The Dark Knight Rises

With the release of The Dark Knight Rises on Blu-ray and DVD, the most iconic Batman trilogy according to some is coming to an end.  But the question remains is this the last trilogy for Batman or is this just another movie set to put up on the shelf, waiting for the next big director to come through and remake a classic.

The Dark Knight Rises takes place 8 years after The Dark Knight – Batman has disappeared and Bruce Wayne is rumored to be a drunk, withdrawn man.  His company stands on the brink of bankruptcy after investing in a nuclear fusion project only to shut it down after learning that the reactor core could be weaponized.  Organized crime has been all but eradicated with the help of the death of Harvey Dent.  Commissioner Gordon almost confesses to what really happened to Harvey Dent but decides against it at the last minute then gets captured after a chase in the sewers by Bane and his minions.  All sorts of characters and plot lines return to the forefront including Rachel Dawes and the truth behind the letter she wrote to Bruce before she died.  Bruce is then framed for a crime that threatens to turn his world upside down. He surrenders his company to Miranda Tate, the woman in charge of the nuclear fusion project so he can take care of Bane via Batman. From here things get interesting and more psychological than any other Batman movie.

Between the action and the fighting, some romance and some betrayal, there is a psychological factor that hasn’t been there in the other 2 movies.  The first moment Bruce Wayne comes on the screen he is a broken man, unshaved and looks as if he has given up on the world and everything it represents.  He doesn’t care about anything; only when something threatens the people he cares about does he do something about it thinking he is invincible but finding out that even Batman can be defeated. SPOILER ALERT.  But what makes this story even better than the previous ones (all of them) is that Batman/Bruce Wayne was taken to the extreme point of no return and even he didn’t believe he could come back or didn’t want to come back. No one was sure which one it was.  But again once he saw that Bane was terrorizing the people and city he cares about and helped build, he found a new sense of determination and drive that Batman hasn’t seen before. 

What many moviegoers and fans of Batman are not used to seeing is their hero down and out for the count.  This movie tested those fans and moviegoers not once, but twice.  Seeing a hero, your hero, hurt, battered, broken and utterly ruined is not something that people take easily.  Despite all of that, what makes this movie uplifting is that no matter how much pride one has, they can stand up for themselves and the people they care about, fight back and defeat their enemies once and for all.  Hope comes from the depths of despair – even if the despair was caused by you.

Christian Bale is truly Batman.  He embodies the character so well that you can’t even tell he is acting. The role comes so naturally to him, it is second nature.  Trying to compare Michael Keaton and Christian Bale is a hard task for a few reasons. 1, Michael Keaton’s Batman is older, more mature and businesslike while Bale’s Batman is younger, more prone to jumping to conclusions.  2, the two movies came out over 20 years apart; a lot has changed in Hollywood since then. And 3, Christopher Nolan wasn’t afraid to take Batman to the brink of death and destruction.  And if he could, there is no doubt that he would have killed off Batman if he wanted to.  That is what makes this trilogy better – no rules, no limits.

But I go back to my original point – will someone try and remake the Batman story? Of course.  Will it be as good? Probably not but whoever decides to take on the weight that is Batman, good luck to them and let’s hope moviegoers and Batman enthusiasts alike don’t have another Batman and Robin on our hands.