The Dark knight rises - Not an end but a new Beginning

Best Dialogue -
 Selina  -"You've given them everything!" 
Wayne  -"Not everything, not yet." 


Director-    Christopher Nolan
Producer - Christopher Nolan ,Emma Thomas  ,
 Charles Roven
Writer - David S. Goyer , Jonathan Nolan 
Music - Hans Zimmer
Cast -  Christian Bale , Michael Caine , Gary Oldman , Anne Hathaway,
 Tom Hardy , Marion Cotillard  ,Joseph Gordon-Levitt  , Morgan Freeman
Budget-  $250,000,000 

Harvey Dent says in The Dark Knight, "The night is darkest before the dawn".
After a dark film like The Dark Knight Christopher Nolan gives us The Dark Knight Rises ,  which is about hope,fighting one's fears for their loved ones. The interweaving of new characters with Batman Begins origins, the themes of hope and chaos , the call for the importance of truth and sacrifice and the strength of the human spirit and soul literally takes you to a place or a view of the world we want to prevail.  In The Dark Knight, Batman always seemed one step behind the Joker. In The Dark Knight Rises, we lost count of the number of moments when Batman was in exactly the right place at exactly the right time. 


In Batman Begins the main theme was fear, In The Dark Knight it was chaos and in The Dark Knight Rises the key theme is  hope. This film isn't about Batman's villains. In fact, one of Nolan's key ambitions with this project was to make the hero more interesting than his enemies and he has succeeded which was evident in the excitement we felt at the sight of Batman's symbol, in flames, on the side of the building.It  made us feel like kids again,happy that our hero was back to save the day. 
 
"Sometimes the truth isn't good enough, sometimes people deserve more. Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded. " 

The Dark Knight Rises starts with this as its foundation. It has been eight years since the death of Harvey Dent and the lie of who he is and what he has done is still going strong .

Presumably years of superhero activity has worn the cartilage from Wayne's joints, the death of loved ones has crushed his spirit, and Catwoman antics upon the fingerprints of his apathy has left him penniless. Even as he takes a final gasp to rise, Bane breaks his back and leaves him imprisoned in the pit of his childhood well. Finding what is important enough to raise ourselves from that pain, despair and hopelessness, is the thick story that plays upon the backdrop of rich and poor, war and wall obstacles. There is a wall to scale that can only be accomplished with the full commitment of abandoning the net. To trust what has killed you will not kill you again. To give all that you can give and then to rest, knowing you have inspired the good you have seen in others to carry on. 


Before Batman makes his supreme sacrifice, Gordon cries out that the people of Gotham should know the identity of the man who saved them. Batman replies, " I am no more of a hero than the man who wrapped a coat around a young boy, to show him the world hadn't ended ." 

Like Nolan's earlier films The Dark Knight Rises has lots of outstanding moments which makes viewing this film a wonderful experience.

Every actor was so perfect in their roles that they broke the thin wall between fiction and reality and we could actually feel their happiness and pain .

Michael Caine  is at his career-best here, delivering his lines with such layered intensity its impossible to watch it without a lump in your throat. The fact the scene contains Alfred confessing to Bruce he burnt Rachel's letter, and that it ends with Pennyworth abandoning Bruce for his own good (tragically breaking his promise to Never! leave his friend), makes it nearly impossible to watch. His performance encompassed both resignation and determination along with love for his master who was more like a son to him.
 "You are as precious to me as you were to your own mother and father, I swore to them that I would protect you and I  haven't "

Tom Hardy  was Bane ,the heartless  terrorist leader intent on destroying Gotham City. The sinister, glottal voice was purposely  used by Nolan as he wanted the audience to catch up and participate rather than push everything at them. 
Bane was at his cruelest best when he tells Wayne - "When Gotham is ashes,  you have my permission to die. "

Anne Hathaway in a  sassy and wicked role with a hint of vulnerability impressed everyone .  She trained rigorously for her role as Selina Kyle, working out five days a week on a regime that included stunt training, intensive exercise and dancing. In her own way, Selina Kyle is every bit as intimidating as Bane. She was at her best when she reprimands Bruce Wayne, and Gotham generally, for their complacency. " You and your friends better batten down the hatches, because when it hits, you and your friends are going to wonder how you ever thought you could live so large, and leave so little for the rest of us."  When she betrays Batman, and the cage first comes down, we can see through her expressions that she instantly regret her actions. 

Marion Cottilard excelled in both her roles of Wayne's lover and enemy.Her hatred of Batman is made tragic by the realisation that, like Bruce, she is grieving for her dead parent. 
"I could not forgive my father until you murdered him," she says.  
But she has a coldness  which equals that of Bane. Just as Bane left his henchman to perish on the plane, Talia orders her oldest ally to stay behind and guard Batman, so her enemy can feel the heat of the bomb blast's flames. Bane has cared for her since she was a child. It's essentially the equivalent of Bruce leaving Alfred to die. And, ultimately, her disloyalty leads to her undoing. 

