Movie Night: The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

After the tragic happenings of July 20 in connection with the third Batman film: The Dark Knight Rises, I was a little apprehensive about seeing it. Of course just because the sin of one man led him to do such a horrible thing, does not mean it had any connection with the Batman film, I was temporarily scared of theaters. :P
But I had watched the first movie in the Batman trilogy and enjoyed it, though I'm still a fan of the Marvel heroes above the DC comics. I did not watch The Dark Knight, however. I had heard so many conflicting reports of whether it was good or not. Some said they enjoyed it, others that it was incredibly dark. After watching five minutes of the film in Sam's Club (gotta love display t.v.s ;) I decided I was not interested in seeing The Dark Knight. (The second film.) It gave me a feeling of depression and fear and nastiness. So when this third movie came out, I was not originally pushing to see it. I was rather neither here nor there about it. But more and more people whose opinions I respect and admire were saying that this third and final installment, The Dark Knight Rises, was a film worth seeing. In the end, not expecting to like it all that much, I decided to go with my brother, his girl, Sarah, and a group of other friends. I entered skeptical, and I left  incredibly satisfied, which was a surprise to me.

The Dark Knight Rises begins with a reformed Gotham City. Since I missed the second film, I'm not sure if this is simply a carry-over from then, but it is a far different Gotham than the Gotham of the first film. Crime is at an all-time low thanks to the efforts of the late Harvey Dent. But it is a city going through a bit of depression because of Dent's death. Most of the citizens accept the fact that Batman murdered Harvey Dent, but there are a few holders-on who think differently. Among these are Commissioner Gordon, (Gary Oldman) and a young officer-turned-detective named Blake. (Joseph Gordon-Levitt...loved him a ton, by the way. Amazing character. :)

Early on in the film, the real truth of the Dent-dilemma is learned by the villain, Bane, (Tom Hardy) and  he attempts to kill Gordon to keep the real story from the rest of Gotham City. In the meantime, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) has become a recluse in his home, Wayne Manor, and has forsaken his persona as Batman. He lives there, a wreck and ruin of what he once was before losing Rachel and with her, all that was precious to him.

The film begins to pick up speed with the introduction of Cat Woman, (Anne Hathaway) Bane, and the young, zealous, Blake, and soon is a full-out fight between the residents of Gotham City as led by Bane, against the privileged and wealthy who, Bane tells them, have been holding back and making life miserable for the commoners.

This is where the film really caught my attention. I had not expected to find this, but the plot essentially follows that of the historical French Revolution.

Selina Kyle: "There's a storm coming, Mr. Wayne. You and your friends better batten down the hatches, because when it hits, you're all gonna wonder how you ever thought you could live so large and leave so little for the rest of us."
Bruce Wayne: "You sound like you're looking forward to it."
Selina Kyle: "I'm adaptable."

The struggle between the people and their ruling powers. The dissension, the back-bitings, the sedition as whispered by Bane to the citizens of Gotham. The comparison grew as Bane begins taking over the city, and leads his own "Storming of the Bastille" by releasing the prisoners with the people's consent; telling them that the prisoners were innocent men condemned by the rich and wealthy who saw them as a threat. The parallels continue as Bane institutes a mock court presided over by none other than Scarecrow, (a.k.a. Dr. Crane of the first film. :) who mockingly tries cases and exiles/executes the new prisoners and captives.

This is the city that Batman must now try to save. But he is weak and out of shape. His personal life is a mess, his company is bankrupt, and he essentially fires his trusty butler, Alfred. Things are not going well, and, fueled by anger, Batman goes to "save" Gotham. In the following confrontation, Bane cripples Batman and locks him in a virtually inescapable prison.

As he recovers in the pit, Bruce Wayne realizes he's just been wallowing in self-pity, and that it isn't helping anyone. As he sees what Bane is doing to the people of Gotham, Wayne works to rebuild himself and tries to escape, knowing he has to put aside his fears, failures, and depression and save Gotham city. He escapes the prison and returns to Gotham, organizing an uprising among the remaining faithful law-enforcement officers who have been trapped underground, waiting for his command. But things are looking grim, as Bane has flicked the timer on an nuclear bomb and it will be exploding very soon.
In the end of the film, Batman rescues the city by attaching the nuclear bomb to his plane and, presumably, flying it out into the harbor where it then explodes, out of reach of the city and its people.

Selina Kyle (Cat Woman): "You don't owe these people any more! You've given them everything!"
Batman: "Not everything. Not yet." 

The true heroism and courage of this act touched me deeply. It had a deeper message than that of the first film. The Dark Knight Rises proved wrong the theory at the end of it's predecessor that perhaps the truth wasn't good enough and it was better to give the people hope by telling them a lie. It proved that, in fact, one lie leads to another, and there is soon nothing left but lies. It would have been better to have told the truth from the beginning, and then Bane would never have been able to get a foothold in these people's lives by telling them yet another bundle of lies.

At Batman' s funeral, Commissioner Gordon completes the parallels of the Revolution/Gotham's uprising by quoting Sydney Carton of Dicken's A Tale of Two Cities. (And yes, this had me Dickens-spazzing-out all through the credits :P)

"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known."

*sniff, sniff*

*weeps a little weep*

*dries her eyes*

There is a closing montage that reveals a few surprising plot twists, and then the screen goes black and the epic credit-score begins to play. I was left feeling a fist-clenching hope, and a sense of deep satisfaction. Wrong had been righted. Heroism was not dead. Batman, a modern-day Sydney Carton, had put aside his apathy and done this valiant deed.

In the end I liked The Dark Knight Rises. I liked it a lot. In fact, I liked it better than the first film, which I certainly did not expect. As expected, it did have some issues such as a bit of language and a definitely fast-forward scene between Bruce Wayne and his colleague, Miranda Tate, as well as a few questionable moments involving Cat Woman. But beyond these things, I recommend the film if you like action/adventure/crime-fighting. The violence surprised me, actually, by being less gun-involved and more physical.  Bane, the villain, is essentially a great big bald guy with mean muscles and a metal breathing apparatus. And he is very violent. But there were surprisingly few people shot, and more people beaten up by use of punches and kicks. There was very little (if any) blood, and the fist-fighting brought to mind more of a dramatic, modern-day barroom scene from a Western than a typical superhero-movie. :P And I was pleased to find that there really was less language in this film (or more mild forms of it) than in the previous Batman movies.

In the end, my verdict on The Dark Knight Rises is that it was a very good movie. Some might even argue it was a great movie. In my opinion, the film spoke surprisingly relevant messages to our culture today. Socialism, communism, and relativism are all slapped in the face by the very fact that Bane tries to use these tactics to woo the people of Gotham into a marriage with his ideals. True courage, valor, and heroism are exhibited, and it showed a hero that, for once, acted upon a the principles of true Love that Jesus has laid out for us.

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." -John 13:15