(There may be slight spoilers – you’ve been warned).
So, let’s get the inevitable aspect of this on the table to start with; The Dark Knight Rises is not as good as its predecessor – however, it remains a top flight summer blockbuster, the (minor) failings of which can perhaps be laid at the door of the scale of its ambition. In these days of the identikit summer blockbuster, tailored to tick every aspect of the possible audience demographic it feels odd to complain that a film tries to break the mould may not do so as comprehensively as it would like, that the sheer scale of what is being attempted may occasionally be too much, but this is the only complaint that can be levelled here. Sure, there are the requisite action sequences, the sheer aplomb of the effects – and no film based on a comic is ever going to stray too far into unknown territory – but below all of this Nolan seems to be trying to wrestle the most extreme logical conclusion to his Bat-trilogy, upping the sense of scale whilst remaining fixed within the universe of his construction. It’s a film that will probably reward a second viewing to decipher how well it holds together (as a film and as a trilogy), almost too much is happening to pick up all of the clues and references that I feel sure are littered throughout it on the first viewing. Nolan & Co. aren’t burning the franchise to the ground as they exit, rather closing it off for someone else to come along and make their mark on it in a few years – although whoever takes up that challenge is going to have to radically re-interpret it to stand a chance. There’s the sense that this is their last chance to play with this toy-box and they’re making sure every idea they’ve had gets its airing. The result is a success, and apart from The Hunger Games perhaps the only flagpole movie this year to actually try to inject a modicum of intelligence into the studio blockbuster.
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Midland Film Monkey 