous films, ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ plays more like a serious drama than a superhero film. It takes almost an hour before we actually get to see Batman on screen. The first hour of the film is slow and dramatic, setting many of the film’s important players and complex plot points in motion. Because of this drama-heavy start, Bruce Wayne is given more character development and time to evolve than before.

Like ‘The Dark Knight’, this third entry features many breathtaking set pieces, which includes the bombing of a football stadium and an attack on a Stock Exchange. What makes the set pieces in Christopher Nolan’s films so great is the fact that they’re mostly practical effects rather than CGI. The previous film started out with a bang with The Joker’s bank heist scene. ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ starts off with its own bang as well, featuring aerial stunts on planes! And the sequence was filmed entirely with practical effects – in the air! This choice makes the action more believable, engaging, and jaw-dropping.

Genius composer Hans Zimmer reunites with Christopher Nolan for the fourth time to orchestrate the film’s score, and it certainly doesn’t disappoint. The score is more dreary and cold than the previous ones; they’re more depressing and mournful. There are still loud and pounding tracks, though, that deliver nice support to the more action heavy and intense moments of the film. Some of the best tracks include the themes for Bane and Catwoman, “Gotham’s Reckoning” and “Mind If I Cut In?” respectively. The rumbling percussions and drums in Bane’s theme is very pulse-pumping and threatening. The combination of delicate piano melodies and percussion sounds in “Mind If I Cut In?” fit very well with Catwoman’s tip-toey and conniving-like character. “Rise” is both a sad yet hopeful track that ends the score and the film. It features one of the franchise’s only track with harmonizing vocals.

What prevents the film from succeeding its immediate predecessor are a few minor quibbles and one major aspect – the fact that The Joker is a more complex and engaging antagonist than Bane. With a mask that covers the majority of his face, we only get to see Bane’s emotions and expressions through his eyes and body language. This gives actor Tom Hardy (‘Warrior‘) a big challenge to overcome, and even though he gives the role an admirable attempt, the mask just prevents the character from being as riveting as Heath Ledger’s award-winning performance. Also, it doesn’t help that it’s sometimes hard to make out what Bane is saying because of his distorted voice.

Minor issues like unnecessary flashbacks, questionable editing and a sometimes too complex plot also keeps ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ from being downright perfect. There were way too many flashbacks featured in the film, as if they were meant for audiences who haven’t seen the previous two films. It’s a little strange that a film like this, especially by Christopher Nolan, has so many drastic transitions, mostly in the first half of the film. Quite a few times in the film a scene will change and the shift is really jarring. With so many characters and plot lines in the works the film can sometimes be too difficult to make out.

At 165 minutes, the film moves at a surprisingly brisk pace; it never feels too long or overbearing. Even at such a lengthy running time the film leaves no room to breathe in its highly involving plot. There’s a really shocking plot twist in the third act that’s in the same vein as the big twist in ‘Batman Begins’, yet the film doesn’t spare time to really take it in before quickly moving onto the next scene. Like ‘Inception’, you really have to be attentive and at the edge of your seat to keep up with the plot.

This summer had another enormously over-hyped superhero flick, ‘The Avengers‘. While that film was certainly fantastic, ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ is on an entirely different level. ‘The Avengers’ was more silly and fun, but this film is more dramatic and serious. While there were certainly humorous moments throughout the previous two Batman films, this third film is entirely serious with barely any room for jokes. This film continues Christopher Nolan’s realistic take on superheroes, transcending the genre onto newer heights. Nolan’s Batman films can’t simply be considered superhero/comic-book films anymore – they should also be considered real, artistic works of cinema that can appeal to more than just superhero fans.

It’s very rare that a Hollywood trilogy is this successful in terms of storytelling, but Christopher Nolan’s done it. His Batman films are not only some of the best superhero films but also some of the best films in the past decade. The trilogy is an enthralling piece of work and it was worth the long wait for this fitting finale. Nolan’s trilogy is one the legendary Batman deserves.

Four out of four Kents.

Extra Notes:

Christopher Nolan co-wrote the film with his talented brother Jonathan (‘The Prestige’ & ‘Person of Interest’)
‘The Dark Knight Rises’ has one of the best endings I’ve seen in a long time, and it’s very ‘Inception’-worthy. It’ll probably be frequently discussed by many once the film is released.
The final ten minutes or so of the film had me literally shaking in my seat. Just the fact that it was all coming to an end, combined with all the drama and emotions appearing on screen, was wearing me out – in a good way!
Nolan filmed over an hour of footage with Imax cameras, the most for any film ever. It’s safe to say these sequences are epic.