The Dark Knight Rises

Has it ever been done? Has the third movie in a trilogy ever been as good as the first two films? Is that even possible? I can only think of three instances where the third film was as good as or better than it's predecessors. The Lord of the Ring: Return of the King was as good as the first two movies in my opinion, but you have to take into account that those three films were all filmed at the same time. This one may cause a little consternation but I firmly believe Rocky III was better than II and maybe even better than the original. I know, I know, Rocky wasn't a trilogy, it was more like a serial but in my mind there were just three of them and if you know anything about movies, there was just three of them in your mind too. Then there was Return of the Jedi (where Lucas should have STOPPED, but I digress). Jedi was better than A New Hope but in my opinion The Empire Strikes Back was the best of the three. Now, we can add Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises to the list.

Rises is just an amazing movie, so much so that I don't even know where to begin. Starring the usual suspects of Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, and Michael Caine these for four man were aided this go round with some new blood. Anne Hathaway plays Selina Kyle aka Catwoman (who knew Anne would look so good in that one piece?), Joseph Gorden-Levitt plays the young noble detective Blake, Marion Cotillard plays Miranda, Matthew Modine plays the ambitious but wimpy cop Capt. Foley and rounding out the case is Tom Hardy (who I have been a fan of for a long time) as the lethal Bane. It's quite the collection of talent but they've all worked with Nolan before. If it wasn't on a Batman movie it with him on Inception so going in he knew how to handle the ego's, the characters, and the divas.

This time around our hero is a shell of his once glorious self. After doing battle with The Scarecrow, Ra's al Ghul, and The Joker, Bruce Wayne is hobbled. He's become a recluse, barely seen anymore by anyone even by his own wait staff that he's become some sort of urban legend. He's met every threat Gotham has faced and he's thwarted them all but at a price. Now however, there's a new threat to the peace that Gotham is under and it comes in the form of Bane who, like Batman was trained by The League of Shadows. Bane is physically imposing, the likes of which Batman has never seen. Bane is able to kill with his bare hands and does so damn near every time he's on screen. The first confrontation between Batman and Bane just seems so unfair. Bane toys with Batman like a cat toys with a dead mouse until it gets bored. When Bane gets bored, he breaks Batman's back.

While Bruce Wayne recuperates in a hellish prison, Bane threatens to blow Gotham off the map, finishing what Ra's al Ghul started but never got the chance to do in Batman Begins. There is also a very strong Occupy Wall Street sentiment running through this movie as Bane feeds on that anger of the people. Lash out at the rich and the wealthy for they are the ones responsible for your lowly lot in life. While in prison Bruce is visited by a vision of Ra's al Ghul and comes to some idea that Bane is the child of Ra's al Ghul and as Bruce is berated by the vision he uses his anger to snap his back back into place. He then proceeds on getting body in shape to make the long climb out of that hell hole prison and get back to Gotham.

Christopher Nolan doesn't allow Batman to ride the streets of Gotham in a new Tumbler (the last one was destroyed by the Joker. This time Batman is flying in his Batwing courtesy of Freeman's Lucius Fox character which is a good thing because there's a bomb that needs to be disarmed and flying is the only way to make that happen. I won't get into anymore plot but just know that some people aren't who they seem to be. And not that this movie needed it but Hans Zimmer kept the pace humming with his pulsating score, a perfect companion to the visuals on the screen. This is definitely one superhero movie worth seeing because it has everything for everyone, which is probably why is probably why it clocks in at close to three hours. In closing I have three words for you...SEE THIS MOVIE and I'll see you at the theater (wait, that's actually ten words but whatever).