The Dark Knight Rises

Because he has stamina...

Sunday at 4:45 PM, I went to the local theater and watched The Dark Knight Rises.  Sometime in the next week, you must also go see this movie.  Do not wait for it to come out on video.  Do not become a scared little weenie just because some crazy twenty-four-year-old in Colorado decided to ruin it for some people by killing them.  (Seriously, worst crime ever.)

So... Where do I begin? How do I write this review?  Because I'm not going to tell you a damn thing about it that give anything away.  Nope.  You have to watch it to see how it begins and ends.  So... I guess I'll tell you about the cast first.

Yes, the cast...  Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, and Morgan Freeman all did excellent jobs as they did in the first three movies.  Michael Caine made me cry, bastard.  Then again, he always makes me cry because he reminds me of my grandpa if he were British and didn't have a beard.

When I first heard Anne Hathaway was going to be in it, I was a little... pensive because I mostly remember her for her light, fluffy movies, but she did a pretty good job as Catwoman.  I won't say she did better than Michelle Pfeiffer because they played two very different Selena Kyles.  For one, Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman had lost her god-damned mind while Hathaway's character has more sanity and purpose which is nice to see after that bloody Halle Berry movie. She didn't lick herself once! And she actually... STOLE STUFF!!!  As in, that's what she did.  The first time you see her, she's stealing shit! Since Catwoman got her name from... cat burglar, I think that's more than a healthy step in the right direction.  However, her character did seem a bit tacked on which makes me somewhat sad, but I can understand.  Her character seemed to be added in for comic relief when the whole movie is as dark and hopeless as ever.

Another person in this film who wasn't before was... Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  If you don't recognize his name, he was that kid from Third Rock From the Sun.  And he's still quite the looker, girls.  He's a cop who's an orphan and that's all I can tell you about him other than the fact that he help Batman and Commissioner Gordan a lot.  I was surprised when I saw him there and I was even more surprised by his skilled work as an actor and a member of the cast and by his character's actions and arc.  I think his character was one of the bests in this particular movie.

Tom Hardy was Bane.  And, for those of you who cringed in that Joel Shumacher bullshit in the 90s, I have something to say to you: BANE IS A BIG BAD!!! He is.  He's awesome and his voice is impressive and the mask... Oh Jesus with eggs and toast, this was the Bane we all wanted and waited for.  He wasn't someone crazy like Heath Ledger's Joker.  No, he had a plan and he executed it, balls to the wall.  I've never seen Tom Hardy in a film, but he played a Bane with BRAINS and a PRESENCE.  It was... amazing.

Marion Cotillard is also in this movie.  I remember her best from the musical Nine, so I didn't know who she was, if she was a fluff character, if she would be a romantic interest.  I didn't know anything about the character of Miranda Tate, but I knew that Bruce Wayne tended to have a pretty healthy stream of love interests and this woman was handed a lot.  What I did know was that Marion Cotillard is, was, and will always be a sexy, good actress.  She executed her role perfectly and I would like to say I was impressed, but how can one be impressed by something they knew all along?

I will give special mention to Cillian Murphy who appears again and Dr. Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow, but I won't say much, because there isn't much to say other than: "Cillian, I know you like playing crazy bastards, but can you please be in some big-budget movies where we see you more? You had less than ten minutes of screen time in a nearly three hour movie AND you had, like, three lines. Is it worth it?"

Okay... So... the CGI was also nice.  Nothing stuck out as particularly bad to me (except rehashes of Harvey Dent's face), but when you see Gotham collapse (and it does) it did make me well up with tears a bit.  Just keep that in mind.

You want to hear about the story?  Sorry, I can't tell you much about that other than the fact that I LOVED it and you will too! Nice try!

So, watch it THIS week.  It's a great movie.  You won't regret it.  I may even go back and watch it again.  I really liked it.

Sweet Dreams!