The Dark Knight Rises

After Much anticipation and some extremely effective trailers the concluding third of the Dark Knight trilogy has finally hit our screens, does it live up to expectations or is it just another Hollywood flop?

Even Batman can’t put his iPad down

Now as an acomplished geek in my own respect I have a healthy appreciation for Batman, he’s dominated the gaming world with Arkham City still one of my favourite open world games to date, I do however have a few snagging points with the Dark Knight trilogy. First and foremost the voice acting! As demonstrated amazingly below:

Both Batman and Bane’s voices are ridiculous, when I first heard Tom Hardy was playing Bane I was sure he’d do a good job, he doesn’t disappoint in any way except for when I heard his voice I almost burst out laughing in the middle of the cinema! He sounds like a posh Darth Vader for christ sake!

The new poster child for respiratory disease.

Ridiculous voice aside Christopher Nolan does a great job of bringing the Dark Knight back to life,  he shows Bruce Wayne as a crippled shut-in, haunted by his failures in the previous film. He is broken both physically and mentally. Closing himself off to the world by shutting himself in Wayne Manor.

Ever the charmer Mr Wayne gets close to his prey, the mysterious Selina Kyle

Cue the stunning Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle AKA Catwoman who’s brazen theft of Wayne’s mothers pearls re-ignites his passion for crime fighting. Hathaway does a fantastic job of making a realistic Catwoman, she has the looks, the skills and the kick ass moves to get the job done. She is ruthless, effective and convincing in her role, an impressive feat considering how badly previous actors have fared…

On to Bane, who outclasses Batman at every turn, literally breaking his body and very nearly his spirit. In the Dark Knight Rises Bane is a mercenary and also a former member of the league of shadows, although not true to his real origins story it gives the character a rational drive and reason to want to break the Bat. He does so by attacking not just The Batman, but his alter ego Bruce Wayne crippling his company and stealing his tech in the process.

Bane holding an image of the late Harvey Dent

My second major snagging point was the film’s pacing, after a very slow start the narrative begins to pick up momentum about half way through, there is very little action to keep the audiences attention as the story flits between Bruce Wayne, the mysterious Bane and Selina Kyle. It unfortunately became slightly tedious, too much dialogue and not enough action to keep the pace ticking over.

The conclusion to the trilogy was just that, a neat conclusion a wrapping up of the Dark Knight storyline with enough of an open ending to leave room for a potential sequel. I did however feel slightly disappointed… for a film about Batman he doesn’t really get enough screen time and this left me with a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.

-Lowth