The Dark Knight Rises

Can a superhero die? Can he retire? Can he burn out? What happens when scars physical and mental, accumulated over years of battles with adversaries, and the weight of the burden he carries begin to take their toll?  These are the questions that Christopher Nolan grapples with in the final chapter to his Batman films, which is the bleakest of the trilogy.

Hope is a precious and rare commodity in the Gotham of Nolan’s vision. The city is either too corrupt, too fearful and if it is peaceful, it is a false front with an air of foreboding and pessimism permeating the atmosphere. Villains in the bat-universe do not seek to rule the world , they want to hold the city hostage in fear, drive citizens to the edge and crush their spirit, before destroying them, of course.

As The Dark Knight Rises begins, it’s eight years since Batman has retired after taking the fall for Harvey Dent’s crimes. Bruce Wayne has now turned into a recluse and Wayne Enterprises suffers due to his lack of attention.  Batman is no longer needed in a city which has been swept clean by Commissioner Gordon and his force. However beneath the peaceful facade a storm is brewing, as  super –terrorist Bane, a League of Shadows alumni like Bruce Wayne, has come to Gotham to complete the League’s unfinished mission- the destruction of Gotham. Aged and debilitated by the effect of all the injuries collected in battle, Bruce Wayne must don the cape again, against the wishes of Alfred.. With the aid of a dubious cat burglar Selina Kyle and rookie cop John Blake, Batman must confront Bane. But before that he must conquer his own inner fears.

The Batman of The Dark Knight rises is the most vulnerable super hero in any super hero movie ever seen. Batman might be an immutable symbol but Bruce Wayne is a mortal whose body and mind have wilted under the combined physical and mental exaction of playing the caped crusader role. His body is broken and his mind has not recovered from the terrible costs extracted from the encounter with the Joker. For the first time it does appear possible that the Bat would not win.

It is unavoidable that Bane would be compared to Dark Knight’s Joker. But while the joker was a mad dog, Bane is a rhino, quicker, stronger, heavy-handed and impervious to pain. Bane does not scramble on the ground, have knives in his shoes or hold women against gunpoint, he hits straight and hard like a train. He’s gone to the same school as batman and would be more than a match to Batman in his prime, let alone when the bat is broken and jaded with ‘no cartilage in his knees’. Bane is not just a thug out to prove himself, but a general, a leader of men.  He might not have the philosophical leanings of Ra’s Al Ghul or the mad craftiness of the Joker but he is a superior physical specimen, trained in combat and capable of the most extreme brutality when demanded.

As far as performances go, Christian Bale comes back to the fore after being overshadowed by Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight. Tom Hardy brings a formidable physical presence to the role of Bane. While the Darth Vader like mask and muffled voice, enhance the pure menace of Bane they leave Hardy with hardly any means to show his acting chops. Those expecting an encore of his performance as Bronson, would be disappointed. Anne Hathway brings feline charm to the role and delivers the best written lines with aplomb. Joseph Gordon Levitt, playing John Blake, has the most screen time after Bruce Wayne. There is no total despair without hope – Bane says. John Blake is the believer and Joseph Gordon Levitt plays the role with heart-warming sincerity. Marion Cotillard looks strangely subdued and off-colour playing a sane woman in a Nolan film.

The Dark Knight is ultimately a super hero action film and Christopher Nolan does not disappoint. There are some jaw-dropping action sequences in the film like a mid-air kidnapping, a well prison and a huge melee scene shot on Wall Street. Nolan does not demand suspension of disbelief, he buys it. The Bat makes its debut and Michael Bay should take a few lessons on how to make hardware fights interesting. Jonathan Nolan’s screenplay is even more kinetic than the Dark Knight and ensures that the audience can barely keep up with what is happening. One could say this serves the dual purpose of obscuring several plot holes as well as ensuring repeat viewing.  For the devotees of the Batman universe some of the plot twists may not be as surprising as for the normal public.

What Chris Nolan has achieved with his Batman films is to take what are essentially action films away from their usual light-hearted or quirky avatar. His films take themselves more seriously than any previous superhero movies. His villains are agents that serve to demonstrate the dark side of human beings. While the Dark Knight talked about themes like escalation in the context of conflict, Dark Knight Rises has a flirtation with the idea of kangaroo courts, class conflict and consequences of revolutions. Bruce Wayne is an inwardly tortured tragic hero and this is a film which gets him his closure. At the same time, the film leaves enough hints and a delicious ending to ensure that the franchise has a foundation for further instalments, if the studio cares to follow, even though Nolan himself would not return. Or would he?