The Dark Knight Rises.

LoveFilm? I just watched Beverly Hills Cop for the first time last night. That Murphy kid is gonna be a star. I’ve got Carnage sitting on my desk, which I’m looking forward to. Love me some Polanksi.

Spotify? ‘Wires’ by Athlete. Admittedly, not my favourite song of all time, but that’s the beauty of Shuffle. That, or I’m a lazy dick who can’t skip it. Maybe both.

Amazon? I’ve just started reading Anna Of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery. I have literally no expectation from it, which is a good thing, I’d say.

***

I was a little surprised a couple of weeks ago when I realised Batman Begins, the first of the Nolan trilogy, was released in 2005. Seven bloody years ago. To think that this series has been floating around for so many years – it’s pretty crazy. But seven years and three movies later, it’s over. With definitely much more of a bang than a whimper, it is actually over.

The Dark Knight Rises begins eight years after the second film. Harvey Dent is dead. Gotham is free of organised crime. Having lost a lot of his money through questionable business deals, Bruce Wayne has become a recluse. Oh, and that mysterious guy in the black suit is gone. All is well enough, until a mercenary by the name of Bane arrives. As Bane starts to wreak havoc on the streets of Gotham with the aid of a nuclear bomb, the need for Batman grows. We know the answer to whether Batman returns. Of course he does. The answer to whether Batman is still good enough to save the day? Well, you’ll just have to find that out for yourself.

It took a while to get this last one out (it’s been four years since The Dark Knight), and there was a ridiculous amount of hype and expectation. How do you possibly top the grandeur of The Dark Knight? How do you develop a villain as fantastic as Heath Ledger’s Joker? And, more importantly, how do you satisfyingly end this Batman mythology? Bravely and very successfully, Christopher Nolan not only tackles these questions, he makes them a focal point of the actual story. Rises isn’t just about a superhero trying to overcome a supervillain; this is about Bruce Wayne coming to terms with his own mortality, and that of his masked alter-ego.  

I think Christian Bale gave the second film’s worst performance; here, though, he’s one of the best. He isn’t the best Batman, but he is definitely the best Bruce Wayne. Bale is at his best in the movie when expressing the insecurities Bruce, particularly in pivotal scenes with Michael Caine and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. That annoying gravelly voice has been improved on too, making Batman much more fun to see as well. As his opposite number, Tom Hardy is incredible. Yes, the mask and stupidly bulky body are immense; what resonated with me more, though, was how Hardy was able to emote so much with just his eyes. A great performance.

The supporting cast do their bit too. It’s probably a disservice to call Anne Hathaway supporting cast, because she’s not really. And she is scene-stealingly good as Selina Kyle (Catwoman, though she’s never called that). Michael Caine, Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman are typically brilliant – in fact, I’d say Caine gives the best performance in the movie. Joseph Levitt is strong as the valiant young police officer. The weak link for me was Marion Cotillard. I love her as an actor, I really do, but her accent really pissed me off. All her dialogue felt forced and unnatural, which annoyed me. I get that she has become part of the Nolan family, but other actresses could have done a better  job.

It’s hard to talk about the movie without giving away spoilers. And there is so much happening in the two-and-a-half-hour movie, that I’d need to reveal spoilers to have things make sense. Know this though; the scale of this movie is far greater than the last two. The Dark Knight Rises is an epic film. Whether you’re drawn to the thrilling action and spectacular set-pieces, or the interaction between lots of brilliant actors at their best, you’ll find it all here. You could argue that the ending is a bit too Hollywood, but then you could say Batman as a character is a bit too Hollywood.

I made the claim just before watching Rises that Nolan’s Batman trilogy might be the greatest trilogy of all time. Having now watched the film three times (don’t judge me), I stand by my claim. From beginning to end, in nearly ten hours of cinema, Christopher Nolan has produced a Batman series that will never ever be matched. I feel sorry for the poor guy who tries.