I’ve come to terms with the possibility that The Dark Knight was the best in the series, but The Dark Knight Rises rounds out Christopher Nolan’s Batman saga beautifully, and I think it’s going to play even better the more time passes. I have to go back to the degree of difficulty aspect again and reiterate how difficult it has to be to produce work that must answer to impossibly high expectations generated by starved fans.
The movie is solid throughout, but the opening and closing sequences are among Nolan’s best work. The mid-air plane heist, especially when viewed in the intended IMAX settings, is a marvel of action, giving us a scope of the madness and precision required to carry out a stunt like this (both for the characters and the film crew). It encapsulates the silent imposing presence of the Bane character and the sense of menace and darkness that runs through the film.
The closing sequence is a beautifully put together payoff of things that we didn’t realize were being set up: the cafe Alfred visits and the closing adrenaline-inducing shot inside the Batcave. All wordless, images pieced together to the booming pace of the soundtrack, indicating that the darkness has lifted momentarily for Gotham and conclusively for Bruce Wayne. Gorgeous.
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