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Monday, 9 November 2015

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES REVIEW

*MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*
If you're looking for a great way to conclude one of the biggest and best superhero franchises ever made, this is it.
Christian Bale returns as the iconic superhero, Batman, and he is at his weakest. Due to the events at the end of The Dark Knight, Wayne is injured and hasn't been able to be the vigilante he once was. For eight years, he's been living in his manor with his butler, Alfred (Michael Caine) caring for him.
Likewise with The Dark Knight, we are introduced to the villain, Bane (Tom Hardy), at the beginning of the film. And we first see him after a bag is taken over his head which is similar to The Dark Knight because we don't see the Joker's face until after he takes his mask off near the end of the opening sequence. I think this is a great way to introduce a villain. With the Joker, he has just robbed a bank. I didn't think that could be topped in this film but director Christopher Nolan manages to make another tense sequence by having Bane crashing a plan whilst kidnapping a doctor.
Whilst Hardy is brilliant as Bane, it would be unfair to compare it to Ledger's Joker so I'm not going to do that. Bane wears a mask over the majority of his face and is twice the size of Batman due to his huge body which makes him intimidating. His plan is to destroy Gotham City by creating a bomb.
When Bruce discovers Bane's plane, he soon recovers from his injury and re-learns his fighting skills from the first film, Batman Begins. However, his fighting skills are rubbish compared to Bane, whose fighting skills are brutal. In one fight sequence between the two, he manages to break Batman's back. This is really disturbing as, out of the whole trilogy, we've never seen Batman beaten, mentally and physically, like this. This makes us wonder: is the villain going to get away with his plan?
Of course, to fight off a villain like Bane, Batman needs a support system. Returning to help Bruce are: his loyal butler, Alfred; Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) and Lieutenant Jim Gordon (who has recently been promoted to Commissioner.
We are also introduced to some new characters in this film, one of them being Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) who is a cat burgular and femme fatale. She's flirtatious and mysterious and we never really know, for sure, who's side she's on until the conclusion of the film. Hathaway is one of my favourite actresses, and has been for a long time, so I loved watching her as Kyle. She was perfect for the role.
In The Dark Knight, Bruce didn't have a love interest but he does in this film and it's Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard) who is a member of the Wayne Enterprises executive board and encourages Bruce to rejoin society and continue his father's philanthropic works.
As always, there are plenty of action sequences, especially in the finale. The way Nolan created this scene was incredible and it's what I loved most about this film.
I'm sad to see one of the greatest superhero franchises come to an end but I'm happy that Nolan managed to create a film that was just as good as it's previous predecessors.
8/10
Read my review of Batman Begins here
Read my review of The Dark Knight here

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