At the end of its two hours-45 minute running time, all you can do is heave a sigh of relief that this is the concluding chapter of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy. It is gloomy and doomy without even a fresh faced girl with red hair and freckles to liven up the scene. Your senses are battered into submission till you stare dazed at the screen as Batman growls, Catwoman purrs, Bane bellows, Robin titters, Fox declaims —that is a whole lot of anamorphous creatures in Batman’s universe.
The good things — Bale looks nice, conflicted and hot shirtless. That batmobile which Fox simply calls the Bat is groovy baby — just what the doctor ordered to combat traffic jams. The opening sequence is worth the price of the admission ticket and utterly brilliant in IMAX — a helmet is called for, it is that mind blowing. The background score rocks but gets a bit much after a point, like everything else in the film. All the trailer quotes seem to have been created for the express purpose of promotion. From Bane’s “Let the games begin” to Bruce Wayne saying “I'm not afraid. I'm angry” or the loyal Alfred saying, “You are not Batman anymore” and of course Fox saying “I call him The Bat and yes Mr. Wayne it does come in black,” they are all grandiloquent nods to the gallery.
The Dark Knight Rises takes places eight years after the events of The Dark Knight drove Batman into exile for Two Face’s crimes. Now Gotham has a new villain, Bane, who has some complex plan to blow up Gotham with some horrid nuclear explosion. Selina Kyle, a jewel thief, is involved in some mysterious way with Bane’s nefarious plans. Batman/Bruce Wayne drags himself out of hibernation, faces and defeats his demons after much talk and a few great balls of fire.
While Christian Bale, Michael Caine as faithful Albert, Morgan Freeman as armourer Lucius Fox and Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon reprise their roles, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy and Marion Cotillard are the new entrants playing Selina Kyle, Bane and the mysteriously beautiful Miranda Tate respectively.
Liam Neeson as Ra’s Al Ghul, the leader of the League of Shadows, and Cillian Murphy as Scarecrow Jonathan Crane from the earlier films make brief appearances — all contributing to the mythmaking machinery. As Ra’s Al Ghul says in yet another trailer byte: “If you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal... you become something else entirely. A legend, Mr. Wayne, a legend!”
The stunts are pretty cool, the ladies hot (Anne Hathaway is lovely-slinky), but the film has just too much mindless chatter which goes on forever till you want to say enough already.
The Dark Knight Rises
Genre: Action
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman
Storyline: There is a new terror threat on Gotham and Batman has to come out of retirement to battle his demons within and without
Bottomline: Too long and takes itself too seriously for its own good
This writer obviously has no clue about film journalism or cinema. This is truly an insult to the brand and standard of The Hindu.
The movie was promising for the first two hours, but then petered out in the final half with Talia taking on a greater role and sidelining Bane. Bane, though preachy, said a bunch stuff that resonated fairly strongly with the current global financial climate, and the Occupy Wall Street/Tea Party shenanigans in the States. But then the finale had one too many deus ex machinae for my tastes.
I understand the angst in the comments bashing the reviewer, but then, even the greatest of films have their detractors. A review is after all a single person's "subjective" opinion about a movie. Don't take it to your heart Nolanites! It is just a movie after all!
If you are a novice trying to be a hard critic,better luck next time.
The reviews that matter are the ones that elucidate how well this
movie matches and exceeds the level of ideals Bruce Wayne/Batman sets
in the comics. FYI, most of the top rated movies run for more than 3
hours. So this movie is actually shorter. For all those who enjoy
Nolan's movies, it would be a pleasure to watch this movie even if it
went for more than 3 hours. Please do not write such reviews and taint
the name of The Hindu.
Not as good as it's predecessors, it's still a very good movie. The
flaws appear mainly in the pacing of the third act. Overall the
editing was a little too brusque and rather than making it slow, it
made the movie a little too fast paced for the kind of story it told.
Most of the movie went by like a trailer for what should be a
revolutionary war movie. A gap of 5 months was depicted in quick
montages and didn't provide enough exposition in the lead up to a war.
