The Dark Knight Rises

(Source: fanpop.com)

Christian Bale‘s Batman returns in the final installment of Christopher Nolan‘s blockbuster trilogy. Set eight years after the death of Harvey Dent, which the people of Gotham have wrongly pegged on Batman, our tortured hero has retreated into hiding. Masked villain Bane (played by up-and-coming actor Tom Hardy) proves to be a formidable opponent – not only as physically-capable as Bale’s (really buff) Batman, but also an intellectual match.

Why hello there, Christian Bale’s perfect biceps. (Source: Collider)

Despite the people’s hostility towards him, Batman is drawn out of hiding to save the city of Gotham (once again) in his kickass suit and equally nifty Batmobile. On a slightly unrelated side note, can I just say how glad I am that they got rid of of the old nipple-baring suit? Good call, Christopher Nolan. Good call.

Bane with his infamous mask. (Source: Aceshowbiz)

Tom Hardy is excellent as Bane, and somehow manages to express a whole range of emotions just through his eyes – demonstrating that there’s more than meets the eye to our troubled villain. Kudos also to Anne Hathaway, who is perfect as the sexy and sassy Selina Kyle (aka Catwoman). She also looks ah-mazing in her tight leather jumpsuit, defeating evil in a pair of stilettos – a feat that not many can pull off, I would think.

The only nitpick I had with the movie was the warped perspective of time – one minute Batman is nursing a broken vertebrae in a godforsaken underground jail, and the next, he’s miraculously strutting down the streets of Gotham with some badass swagger. Hello? Did he not just get his bones broken a couple of minutes ago? Was he not sitting in a cold, dark prison cell, desolate and covered in grime?

Also, I couldn’t really catch some of Christian Bale’s lines because of his weird raspy voice. Someone give the guy some cough drops already.

While I’m not a die-hard Batman fan, I was still pretty impressed with the movie. In true Christopher Nolan fashion, a surprise twist at the climax will have you going, “Ohhh…should have seen that coming.”  The ending is also reminiscent of Nolan’s other blockbuster hit, Inception.

The soundtrack is amazingly eerie, so much so that I felt kind of on-edge when the theatre was playing it before the movie started.

The Dark Knight Rises really is no dark horse in the world of superhero movies – it was a highly-anticipated finale, and rightfully so. While the movie doesn’t top The Dark Knight for me, it does make most other Marvel movie look like child’s play.

Rating: 4.5/5

Check out clips and behind-the-scenes action from the movie in this 13-minute featurette.