AJ’s “The Dark Knight Rises” Review

Oh boy.

There comes a time in a person’s life when what could be described as a simple everyday activity transcends and becomes an experience, just like an ordinary man can become a symbol. I didn’t grow up in the 70s or 80s, so by the time I was born, “Star Wars” was already out, and the prequels meant nothing to me. I never paid attention to “Lord of the Rings” when I was younger so they meant nothing to me either.

In 2008, I saw “The Dark Knight”. It changed the way I looked at movies and for the first time in my life, I knew films would be my passion. “The Dark Knight” created a fire within me, and mutual love for it found me friends in my life too. For all intents and purposes, Christopher Nolan’s conclusion, “The Dark Knight Rises” is my “Star Wars”.

I went into the theatre at 6pm last night to start on “Batman Begins”, and got out at 3am after seeing what now has to be called one of the true triumphs of our generation. Writing a review on such a movie is very… difficult because I really don’t want to spoil anything, but to fully explain what I loved about the movie, I would have to give away everything. BUT NO. I will not spoil a thing. NO SPOILERS. Merely opinion.

In what has to be one of the most astonishingly pressured moves ever, Nolan and team took on the challenge of creating a film that had to top it’s brilliant predecessors. A while ago I wrote a Rated AJ blog called “4 Reasons why “The Dark Knight Rises” might suck, and 1 reason why it won’t”, and in it I wrote that Nolan would deliver, no matter what, and it is with immense happiness and victory that I can proclaim that “Rises” is by all means an amazing movie. Everything on my secret “Rises” wish list came true, everything I wanted to happen, happened, and it was satsfying to say the least.

So… The elephant in the room needs addressing. Yes it was great, yes it delivered but… is it better than “The Dark Knight”? Well, I have to start with the lame answer here, and say it is VERY different. I think the best way to make a better sequel is just to make it so utterly incomparable to the original. “Batman Begins” is different from “The Dark Knight” in so many ways, and as such is “Rises”. I would split “Rises” up into three parts, the first part resembles “The Dark Knight”’s aesthetic and style. The second part then resembles “Batman Begins”, taking a far more spiritual approach which may be hard to swallow for those who don’t like Nolan’s break-out Bat movie(and by the way, what the hell don’t you like about it?). The third part is something else entirely. The third part(which makes up the second half of this almost 3 hour epic) shows you a film that has never ever been made before. I have never seen a film like this. So after much consideration and retrospect I’m going to lock in my option of “The Dark Knight Rises” being the greatest Batman movie ever made.

Watching a movie with a dorky grin over your face the entire time is a weird experience.

A lot of critics are saying the film sort of falls a little flat during some of the earlier segments, and I’d tend to agree, but why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up. Batman’s voice is also still as silly and at sometimes inaudible as it was in “The Dark Knight”, and the new villain Bane also has some pieces of dialogue come out pretty unclear, though at times it actually makes him cooler, and what a cool character he is… But I shall say no more.

Basically, almost everything people were worrying about ruining the film don’t ruin it at all. No character is wasted, no plot point out of place. The title is still stupid, but relevant to the story(I say begrugingly). It’s not PERFECT, but it’s damn near close, and regardless, remember that neither of the other 2 movies are COMPLETELY flawless anyway.

As the credits rolled, I stood to my feet and clapped in the theatre. I turned to my friends and proclaimed the film’s glory in a raspy 3am voice. “The Dark Knight Rises” is exciting and everything in it has been crafted with story-telling precision. It’s downright record breaking how consistently great this director is, but this his coup de grace. If you’ll allow me to describe the film in one word, I would say “Big”, and the drastic change in narrative may take a little getting used to if you were expecting “The Dark Knight 2”. But once the film finds itself, once it sits you down and says “Okay so uh.. Here’s what we’re gonna be doing for the rest of the movie” you understand, and you appreciate it. You become lost in the universe more than ever, and it blows you away.

There will always be people who say that nothing can beat “The Dark Knight” and some who ever insist that the third instalment sucks. “Rises” is a lot more like the graphic novels than the other two, and some die hard “TDK” fans will probably fight it until the ends of the earth. But the best way to enjoy it is to look at it as it’s own movie, not just a sequel.

Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises” is sad, tragic, lonely and sorrowful, yet at the same time it is beautiful in every way. It takes a movie like this to make you see how awful some other half-assed superhero films are. Next time you tell someone “Thor” is a pretty good movie, or even “Iron Man”…. or yes, even “The Avengers”, just remember how amazing the final chapter of the dark knight trilogy is. Because it’s not just a great superhero movie, it’s a great movie, and it’s not just a movie, it’s an experience, and as much as Bruce Wayne’s ideals stand immortal, Team Nolan’s triumph rises above all that could have been expected.

But really, what did you expect?