So: does The Dark Knight Rises fall into that trap?
Amazingly... no.
In Gotham City, the now-legendary Batman has been gone for eight years. The public has been told that he murdered seven people, including Gotham's beloved district attorney, Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), and mysteriously disappeared. In truth, Dent killed those people, and inadvertently himself- Batman was only a patsy, to protect Dent's reputation.
During the intervening years, Batman's true identity, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale), has become a recluse, rarely venturing outside his home, and suffering from several lingering wounds that he suffered during his superhero years. Wayne remains depressed and alone, much to the chagrin of his butler Alfred (Michael Caine), and his company, Wayne Enterprises - now run by Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) - is teetering on the brink of collapse. But a new threat has arrived in Gotham City: a feared, super-strong terrorist by the name of Bane (Tom Hardy), who runs a large league of dangerous criminals. Bane aims to take over Gotham and destroy it, and the police force, led by Commissioner James Gordon (Gary Oldman), can't stop him on their own. Batman must come back, and take his rightful place in the public eye as the city's savior.
The Dark Knight Rises is a sequel, and doesn't let you forget it- the entire plot of the film hinges on events from Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, and woe to anyone who hasn't already seen both. Yet, at the same time, it feels remarkably different in tone, particularly to its immediate predecessor- though Knight did carry a message of heroism and positive symbols, it still had remarkably cruel, depressing villains, an unsettling atmosphere, an ending where the hero winds up a wanted fugitive, and a very dark tone- literally: the entire movie had a visible blue tint added to it.
Rises, by contrast, is considerably more hopeful, as we watch a man 'rise' (wink wink) from the depths of despair and pain to return to the heroic life he was meant for. The villain, Bane, is scary, but is also upbeat in personality, funny in a sarcastic way - a bit more so, ironically enough, than the previous film's Joker, and a bit more sympathetic (by which I mean he is sympathetic). Batman also finally gains a credible romantic interest in Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway), a wily cat burglar who we know better as Catwoman. Bat and Cat engage in frequent playful banter throughout the film, and it's a great joy to behold.
Hathaway, incidentally, is easily the best part of the film. Selina is a trickster if there ever was one, and is prone to playing dumb, weak, or useless in order to get what she wants. Hathaway is so natural at switching emotions at the drop of a hat that the audience never fully trusts the character, because we have no way of telling if she's ever being serious, or bluffing. It helps that her real personality is a snarky, lovable hardass- in one scene, as she's being escorted into a prison cell, a fellow inmate creepily hits on her, reaching out his arms. Selina quips, "oh, you want to hold my hand?" and gives them a good, painful twist. Mm-HM!
There are no less than eight Oscar nominees onscreen in The Dark Knight Rises, and the entire cast performs as fantastically as you would expect from such a talented bunch. Rises primarily focuses on several newly-introduced characters, such as Selina, Bane, police officer John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), & Wayne executive Miranda Tate (Mario Cotillard), and their own relations with Batman and/or Bruce Wayne. These characters are all interesting, in particular Blake and Tate (both original creations, never seen in the comics...), but their focus, unfortunately, comes at the expense of prior characters. Alfred and Lucius Fox, majorly important in the past two movies, are now reduced to supporting roles, as is Commissioner Gordon, who is injured and put in a hospital bed early on, and he remains there until the climax. Most damning of all is the character of Jonathan Crane, who was the major villain in Batman Begins, yet appears for a few mere moments in this film- to the point where his identity as The Scarecrow, an iconic Batman villain, is never even brought up!
Action sequences were somewhat lacking in Christopher Nolan's other Batman movies. Batman Begins' shoddy cinematography made the combat hard to understand, and while The Dark Knight had some amazing moments - such as that famous shot where an entire truck is flipped over - the action was in rather short supply for a superhero movie. But fret no more, my friends- Rises delivers the action and it delivers lots of it, while still leaving plenty of time for character development. There's chase scenes, hand-to-hand fights, Batman fighting armies of dim mooks, and a climax to die for. Batman's famous vehicle, the Batplane, finally makes an appearance in Nolan's series (here it's just "the Bat"), and it's as cool and high-tech as any Bat-gadget should be.
So. Is The Dark Knight Rises better than The Dark Knight? Well, that's a very big debate to be had. My opinion is that yes, it is- the action is more exciting, the characters are more interesting, and, as the final part of a trilogy, the ending is quite a bit more satisfying. But, at the same time, the film is very different from its predecessor, and there were many things that that film did, that this one doesn't do at all. It's all a matter of opinion, and I imagine that this will become a hot topic in the nerd community for many years to come.
But I do think there's one thing we can agree on: The Dark Knight Rises is really, really good.
Awesome
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