The hero's arrival is timed to a ticking countdown and apart from the
mostly interesting secondary characters, we don't see the ordinary
citizens of Gotham much as we did in the previous films. That said,
the scale and scope of the film make Rises a must watch and the ending
is an incredible resolution that's high on emotion.
I never had one dull moment in that movie and never thought it was long
until i realized that it was time to go back home and it was late. The
first line stating a heave of relief to see this franchise end shows the
distaste of the critic to this wonderful franchise. I request you to see
this movie once again and review it.
What gibberish! I do understand everyone has their opinion, but you
need to think a million times before you put it forth in public. After
reading your nonchalant review, it looks like more of a personal
vendetta to me. The movie is portrayed brilliantly with clinquant
performances and an epic background score. IMDB gives the movie a
9.2/10 with ratings from more than 80000 users and a close to 50
critic reviews. I still do not believe that a paper of this stature
published something this frivolous. I do have a lot to say about the
author after having read this, but I also do understand that voicing
out your opinion in a forum requires a lot of restraint. Madam, please
get rid of your tinted glasses and do not mislead people.
I agree with you.That is so because after watching The Dark
Knight,expectations were quite high with this one.But frankly, I was
disappointed.The movie did not match the standards of The Dark Knight.Be
it the action sequences,special effects,twists and turns or depth of
plot,nothing was comparable to the standards of the predecessor
movies.It was kind of a let down.Had some epic expectations from Nolan's
trilogy conclusion...but not satisfied.But ofcourse its personal opinion
of like and dislike.
To be honest, i agree to your review. But you missed one important point - THE POINT OF REFERENCE. We are actually comparing TDKR with THE DARK KNIGHT. And the difference here is JOKER. In TDK, undoubtedly, Nolan did a fabulous job. But the character which actually propelled the movie to whole new Level is Late Mr.Ledger. In TDKR, we dont have such a character. Prior to the TDKR release, everybody said BANE will test BATMAN, both physically as well as mentally. And yes, BANE is a champion in fist fights. But i dont see Bane actually testing BATMAN mentally (apart from that Prison scene).
Again, full credits must be given to Nolan & Team for the stunning fight sequence, high tech gadgets, ZIMMER's epic music and a good climax (predictable even though). Overall, Technology did rise, but NOT DARK KNIGHT. My rating - 8/10 . (For once i wished, Ledger was there in TDKR)
delete this article.. can't take it anymore..staining the image of the
Hindu!!
Agree with some points here. The movie was painfully long. The comments
made by some fanboys here are funny! The only thing in the movie which
looked Nolan(ish) was the opening plane to plane hijacking scene, rest
was just mindless chatter. And yeah that pit prison legend thing was
funny and idiotic at the same time...what a waste of 30 minutes of run
time.
Sad to see such a shallow review from a newspaper of the caliber of The
Hindu. The author knows a lot of onomatopoeic words for talking, however
did not pay enough attention to the movie to confuse between Alfred and
Albert. Clearly, Ms. Mini is not a connoisseur of the Batman trilogy or
of Nolan.
Are you serious about the movie being too long? We had an interval an
hour and a half into the movie which took me by surprise coz I couldn't
bring myself to believe that more than half n hour has passed since the
movie started. With a storyline so gripping, the acting so excellent and
a direction so masterful I think this movie is an extraordinary piece of
cinema.
Well.. I want to say something to you reviewer.. PLEASE DON'T REVIEW
THINGS IF YOU DON'T HAVE ANY KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO WRITE.
What Christopher Nolan depicted i.e Bane Vs Batman, comes from a
series of Comic Books. And the things that you call "Long and MINDLESS
chatty" is actually a masterpiece. I'm pretty sure you have never read
any Batman comic in your life and you just saw what all Nolan has made
so far. Nolan had to some up things in the movie as it was the last
Bat movie that Christian agreed on. The way he summed up is superb. It
might be boring for you as you have NO proper knowledge of Batman and villains. You are making a review sounding like a kid reviewing what
he saw in theater..
