Chris Nolan throws in the trowel in tidying up the trilogy of the cape and cowl.
Beginning with an excellent action adventure mid air escape sequence where we are introduced to villain Bane, a hybrid Hannibal Lecter cum World Championship Wrestler caricature, we are catapulted into a Gotham City eight years after the events of the last film.
Harvey Dent has been canonised and the Dark Knight demonised. Bruce Wayne has become a Howard Hughesesque hermit ministered by his overweening butler, Alfred.
At a charity do at stately Wayne Manor, bearded Bruce catches cat burglar Selina Kyle purloining his mother’s necklace. But it’s not just the family jewels she’s interested in but lifting the fingerprints of the billionaire in a case of dire digital identity theft.
This purloining pussy makes Bruce’s loins purr but she’s in the employ of Bane whose plan is to crash Wayne’s stocks and make the prince a pauper.
The plot is pretty impressive – bankrupt Bruce, take control of the Wayne Corporation, and use the clean, green reactor the billionaire benefactor have been developing to make a dirty nuclear bomb.
The most horrifying aspect of this is that it’s not motivated by ransom but revenge; erratic, overwrought, emotive zealotry brought about by blind devotion and sociopathic instinct fostered by a cult that worships killing.
Christian Bale as Bruce/Batman, Michael Caine as the Batman’s batman, Alfred, Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon, and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox are all back for this franchise finale and are joined by Marion Cotillard, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy and Ben Mendelssohn, but its Joseph Gordon-Levitt who is the real surprise here, a scene stealing turn as an orphan succored by the Wayne Foundation and now a Gotham City cop who aids and abets the Bat better than anybody.
Seasoned behind the scenesers who have contributed to all three episodes of the trilogy -Aussie editor Lee Smith, cinematographer, Wally Pfister and cossie designer Lindy Hemming – add their prodigious talents to this spectacular black, bleak and brutal curtain.
One could nitpick about some of the choices and whether THE DARK KNIGHT RISES is superior to its predecessors (it’s not) but it’s certainly a million miles more entertaining than any of the Marvel movies, leaving Spidey and The Avengers in a dark dust of disappointment.
As super heroes go, nobody beats the Bat for a balance of brain and brawn.
© Richard Cotter
19th July, 2012
Tags: Sydney Arts Guide- THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, Sydney Arts Guide. Richard Cotter.