The Dark Knight Rises

2½ pipes out of 4 

All good things must come to an end and so it has with Christopher Nolan’s Batman Trilogy. In the final installment The Dark Knight Rises, Nolan manages to send the audience off with a style by tricking the audience into believing they know most of the plot through the trailers, only to find themselves glued to the edge of their seats with surprise cameos, plot twists and unexpected character development.  Throughout the Dark Knight trilogy, Nolan has done a masterful job of leaving little tidbits of comic lore for the diehard Batman fan but also holds enough intrigue for those who do not follow the comics. The Dark Knight Rises eloquently raps up the Batman story of Nolan’s trilogy with only a few mistakes. Nolan’s 2008 Dark Knight can easily be considered the greatest comic book movie of all time and brought legitimacy to the comic book movie industry. To follow up the Dark Knight with something as good or even better would be nothing short of a miracle and that is why Nolan doesn’t even try. He keeps the legitimacy of the Dark Knight trilogy but changes from telling the gritty story with masterful acting to throwing in curveballs that the audience doesn’t see coming. He also diverts everyone’s attention from the fact that Bane is no Joker with an intriguing back story with the League of Shadows from Batman Begins. Surprisingly Anne Hathaway manages to perform well as a troubled Catwoman debating her own morality. One of the most interesting aspects of the Dark Knight Rises is that it not necessary for the audience to view its predecessors in order to enjoy the film. There are a few aspects that undercut the plot causing for criticism, one being that in order to hold the plot together Nolan throws in too many characters without enough time to develop them properly. The two or three characters that Nolan chooses to develop he does well but leaves a number of others undeveloped. There were logistical issues that were swept under the rug with the audience expected to forget about but tend to be big enough to notice with ease. None of these issues damage the movie enough to make it not entertaining and well worth the price of admission.