Wow! You gotta be kidding me!!! I think this is an amazing movie, one
of the best super heroes movie ever made actually. Not sure what you
were looking for in this movie but I just felt that it was an
extremely well-directed movie. The performances were great pretty much
thorughout. Batman was superb both as the batman and Bruce Wayne,
catwoman was electrifying, Robin was pretty darn good. Bane was ok, if
not exceptional. And most importantly, the direction from Christopher
Nolan was as good as it could be. I would like to know what movies you
have liked in past because that information is important to understand
a reviewer's mindset.
i dont think people r gonna remember this so called review for long.
Even if they do they will remember it for the silly reference of
'Albert' Lol.
But TDKR will be remembered as the one of the EPIC trilogy conclusions
ever.
The Legend has Risen ....
It isn't that great or epic as the previous one 'the dark
knight'.Christopher and his crew would have filmed with the main aim
only to end the series.It is clearly seen throughout the film as the
scenes appear incomplete.With these four years gap the dark knight isn't
rised only the technology rises.
It isn't that great or epic as the previous one 'the dark
knight'.Christopher and his crew would have filmed with the main aim
only to end the series.It is clearly seen throughout the film as the
scenes appear incomplete.With these four years gap the dark knight isn't
rised only the technology rises.
At the risk of this comment not getting published--
Hindu, please get a new 'film critic'. 'Robin titters'? Does this person even know the 'abc' of discussing movies?
Factual Error First - Its Alfred and not Albert...completely inexcusable
for a reviewer to do this...especially if one doesnt have the patience
to sit through a 2hr 45 min epic ( i doubt if uve seen the trilogy at
all)...I wonder if you know the difference between being objective and
subjective. guess you need a lesson in writing a review after all. Try
making a movie to this scale of what Nolan is capable of...and then let
someone review to feel the pinch. Hopefully you will learn from your
mistakes and Rise! :)
hindu needs a better movie reviewer who has a better understanding of movies
Arguably. one of the best movie ever in the history of world cinema.
Go through reviews, ONLY after watching the movie.
You clearly are clueless about Nolan's batman trilogy. Or really dont have enough attention span to sit through a really good cinema. Atleast next time try to get the names of the characters right, before commenting about anything else (ALFRED not ALBERT). Sprinkling rarely used words all over your article does not automatically make you a good critic
I was shocked to read your opinion. There is no review in the note
above. And at best it is superficial! If Batman series is not your kind
of movie, you should have done us a favor and opted out of it. If I did
not know any better, I would think this is a child forced to write an
imposition! Needless to say, I loved it!
And thats the way to end the trilogy. Got goosebumps. Would like to see
the movie again and again. Sad this is Nolan's conclusion in the batman
series. The sneak peek of Man of Steel looks promising. Goyer and Nolan
brother's rock.
Review not to be taken seriously.
4.5/5
this movie is a masterpiece period. michael caine plays alfred not
albert, a must watch movie, best so far in a long time !
I don't know...if you really payed attention to the themes, ideas, nods
to the previous films and the essence within the chaos, I think if you
really understood what Nolan's film accomplishes and what it does,
perhaps your view would be different, but then again I guess we all
don't see the stuff in a film that makes it great. For example, I
thought Avatar was easily the most overrated movie of all time without
anything other special effects to make it look decent.
The movie is simply breathtaking and Awesome.. in one word Epic and i
don't think anyone would agree to the negatives point that are
highlighted by author because it's totally idiotic. Christopher Nolan is
a genius and his incredible story is beyond the understanding of this
article's author!
Above all its a masterpiece... nice article cause u are using nice
gourmet of english letters but its a masterpiece ..... go watch it
because its not bOL bachhan or any typical mindless melodrama its THE
DARK NIGHT.... any remarks against this movie is laughable ... and its
not boring..you would get lost in magnificence of this movie ,,..kudos
to Christian Bale ... kudos 5/5
well your opinion is your opinion i suppose , even if its wrong . If you thought it was
too long and took itself way to seriously , then you must have the worst attention
span , not mention a lack of understanding and/or respect for the trilogies tone and
atmosphere. maybe you would have bin happy with an hour and a half movie filled
with pretty colors and a justin bieber soundtrack pffff... and micheal caine did not
reprise his role as "ALBERT" its "ALFRED" ... if your gonna write a review on a
masterpiece of a film at least get the characters name right ( at least)
Please Email the Editor