So I went to see Dark Knight Rises last night at midnight, finished around 3, and got an hour sleep before getting up for work. As a punishment for being less than fully functional, the boss made me write a review of the movie. I’ve done my best to remove all spoilers from this review and anything written here about details of the movie are readily available in the trailers.

A bit of history… I’m a massive fan of the first two movies, make sure you see them before you see this one otherwise you’ll miss out on some of the plot points, but have only picked up a Batman comic twice in my life. This review is written purely based on this trilogy. History lesson over.

The movie kicks off with a bang in much the same way as Dark Knight did. Then it was a bank heist, here it involves Bane and a plane. Most of it you’ve seen in the trailer but there are enough cool moments to leave your chin with carpet burn.

The 8th anniversary of Harvey Dent’s death sets up the time, Commissioner Gordon is seen as paranoid, Catwoman arrives with a bang hiss, stealing more than jewellery, while Bruce Wayne has gone all Howard Hughes and hasn’t been seen in several years.

From there, its a bit of a slow burn, with less action than the first two movies, lots less than The Dark Knight, but although the movie runs over 2 and a half hours it never feels laboured.

The Excel Study Guide to the middle part of the movie goes like this:

• There’s an underground army – think Demolition Man with fewer rats
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Jo G-L from here on) is a young and eager cop
• Batman has aged by 8 years, with knees like Adam Cooney (if you’re from up north – google him)
• Alfred, who didn’t age at all in the first 2 movies, is suddenly 93 and doesn’t want the Bat back
• Catwoman is bad, then good, then bad again, then more good… in fact she’s one large ball of twine away from being exactly like my cat.
• Anne Hathaway is amazing in the role, and in the cat suit.
• Batman gets more cool toys, including “The Bat”. No spoilers, just rest assured its sensational

So there are some fights, some incredible action scenes which mostly involve blowing stuff up, Gotham falls into trouble, and all the while Batman is away.

One scene which may not seem impressive at first but is quite amazing is the crowd scene where Christopher Nolan used actual extras instead of CGI. Adds a depth to the action which is missing from a lot of today’s movies.

My only complaint about the movie is that I felt the ending fell short**. The Dark Knight Rises stood on the threshold of greatness but didn’t have the stones to make the final jump.

I can’t give away any more without spoiling the movie. For my full argument, and THERE ARE MASSIVE SPOILERS IN THIS PART click HERE…

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** The 6 other people I saw the movie with loved the ending

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