I was still staring at the screen about two minutes after the credits rolled, trying to soak in what I watched. Quite simply, it was one of the best films, superhero or not, I have ever watched and it ended the trilogy perfectly. It definitely warrants a second viewing just so I can pick up on the finer details.
It’s the kind of movie where you leave the cinema thinking it was good but when you dwell on it a bit more and replay the scenes in your head again, you realize you have just witnessed something special. That has to do with the pacing though; the pacing of the last hour was really intense and Hans Zimmer score really helped up the tension. There were some plot holes if you want to get nitpicky but that would be missing the forest for the trees.
(Spoiler alert)
Can’t say I was that surprised but the returning cast really brought their A game. I’m glad they gave Alfred a bigger role beyond the wise-cracker and the plot-narrator (eg “some men just wanna watch the world burn”, “you crossed the line first” etc). The scene where he leaves Bruce and the grave scene, in particular, was heart-wrenching. I thought it was great that Caine showed some restraint and not overact, the subtlety in his facial expressions made the emotion feel a lot more genuine.
Other than that, Bale was fantastic too although the “WHERE IS HE?!” line raised a chuckle from me, no thanks to the countless parody videos since The Dark Knight. Personally, I was pleasantly surprised by Hathaway’s performance as Catwoman/Selina Kyle. Some female heroine characters are often played badly because the fight scenes just don’t come across as convincing especially when they try too hard to look manly/gritty. I didn’t get that feel here; thought it was great. She was very smooth as well during the conversations, almost Clooney-esque.
The story though, bloody hell. It was great that they took their time with the build up to Batman returning and not rush it. There were some elements of The Dark Knight Returns in there which I loved. And the scene where Bane breaks the Batman was actually painful to watch. It was probably the first time in the trilogy that anybody could match the Batman physically and more. Bane was all brute force but also seemed to have a level of intelligence about him. If the Joker was an anarchist, Bane is an all-out schemer.
Which was why I think they kind of copped out with Bane at the end with the Talia turn. It cheapened his character and reduced him to a mere henchman. Also, this is the same guy who broke the Bat early on with ease and now, a few punches to his mask and he’s out? If the mask was so important, shouldn’t he be defending it better? Another thing that peeved me a little was how there was a character shift once Talia was revealed and he turned into henchmen mode. What happened to the “you have my permission to die” bit? Suddenly, he wants to kill the Batman before he got to watch his city burn?
It would be nice if we didn’t have yet another ticking time-bomb plot (I was thinking ,“really? another disarm the bomb with 1 second to go story?”) but hey, trust Nolan to make a ticking time-bomb plot seem fresh and not resort to cliche. I was ready to go ape-shit at what would have been a pretty annoying plot hole (ie. why didn’t they guard the reactor so nobody can reconnect it?) but it was addressed later on and actually used to pretty dramatic effect, thus proving that you should always trust Nolan.
All of the faith was more than sufficiently repaid with the ending. I actually kind of bought into Cracked's theory that Blake would be the next Batman and some early scenes helped reinforce that theory, so it wasn’t THAT big a surprise (it still was though, thank fuck I managed to avoid the spoilers) when it was revealed but I would argue that another less-worthy director would have botched the execution.
As it was, it was beautifully done with all of the characters finding redemption and peace in their own way and coming full circle. Fox the poor guy beating himself up over what he could have done better before realizing Wayne’s master plan. Gordon, well, I’m actually not sure if Gordon actually found peace. He still seemed pretty damn beat up about the whole thing.
The scene with Alfred at the end in Florence (?) nearly brought a tear to my eye (again, Caine’s performance was great) and really, some directors might have taken the condescending route and shown Blake putting on the mask and flying off into Gotham but nope, the ending was subtle and nicely pulled off, thus drawing a very satisfying conclusion to one of the best trilogies I have ever had the privilege of watching.
I shall thus end this with the first words I uttered after the lights came on in the theatre.
Fucking hell. What a film!
