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HunterCressall
HunterCressall's stats
- Review count1
- Helpfulness votes0
- First reviewJuly 21, 2012
- Last reviewJuly 21, 2012
- Featured reviews0
- Average rating5
HunterCressall's Reviews
Overall rating
5
/
5
Pressed for time even at almost three hours
PostedJuly 21, 2012
Dialogue
3
/
5
Special Effects
5
/
5
Art Direction
4
/
5
Acting
4
/
5
Story
4
/
5
Camerawork
5
/
5
There is a lot to know and learn while watching The Dark Knight Rises. There are past foes, Gotham politics, new characters, flashbacks, hints, clues, subplots... There are callbacks to the 1960's TV show and borrowed scraps from the animated series. It's a full two hours and forty-four minutes.
For the fully immersed viewer there are rich rewards for your efforts. Characters are explored and evolved. Ideas are presented and dissected. It's a good story. It's a fantastic cast. The only drawback seems to be that even at nearly three hours you can't help but feel that the film could have use about fifteen more minutes to get its work done.
Yet for all this, the story succeeds in exhilarating rather than exhausting. All the throwaway name-checks and trivia bits feel fun rather than forced. Not a single speaking roll in this film is not filled by a name actor from shows as diverse as Dexter and Stargate SG1. It's like a party that Nolan invited you to attend.
I want to add at this point that the film was not shot in 3D and will not be post converted to 3D. The film benefits immeasurably from this decision. Its muted tones and rapid movement would leave most 3D audiences squinting and lost.
What surprised me was the naked and aggressive indictment of collectivism, Wall street cynicism and the general Raison d'être of the occupy movement. The film literally gives Occupy what it wants and serves up a rather bleak and ugly calculus of the results. While wandering through the looted trash of an upper class apartment after the film's midpoint, Anne Hathaway's Selina is asked who the formerly opulent apartment belonged to. She replies "...somebody rich...It's everyone's now...". Not very subtle.
Yet all-in-all The Dark Knight Rises stays ahead of politics and tells a story of personal conflict, directionlessness and growth. I won't spoil anything about the story but the 'rise' in question isn't Batman's. The film asks us mostly what fulfills us? What keeps us moving? And what do we do when life has apparently taken all of our motivations away from us. The answer is satisfying if not marginally perfunctory. I am man enough to admit that I dabbed at a tear or two through the credits. The conclusion is thoroughly satisfying if not totally canonical and manages to throw a curve ball or two.
My takeaway from The Dark Knight Rises?
Worth the three hours.
Pros well paced, great story, great actors, this is a dense ball of fun, corny dialog
Cons bad acting, too complex, nolan clearly has hearing problems, corny dialog
Yes, I recommend this movie.
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