Monday, July 23, 2012

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)



First of all nobody shot at anyone at the cinemas so safe to say the only copy cat the Philippines is going to have are Pirates.

After seven years of waiting for every few years for a new sequel to come in the trilogy is finally complete. 

Looking back there were always doomsayers for this movie ever since the last one the Dark Knight.  In that movie Heath Ledger was just too good that Christian Bale disappeared. He was really good that he earned an Oscar even in death. And his performance really immortalized him that some can’t even imagine another Batman villain to close the trilogy.

He was so good that there were even some who even thought the filmmakers will go all the way even “raising” the dead actor and put him on film.  This idea makes some sense just not in the way that producers might actually piece together unused footage, but that Joker was alive. 

He did not die in the Dark Knight so fans who precipitated this rumor may be wondering was there ever an original plan since the character did not die.  And since it was the actor who died we now go in realm of what-could-have-beens.

Having seen the Dark Knight Rises, I would have to say Joker still is the man. Not that Bane (Tom Hardy) is less menacing or he was guilty of lack of trying but because I can’t understand half the shit he’s saying.  The movie was like Bane and Batman was having who’s got the uglier voice contest.  

Bane’s voice was such as distraction for me because he sounded dubbed and maybe he really was, so in each of his scenes I keep trying to figure out who’s the actor behind it.  

Acting wise, Christian Bale carried the movie, not that there wasn’t any choice.  He was melancholic as always but considering the life Bruce Wayne has been through, had be been laughing he might just be insane enough to be the Joker.

Morgan Freeman (Lucius Fox), Michael Caine (Alfred Pennyworth), and Anne Hathaway (Catwoman) played beautifully in support of Bale.  My hats off to Caine for having transformed himself to being more than the loyal butler but as a kind of father figure. Alfred really was a father to Bruce but I was not that sold until this movie.  

Gary Oldman, considering all the top Hollywood actors he has been with over his career he fades into the background.  If you think about it fading in the background is the point.  Gary Oldman who had been Sirius Black and Beethoven in his other movies just to name a few was simply James Gordon in Dark Knight Rises; a dedicated cop trying to keep the city together. That’s all he was and you can feel it from him; a truly great actor.

Story wise, and I must emphasize that my views are only in hindsight, where else was it going to go.  If you watch movies a lot and I have there are only a few ideas you can play around with.  But the combination of action, the pacing, the desperation, the overcoming of adversity, the twists, the coming to a full circle as well as having the feeling of having moved on; I was pleasantly surprise that I was sold.

The Dark Knight Rises, by no means perfect but still a great way to say goodbye.  

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