The Dark Knight Rises

First of all, don’t be afraid to go see this movie. You could die doing anything, at any time. You might as well be doing something cool, like seeing a Chris Nolan Batman movie. Besides, it’s highly unlikely that you will be. We should support it so that psychos everywhere know we aren’t driven by fear, and so that Mr. Orange Hair knows that he doesn’t have a whole lot of power over us.

The Dark Knight Rises is not as good as The Dark Knight, but that was a really high bar. Things in the beginning were choppy and disconnected, but it all came together so perfectly. It was dark, but infused with hope. The action and visuals were great. It has all the depth and grittiness we’ve come to expect from these Batman movies. The conclusion left us satisfied and knowing that there will never be three better Batmans than these. Taken together, they are perfect. The way this movie ends things fits with the themes, messages, and story arc started by Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. We've heard people complain, but we were pretty sure this movie was awesome.

Anne Hathaway surprised us by being an excellent Catwoman. Our concern was that Anne couldn’t pull off the sex appeal of the character. We were wrong. Anne was sexy without coming across as slutty. Her version of sexy was smart, manipulative, and confident. There were a few times when she would over-deliver a line with the sexiness, but overall, we loved her. We always complained that Chris Nolan was lousy at casting women, but maybe he’s broken the curse.

Tom Hardy’s Bane was appropriately terrifying most of the time, but we feel like they never did get the voice right. Some of his lines were unintentionally funny. Still, he did a good job. Marion Cotillard is the same as she always is (not bad at all). Christian Bale was good. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was good (and one of us didn’t really like him to begin with). Everyone was good.

There were a few surprises, plotwise, for us. We liked them though. The movie was nearly three hours long, but it was entertaining and intense the entire time. There was a little more emotion in this movie than there was in The Dark Knight, and it really worked for us. We would definitely see it again in theaters.

Sidenote: It’s hilarious that stupid Rush Limbaugh thinks Bane is a diss of Romney. Umm, isn’t Batman the billionaire? And we sort of thought if there was any political subtext, unintended or not, it was Republican. The rich, technology, cops, run-of-the mill courage, and normal society save the day, while the government of “the people,” environmentalist endeavors, and oppressed criminals don’t do so well.

Also, those who have seen the movie might have noticed that the themes of self-sacrifice, the significance of the “clean slate,” the "rising" stuff, and an important three-month time period are all things that mesh with Christianity and things conservatives like. Rush should be loving this movie, but he’s too dumb to notice when something is up his alley anymore. It’s attack first, watch later with this guy.

Movie Grade: A