It’s 5am and hardcore Batman fans are lined up for the Irish premiere of Dark Knight Rises. That’s right. In order to prevent spoilers flooding the internet, the movie has debuted simultaneously across the world – at midnight in the States and just around sun-up here. Of course, even if you’ve had a full night’s sleep, reviewing the final installment of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy is like walking a tightrope: sharp-toothed spoiler trap on one side, quasi-religious fans on the other. These are obstacles enough to blunt the sharpest of pens, but not mine. And I have but one word to say: meh...
Let me elaborate. On the plus side, it does what it says on the tin: ties up loose ends good and tight with impossibly slick special effects. There’s a gripping storyline with a twist, flashbacks to previous films and the pounding signature Batman score. A star-studded cast. And it’s peppered with in-jokes.
Now for the negatives. Firstly, Bale and his permanently open mouth are still so wooden that he hardly needs the Batman facemask for disguise, except perhaps to cast pointy eared shadows in the dark. Secondly, it’s way too long. Yes we get it, Wayne is deep and emotional. But...165 MINUTES??? Can we please get back to the saving of Gotham?
Living up to the late Heath Ledger’s Joker was always going to be difficult. Tom Hardy’s Bane isn’t a total fail, although, thanks to his face-mask, it’s sometimes difficult to work out what he’s saying. It’s the boldest and most action-packed of the three films and starts out with a bang. But the plot lacks the subtlety of the previous offerings. Oh, and yes, there is a twist at the end, though maybe not quite as shocking as the advance chatter suggested.
So leave your cynicism at the door, try to ignore the tedious American economico-political agenda being pontificated and, above all, remember that it’s the story of a man who’d rather spend shedloads of money running around at night in a bat suit than go to counselling for his issues like the rest of us. Why so serious?