The Dark Knight Rises

Movie: The Dark Knight Rises

Genre: thriller

Synopsis: This is the third and final chapter in this reboot of the Batman series.  Batman (Christian Bale) has been off the grid for seven years.  After Harvey Dent died in the previous movie, Batman took the blame for his death.  He wanted the (good) image of Dent to remain with the public rather than the true evil side of Dent.  Now it seems that crime is returning to Gotham City – in the form of Bane (Tom Hardy).  Bane is absolutely one of the most intimidating villains of any of the recent super-hero movies.  While Bane tries to take over the city, Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) tries to get Batman back on the job.  Fox (Morgan Freeman) and Alfred (Michael Caine) are back for the ride.  New players are Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levit), an eager young patrolman; Miranda (Marion Cotillard), a wealthy philanthropist; and – best of all – Selina (Ann Hathaway).  Selina is really Catwoman.  She is a cat burglar who keeps getting the best of Bruce Wayne, although they ultimately team up.  After a lot of waffling, Batman finally dons his suit and enters the battle to save Manhatten.   

My two cents: This might just be the best of the three Christopher Nolan-Christian Bale Batman movies.   Lots of nice gadgets and action.  They also spend some time on the relationship between Bruce Wayne and Alfred.  Batman is far from invincible in this movie – he actually gets his butt kicked early on.  Anne Hathaway could not have been better as Catwoman (although they never use that name).  It was great to see her consistently out-fox and out-maneuver Bruce Wayne.  My favorite part of the movie was in the last five minutes or so.  It wraps things up brilliantly.  I can’t say more without giving too much away – but even if the rest of the movie had sucked (which it did not), the final couple of scenes would have made up for it.  If you are any kind of a Batman fan, you should love this one.

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