The Dark Knight Rises: A Bittersweet Conclusion

I just finished watching The Dark Knight Rises.  While it is sad to see the Christopher Nolan Batman series end, it was in fact a great way to end it.  Nolan did not disappoint us at the end.

I will say before continuing that Rises is not and cannot be better than The Dark Knight.  I'm not sure if anyone expected it to be, but there was never any way for this third one to reach the heights that its predecessor did.  Some claimed The Dark Knight as the best superhero/comic book movie of all time.  Whether it was or not, Heath Ledger won an Oscar for his performance as The Joker.  Not much doubt that his was one of the best villain performances of all time.  So it's not fair to expect more out of Rises than we did out of Dark Knight.  For the record, I don't think Rises was better.  But that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it.

First of all, behind Joker, Bane was my favorite villain.  Tom Hardy is great as the jacked-up destructor.  For me, adding Bane to the franchise totally completed the series.  Anne Hathaway is in the movie as Catwoman.  Technically, they don't call her that, and that's good.  No need for cartoon-y stuff.  You know, outside of all the other make-believe stuff going on.  Look, they probably didn't even need her in this movie.  But I'm sho glad they put her in.  Anne Hathaway could steal everything from me and leave me for broke so long as she spoke to me in a seductive voice.  I'm only half-kidding.

There were some parts I didn't fully enjoy.  Bane showing emotion near the end sort of killed me, but it made sense with the plot line.  It's just he's so ruthless...and enormous that it was almost a shock to the system.  The fact that whole city is destroyed yet everything will probably be okay is very positive thinking, but overall the movie is super-entertaining and ties everything up well (though I needed a few things explained to me because I'm an idiot).  And they left an opening for a Robin follow-up.  No matter how you feel about Robin as a sidekick, that's pretty cool.  The ending was amazing.  IMAX was great, though it was hard to understand Bane with the seriously loud Vader voice. 

I am sad that's over, but I'm glad Nolan didn't overdue it.  He has solidified himself as one of the best filmmakers in Hollywood today.  He made the best Batman movies that have ever been made.  The problem is that someone is going to relaunch the damn thing probably within 10 years, and it will most definitely not be as good.  Hell, Spiderman has already returned, and Superman comes out soon.  Superheroes are en vogue and Hollywood can't get enough.  Anyway, Nolan reaffirmed, over the course of his three movies, that Batman is my favorite comic book hero.  He did fans everywhere proud.