Batman is rising again and again.

  Okay so I woke up this morning and knew that I had to write something about this. I’ve put it off a little, written over a thousand words for my novel (in less than an hour thank you very much) and even written some of my “novel diary”. Hell I even glanced over some IMDB reviews and forum entries for DKR and as always instantly regretted it.

  The thing is Batman is one of those things where I’m really in the minority. The idea of a Batman movie doesn’t get me excited and I wasn’t a huge fan of Begins when it came out. It’s grown on me a little on repeat viewings and I do appreciate that it’s an excellent film.

  Then there was Dark Knight, which I thought was a better film but again it had to grow on me and eventually became something I really liked. I think this is mostly down to the Joker, a character I find really captivating and Harvey Dent too actually. I found it intriguing to have another good guy enter the inner sanctum of Gordon and Batman’s weird partnership.

  So in spite of my feeling towards a Batman movie I knew I had to see DKR. And actually I was getting excited for it. We had just re-watched the first two films and both movie magazines had given DKR 5 stars. Things were looking good.

  Unfortunately my excitement waned (wayned har har) as time passed, it took me a further week to see it after the release date. (In which time everyone I knew went to see it, some of them twice). But finally I got to go see it.

  And my ultimate opinion? Okay. Not the “best film ever” and certainly not the best Chris Nolan Batman, not by a long way. Don’t get me wrong; the film has a lot to be proud of. As always the casting is perfect and I took some joy in seeing a familiar face (or two) missing from the last film. It has its usual understated sense of humour, it’s excellent action, great scoring etc etc.

  My biggest problem? The pacing. This was a film with a great beginning and great ending but an overly long middle. After thinking on it and discussing it with someone I managed to pin down the main issue.

  At the start of the film Bruce Wayne is no longer Batman, he’s in retirement and his body has clearly seen better days. The film really takes its time (and rightly so) before finally giving us Batman. It’s roughly a 45 minute wait before we get to see the caped crusader.

But then a little way down the road Batman vanishes again and we have yet another wait before he finally “rises” and gets to be batman again. This clearly should have been “The Dark Knight Rises... Twice.”

  It’s a real fault to the structure and it kind of leaves the film feeling a little muddled. Perhaps it would help if he had never retired? Then bring his fight with Bane nearer to the start and make more of a story out of Bruce Wayne becoming Batman again.

  Which brings me back around to Bane and the other characters. I’m sure that when tackling characters like Catwoman and Bane  Nolan couldn’t have done them better. Anne Hathaway found a nice balance to her character that meant it never felt over the top or like it was pandering to teenage boys’ fantasies.

  Bane on the other hand… I get it, I really do, the posh but mutated voice coming from this huge guy. You really do feel like here is a man that can beat the Batman. But the thing is he didn’t really leave much of an impression on me. Of course there was no topping the Joker and even the Scarecrow proved an interesting character. Bane was just average.

  Although I have to admit that my favourite aspect of the film was the Bane back-story, in fact the telling of this tale (or re-telling rather) near the end of the film was the most captivated I had felt at any time.

  I also rather liked the progression of John Blake. I particularly liked a scene with him and Gordon where Blake clearly feels cheated by him and judges him a little harshly. It made me stop and wonder how I would re-act. John Blake was the good guy that got up everyone’s nose and was someone I really related to.

  For me it is the moral questions like this, the ones that almost force you to turn them on yourself, that really make these films stand out for me. Unfortunately I thought they were a little lacking here.

I also feel a need to give special mention to Michael Cane, whose performance had me to tears. It was  his sorrow, more than anyone else’s that got my sympathy.

  This is getting rather long so I’ll try to wrap this up. DKR is excellent in parts but I do think it has its flaws. It’s slow pacing in the middle and re-treading of old ground let it down a little and it felt absent of characters that left much of an impression. To its credit, it at least knows how to put a line under the end of a trilogy whilst leaving certain threads open.

  I’m sure it will grow on me a little more as the others did but it’s not enough to make me want to return to the cinema. DKR definitely deserves an award for best “number 3 of a franchise” but I don’t think it’s the 2 and a half hours of perfection a lot of critics are claiming it to be.