The Dark Knight Rises

**SPOILERS INCLUDED**

Rarely is a movie as anticipated as The Dark Knight Rises.  And rarely do I find myself  in no hurry to get out of the theatre after two hours and 45 minutes.  Mostly because movies don’t tend to run that long, but also because I was still soaking it all in.  There was a lot to this movie--but in a good way.  Not in the way that The Dark Knight really needed to be broken into two movies.

We reintroduce ourselves to Nolan’s Gotham after an eight-year hiatus.  Ra’s Al Ghul may be dead but his plan lives on.  The League of Shadows still has its sights set on destroying the city and turning Gotham’s residents against one another.  In an effort to keep the peace of the city, now Commissioner Gordon (Oldman) allows the Batman (Bale) to continue as the scapegoat for past atrocities.

Time has taken more than it’s toll on Mr. Wayne and his comfortable ability to ignore the outside world.   After learning he is nearly broke due to a failed clean energy project with Wayne Enterprises board member Miranda Tate (Cotillard), Alfred (Caine) passionately seizes the opportunity to further his campaign for Wayne to move on from the loss of Rachel.  Wayne has no choice but to return to living a public life.  

Bane’s opening move is an attack on the stock exchange which drains Wayne’s final pennies forcing him to hand over control of Wayne Enterprises to Tate, one of the few people he trusts.  Stripped of his monetary fortune, Wayne resurrects his alter ego and sets out to hunt the mercenary with the assistance of particularly beautiful cat burglar, Selina Kyle (Hathaway).   Kyle makes sure to stay on the cusp of the action without being fully invested in any outcome.

Once face-to-face, Bane annihilates and physically cripples Batman-with Kyle looking on.  Upon waking , Wayne finds himself in a foreign prison that resembles a large well.  There is a man who tells Wayne his job is to keep him alive so he can witness the horror that is to befall Gotham.  (In a place that looks like it doesn’t even have running water, it’s a bit of a stretch to think there is enough juice and reception for a TV, but I’ll go along with it.)

With the Batman out of his way, Bane commandeers Wayne Enterprise’s clean energy core and converts it into a nuclear fusion bomb.  He makes a very public spectacle of informing the public of his plan for Gotham which leads to chaos.  To ensure no one can interfere with the plan, the bomb is mobilized in the back of a semi truck and sent out to traverse the city and keep it's whereabouts a secret.

After hearing stories of a child who was able to make the perilous climb up the wall to escape the prison, something seems to click for Wayne.  Adding to his incentive, we come to learn the child was the offspring of Ra’s Al Ghul.  Now we know where Bane fits into all of this. 

Where we had a costume before to clearly let us know when he’s Batman and when he’s Bruce Wayne, now they seem to be becoming indistinguishable.  He is determined to succeed in saving Gotham.   He gains enough strength to make the climb but still fails because his two egos are at odds.  By embracing both sides of who he is, he realizes he is the only one who can stop Bane.  

He makes a most awesome reentrance to his city and brings along a few choice toys.  With recruits Kyle, Gordon, Lucius Fox, Tate and a police detective named John Blake (Gordon-Levitt), who knows Batman’s true identity, they set out to destroy Bane and save the citizens of Gotham.

Batman has finally overpowered Bane, and his inner demons, when Tate suddenly stabs Batman and reveals herself as Ra’s Al Ghul’s daughter, the child who escaped from the prison.  Once she believes Batman is fatally injured, she turns her attention back to detonating the bomb and Kyle is able to swoop in with her cat-like reflexes and save our hero.

Maneuvering through Gotham’s cityscape with his bat, Batman is able to catch up to Tate and drag the bomb out to sea.  As we watch in the distance, the bat is replaced by a giant explosion.  I couldn’t help but think, this feels right.  Batman should die.  Not because he deserved to die or because you want him to, but because it just feels right.  In some ways, Batman does indeed need to die so Bruce Wayne can live on-without the shadow.

Nolan’s wrap is superb in some points and clunky in others.  The ending scene with Aflred at the café in Venice-love it.  However, for as clever and tight as his writing is, sometimes he resorts to hitting us over the head so hard with what is obvious.  It puts a scratch in the finish that you just can’t buff out to make perfect.  There were a few of these moments in Inception and I’m still not over that.  If I ever had the honor of speaking with him, I would bring it up because this movie-as well as his other movies-was so enjoyable and so well done on almost every level that I’m sad to have the smallest bit of a sour taste left in my mouth.