The Dark Knight Rises:

So Saturday night I headed out to the movies, my goal, to catch Michael Fassbender in Prometheus before it left my local theatre. Too late... Prometheus had it last showing the night before. The choice was down to Spiderman, which had already begun or The Dark Knight Rises which was starting in about 2 minutes. My choice would have been Andrew Garfield and Spiderman but in addition to my loathing of entering a movie once it has started (and leaving to have to go to the bathroom) one of the people I was with had seen Spiderman, so.... The Dark Knight Rises it was.



I had little interest in TDKR for a few reasons. Yes, the shooting in Colorado was fresh in everyone’s mind, that in itself was enough to pause. I also really didn’t get into the previous two films helmed by Christopher Nolan. Uninteresting female leads (Katie & Maggie) were part of it, but Nolan’s Batman, although clear in his choice of title, were just a little too dark for my taste. Ledger’s tour de force performance aside, I preferred remembering the fun I had going to see Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer when I was in high school. I shuddered at the thought of Anne Hathaway (annoying on a good day) prancing around as a poor substitute for Pfeiffer.



I could not have been more wrong. Maybe it was partly because of what happened in Colorado. Real tragedy causes make believe death and destruction turn to far lighter fare. I think everyone was a bit on edge during the previews, but The Dark Knight Rises ended up being I think my favorite Batman movie to date. Bale and company were great and Anne Hathaway gave what I consider to be her best performance to date. Now I know that Hathaway is a good actress, but in most of her movies I feel she is performing (belting) to the audience in the back row of a high school production of Guys & Dolls. Even with the showy role of Catwoman, Hathaway remained appropriately restrained, letting her claws out only when prey was within reach.



Performances from Marion Cotillard and Tom Hardy also stood out. Coltillard because it was so predictable and Hardy’s because it was not. I generally worship at Coltillard in anything she appears in, but her story arc in this film was clear to me from her first scene. Her character, and the accompanying twist, could have been removed without the film missing a beat. Hardy on the other hand, even masked was incredible. I have known Hardy mostly because in the past, he has removed his pants in almost every film he appears in, but in Batman, he they remained tightly on his buffed up body. Bane has now become my favorite Bat foe and Hardy, an actor to follow, even with his clothes on. As the lights came up after the climatic ending, minds were once again dragged to the reality of what the movie will now always represent. For the 2 and half hours the movie played however, I was blissfully lost in the movies.