Movie Review: The Dark Knight rises

8 years after the death of Harvey Dent, crime was nearly eradicated in Gotham City . Commissioner Jim Gordon has been guilt driven with lies that he made turning Harvey Dent (Two Face) a Hero in the eyes of the people in Gotham . Batman was turned from a hero to a fugitive and hasn’t seen in the last eight years.

Bane a member of the League of Shadows threatens that peace and has been enlisting the help of John Dagett, a rival of Bruce Wayne, take over the control of Wayne Enterprises. Using Wayne ’s fingerprint, a series of investments has caused Bruce Wayne to go bankrupt. Left with no choice Bruce has to hand over his green energy project to Miranda Tate. In the midst of all of this a Patrol Officer named John Blake seems to be connecting the dots. He first visited Bruce Wayne and told him of his theory about him being the Batman. Later we was promoted to detective and discovered some of Bane’s plans.

Unfortunately Bane was aware of the project and made plans to turn it to nuclear weapon. Eventually Bruce donned the batman suit once again and faced Bane. After eight years of hiding, the Batman was no match for Bane. It was later revealed that Bane knows about Batman’s real identity and plans to steal the arsenal in Wayne Enterprise applied science division.

Beaten by Bane, Bruce was badly beaten and was thrown to a prison which seems impossible to escape. Stories were told by the prisoners that only one person was able to escape. The stories were a child was able to escape the prison after somebody risked his life to let the child escape. The child was born in the prison by Warlord’s daughter. The warlord daughter fell in love with a Mercenary and his daughter was imprisoned in his place. She was raped and killed inside the prison.

Forced to watch Gotham ’s destruction via a TV inside the prison, Bruce waited to healed and attempted several times to escape. Bane was able to turn the fusion core to a nuclear weapon, trapped all the police inside the tunnels and was able to blow up all the bridges that serve as exit and entrance to Gotham City . To ensure that all the citizen of Gotham does not make an  attempt to leave, he threatened to blow the nuclear bomb if anybody does

Eventually Bruce was able to leave the prison to get back to Gotham a day before the Bomb is set to explode. He enlist the help of Selina Kyle, the thief who stole his fingerprint and sold it to John Daggett to make it look that Bruce authorized the risky investment. In return for her help, Bruce promise to provide a means for Selina to start a new life. Entrusting her with one of his vehicles, he told him to blow up a part of a tunnel for the people of Gotham to escape. She informed him that she will leave immediately but Bruce seems to have faith in her.

The Batman was able to free the police and later a standoff in front of City Hall between Gotham ’s finest and Bane’s men began. The Batman joined the melee started attacking Bane. Batman was able to get the upper hand and subdued Bane. Later Batman found were Miranda was being held hostage while still asking for the location of the trigger for the bomb. It was revealed that Miranda was Thalia Al Ghul. After she escaped he found his father Ra’s Al Ghul who is also revealed as the mercenary. Bane was the protector of Thalia who was badly beaten.  She stabbed Batman and left him in the mercy of Bane. Miranda then tried to pull the trigger but she was surprised that the bomb did not go off. She explained that she was fulfilling his father’s wishes by destroying Gotham . Miranda left to secure the bomb. Right before Bane was about to kill Batman, Selina blew Bane with cannons attached to the motorcycle.

They were able to stop the moving truck which was transporting the bomb. Batman then decided to sacrifice himself to take the bomb to a safety distance. But before leaving, Batman hinted to Commissioner Gordon that he was Bruce Wayne.

A funeral service was attended by Gordon, Alfred, Lucuis Fox and John Blake. Later all of Bruce Wayne’s assets were divided. Some of were donated to charity while some went to Alfred. Blake got some equipment that led him to the location of the Bat Cave . Before the movie ended Alfred saw Bruce with Selina in a Café while he was on a Holiday .

This is a very good conclusion to Christopher Nolan’s Batman Trilogy. Although they have up the ante on the Mayhem department, I think the Joker would have been a better villain to end the trilogy. But then again if the villain for this movie would be Joker then that would mean that Heath Ledger has been already been dead and a different actor might not have portrayed the Joker the way Ledger did.

This might also mark the end of Christian Bale’s donning the suit as the end of the movie suggest the John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) would take over the Cape crusader’s responsibility to keep Gotham Safe. Gordon-Levitt is currently in talks in role of being Batman in the upcoming Justice League movie.

What I like about the movie is that it connected the events on the Batman begins. It all came back to League of shadows. Bruce’s past came to haunt him and knowing Batman’s real identity has caused him a lot of difficulties. Although there was not much of the Batman in this movie compared to other movies and there were not a lot of his gadgets, when they did show his gadget, viewers were still awed with how great the effects were. The Bat was great a lot more sophisticated with the Bat wing in old Batman franchise.

Another thing that I like about the movie is that it showed that Bruce has aged and was not as fast as used to be. It made the transition of giving up the cape easier to accept. When Batman was unable to beat Bane the first time and still had difficulties in finally beating him on their second encounter, shows that Batman is human. In other Batman films, he seems invincible and was never beaten up if I remember it correctly.

Bane is smarter here and has not Muscle head stereotype.  I am comparing it to the previous Batman franchise where Bane was a mindless pawn. I would have thought that he was the mastermind behind everything.

When Bruce Wayne passed the cape to John Blake aka Robin, it opens the door for other new Batman movies. If Christopher Nolan would still direct other Batman films and I will still keep watching them.