DARK KNIGHT RISES (2012) - ENGLISH

A good action film but it disappoints in a big way. 

So what's there in this that's better than the other Chris Nolan films, is style and the magnanimous production design where now, we have exceptional aerial shots and many of them hovering over the fictional city of Gotham. But what's missing is the soul of Nolan, the screenplay. The music by Hans Zimmers is OK OK and more melodramatic than action packed. The editing is too very bad coz too many details that lead to nothing are presented in this 2 hours 25 minute saga that could have been done in 2 hours, only if the extra characters of the board members and others were cut down and those many aerial shots were cut down too. The dialogues are way too bland for Bane (Tom Hardy). Bane is not anywhere close to be menacing but at the end he turns out to be doing, what Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard) says. No, great villain either. And coming to our batman, he fails in a fight and he has to redeem his freedom, he takes an ordeal of doing a climb that takes more than 10 minutes of screen space. Was so much necessary is what I ask now. Also, there are identities revealed only at the end like that of Robin or Talia, ah too much suspense being held till the end is not a good thing, we don't need oil when the food has been cooked up. 

The saddest part turns out that Alfred who has protected Wayne for such a long time, cries for he has failed Bruce Wayne. The much sad part is Bruce Wayne has to now live in exile as he is presumably dead just to be shown in a frame to reveal that Batman cannot end. Ok, yes so he used autopilot too but that's so impertinent at the end coz we would have been exhausted by dialogue after dialogue for a large part of the film which take away the sheen. The dialogue I must say, is very cliched and even amateurish from a man who has written Dark Knight and Inception. 

Now, remember this is a sequel for Dark Knight so we do expect a big ride, so nothing like that anywhere, this is rather a slow paced dramatic and less action packed turmoil that takes us through the torture of being a superhero. The blessing in disguise, although is Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) oh, she comes up with some good acting skills and is in fact our hero, coz she killed the villain. Yeah, we know that 'he who kills a villain is hero'. 

So, it has got good things but they are far away from each other. It's an okie dokie kinda ride and a 2/5 would be apt as per me. But if you have high expectations coz it's NOLAN you are a welcome aboard member to a disappointment group.