Christian Bale reprises his role as Bruce Wayne/Batman in the final installment of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises,and is forced to come face to face with new villains once again. This time it is the terrorist leader Bane (Tom Hardy) and cat burglar, Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway).
In the previous movie Batman had to combat the famed Joker who caused havoc in the city of Gotham. Joker convinced Harvey Dent to seek revenge against Batman and those responsible for the death of his lover, Rachel Dawes. Dent decides to use his lucky coin to decide the fate of those he assumes are responsible, Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) and his family being just a few of the people captured within Dent’s grip of revenge. While Batman saved the life of Gordon’s young son, many still die. Batman decided to let the public think that he was the one responsible for all the deaths to keep Dent’s name in good standing with the public. Gordan on the other hand knows the truth.
The Dark Knight Rises is set eight years after the extensive damage the Joker brought upon the city and its residents. During this time, Batman isolated himself within the walls of Wayne Manor as Gotham rebuilt itself with the help of Gordon and John Blake (Joseph Gordon Leavitt).
During a celebration of Dent’s life and his successes, Gordan is tempted to tell the people of Gotham the truth behind the murders eight years ago but finds that it may not be the right time to do so. Terrorist leader Bane arrives and takes over the celebration and wounds Gordon forcing his subordinate Blake to take over. After Wayne learns that one of his projects he had been investing in over the years was actually being used for nuclear devices, Wayne decides to shut down the project. One of Wayne’s business rivals is suspected to have employed terrorist leader Bane to takeover the company and use its nuclear devices against the city.
After finding out the truth Bruce Wayne decides to return to the streets of Gotham as Batman, though the decision is met with great resistance by his trusty butler Alfred (Michael Caine). Bane has taken the lead in bringing Wayne Enterprises down and an intense confrontation leaves Batman hurt and condemned to an inescapable prison. Bane is left free to wreak uncontested havoc on Gotham, once again bringing a violent storm of perilous destruction upon its people. While Batman is stuck in Bane’s prison, we learn the sordid history of Bane.
To say much more would give a lot of the story away. Suffice it to say, The Dark Knight Rises is this year’s best comic book movie so far. The graphics, action, soundtrack and opening sequence are amazing. The storyline leaves you wanting more. Christopher Nolan has does an excellent job in all the installments of Batman but is remarkably exceptional in the third and final installment of the series.
5 out of 5 stars