John Blake's speech about how he realised Bruce was Batman (through pure detective work and instinct ) is as moving as anything in the film - and it's the first sign of the intense connection the two men share.  When John comments he doesnt care who sees him, Batman corrects him. " You have got to wear a mask, to protect those you care about." 



Modine's journey from careerist Deputy Commissioner Foley   to dedicated cop is one of the delights of the film. Modine goes from boasting about Gordons imminent retirement, to being a coward when Bane takes over the city, he hides away  even letting his wife answer the door to Gordon during a violent occupation. 

Gordon points this out, reminds Foley of their time on the streets together, and asks him " Have you buried your uniform? "
This confrontation with Gordon is a turning point for Foley, and the next time we see him, he's leading a seemingly hopeless charge against Banes army  in full police uniform. It's far from buried. It's gleaming. The moment is indicative of Gordons power to inspire, and mirrors the franchises general theme of the power of good to overwhelm corruption and fear. 
                 
Unlike the other two films women play an important part in this film. Its actually Selina Kyle's actions of stealing  Wayne's mother pearls and  more mysteriously  his own fingerprints from his safe that bring Wayne out from his exile.

The Bat added in this film which Wayne uses  on his very first foray back as Batman  
wipes the smile off a particularly smug Deputy Commissioner and is one of the humorous moments of the film . 
"He's trapped like a rat!" drools Foley, shortly before The Bat roars into action. 
"Are you sure you have the right animal, sir?" A police officer says. 
"Are you sure it's him?" John Blake smiles. 

Coming to the action sequences, the plane heist sequence is by far one of the most impressive. 
Its all the more awe-inspiring when you realise it was shot using real stuntmen, by Chris Nolan circling the scene in a helicopter. 
It is matched by another scene where Batman shoots  out the back of a truck so he can use it as an improvised ramp, to enable him to fly through the sky.  

When Bruce Wayne begins his final attempt to escape Bane's prison without the safety of a rope to halt his fall, he does so because he believes his fear will save him  it will give him the extra edge required to make the final jump. The chant that we hear during this scene was  was composed by Zimmer, who then encouraged thousands of Batman fans to record themselves singing it so he could weave their voices together for the finished article. It was a brilliant way of making the fans feel involved in a project that has held millions captivated for months on end.

Every single villain in The Dark Knight trilogy has offered a choice that turned out to be fixed, and the Scarecrow's court scene contains the most vivid example. 
His sentenced victims are offered a choice between exile or death. The cowardly choose exile. Gordon, as brave as he is good, chooses death. Only to be told: "The sentence is death. By exile."  

Why was The Dark Knight Rises the weakest of the trilogy - 

1. After 'Batman Begins', and 'The Dark Knight' people had high expectations from the last part(though it is really hard to top the latter), and of course the expectations were not met but at the same time the plot is weak. Bruce Wayne is in a prison clearly not in the US but not only he conveniently becomes stronger after broken back he makes it in time to save the city from the bomb. The details associated with the bomb are  in itself very confusing .

2. Bane - Nolan took a compelling actor Tom Hardy and buried his face and his voice. In fact, most of his dialogues in this movie were difficult to hear.The transformation of a  menacing, intelligent, "brute force" who was a towering figure throughout the movie into a secondary villain towards the end was not a very good idea.

3. The threat on the city - 
And the threat on Gotham City, a nuclear one, was surprisingly unorignial considering how innovative the poisonous vapor threat was in "Batman Begins" or how chaos forced the protagnists of Gotham to make extremely troubling decisions in "The Dark Knight." 

4- Misguided Message - Nolan said many times that A Tale of Two Cities   was the inspiration for this film. A Tale of Two Cities was about the French Revolution, in which the poor overthrow the corrupt and decadent rich. In this film, the leader of the poor is Bane, who is the villain , not the hero. And his minions? Yes, they're criminals. It seems this is the exact opposite of Dickens classic. Bane's henchmen literally attack Wall Street, savagely beat the rich and promise the good people of Gotham that "tomorrow, you claim what is rightfully yours." 
Selina's friend (Juno Temple) assures her at one point, when they enter a swanky abode, that "this is everyone's home" now  in perfect Communist fashion. 

5. One of the weakest thing about the film is the lack of tension. In both Batman Begins  and The Dark Knight , there is a genuine level of tension in both Ra's al Ghul attempting to reach the water hub in Wayne Tower and the Joker's midnight dead-line for the boats. However, in The Dark Knight Rises , the tension doesn't work because the bomb plot is so confused. Saying that if one person tries to leave Gotham it will be blown is simply ludicrous and unworkable. 

6. And last but not the least for a batman movie, it doesn't have a lot of batman in it !! ( It takes around 45 minutes for Batman to appear in costume)

In a line this isnt a sequel  this is the concluding chapter of a trilogy. 
The story might be set eight years after The Dark Knight, but  the two films are thoroughly connected. Watching the  three films back to back is what makes this Batman series such a good watch.