As you can tell, I’m about a week (or two) behind in reviewing movies. As I get older, it gets harder to co-ordinate seeing movies with friends on opening weekends. So I finally pulled my friend out of packing for his move so that we could see The Dark Knight Rises. Overall I kind of liked it, but not as much as The Dark Knight (and I disliked Batman Begins). But I had a number of problems with the film. So let’s check it out. WARNING: Spoilers ahoy.

The basic storyline is that a business rival of Bruce Wayne hires a mercenary named Bane (Tom Hardy), who also trained in the League of Assassins, to take down Bruce Wayne so that he can take over Wayne Enterprises. Bane takes the money but has a bigger goal in mind, finishing Ra’s al Ghul’s plan for destroying Gotham. And he wants to break Batman and force him to watch as Gotham burns. Bruce Wayne starts out as a recluse who hasn’t is walking with a cane and hasn’t been Batman in 8 years (since Harvey Dent died at the end of The Dark Knight). Commissioner Gordon got a law passed in Dent’s name that has helped put a lot of criminals behind bars.And a cat burglar (Anne Hathaway as Catwoman) with martial arts training and a lot of nerve is working her way through the rich and powerful of Gotham. But her ultimate goal is to erase all trace of herself and make a new life outside Gotham.

Meanwhile, Wayne Enterprises is losing money since Bruce worked with a woman named Miranda (Marion Cotillard) on a fusion clean energy project that took a lot of money. When a scientist publishes a paper showing how it could be made a weapon, Wayne shutters it and that causes all kinds of issues for Wayne Enterprises. Bane starts his terror spree by raiding the stock exchange and connecting in a bunch of trades that bankrupts Bruce Wayne. Bruce turns over the fusion reactor to Miranda with his concerns about not turning it on. Batman reappears and gets in a fight with Bane and promptly has his back broken. He’s then cast down into a prison known as The Pit where the only way out is to climb out with an almost impossible jump at the end. There is a rumor that only one person successfully climbed and that person was the child of Ra’s al Ghul. Then Bane destroys all the ways out of Gotham, traps the police in the sewer and uses the reactor (which he gets his hands on) to threaten the rest of the world to stay out or he’ll blow it up.

Wayne makes his way back to Gotham and gets in touch with the remaining police, Miranda and Catwoman to put his plan in effect. A last twist reveals that Bane is not the child of Ra’s al Ghul as believed, but Miranda is (and her name is Talia). She’s takes over and tries to blow up the city, but is stopped by Batman, Catwoman and Commissioner Gordon (of course). And there is a subplot about Alfred trying to get Bruce to stop being Batman.

Now the pieces I liked. Bane and Catwoman were both very good. Bane was amazing, especially considering he wore a mask that muffled his speech and covered half his mouth. Also, the story felt like the third part of an overall story, not just a third movie with the same characters. The special effects were really good and parts of the story were really good.

Side note. Why didn’t Frank Miller get a story credit. Nolan took large parts of The Dark Knight Returns and put it directly into the movie. Almost everything about Batman retiring and coming back was straight out of Frank Miller. Throw in the Bane parts of Knightfall and that covers 3/4 of the movie script.

The pieces I disliked: Why the hell did Gordon write out a complete confession? Is he the biggest idiot ever? And then when Bane read the speech over the air, why would people believe it? Nolan really, really needs to learn to show not tell. There is too much time spent with characters explaining plot points. And Talia/Miranda. Everyone believes that Bruce is dying in an impossible to escape prison with no chance to get back in time to stop the bomb. So why does Talia/Miranda keep up her ruse? Who was she trying to fool? Also, Bruce goes to the doctor who tells him that he’s lucky to walk/be alive with all his bruises and physical problems, so Bruce puts on a leg brace and he’s as good as new…after 8 years away. And how short are the days in Gotham. Bane goes into the stock exchange during the day, the IT guy tells him that he needs 8 more minutes. The hostages come out and the gang escapes during the day. Batman joins the chase and it night out. And I won’t even mention Robin.

Overall it was a decent movie, that should have been much better. I’m curious to see what a better writer/director can do with Batman. Hopefully the wait for that won’t be too long. I’d like to see them go in a completely different direction than Nolan did, but somehow I doubt they will. Mildly recommended.