The Dark Knight Rises2012

51/100 I never thought I'd see the day. The sequel to internationally acclaimed film The Dark Knight, reduced to nothing but a popcorn flick. Let's start with what I like. First up, the movie actually does function as a decent popcorn flick. The action itself is actually pretty good, and the movie itself is fun when it allows itself to be. I especially love the fight between Batman and Bane in the sewers, both for the recreation of Bane "breaking the bat" and the fight itself. The lack of music or sound except the rain and the two men hitting each other helps sell how brutal the whole thing is and you really feel the hopelessness of the situation. I also like the character of Robin "John" Blake. Granted, I think the whole "Robin" thing is a bit forced, but his character in itself is a nice way to introduce Robin in this more grounded universe. The movie's ending also nicely sets him up to perhaps becoming the Nightwing of this universe, which is a movie idea I'm down for. I think Christopher Nolan also had the right idea with Bane. While I would have liked him having his Venom, I feel removing it to make him less gimmicky and focus more on how he's Batman's physical and mental equal was the right decision here. However, now that I've brought up Bane, we can start discussing this movie's many flaws. First up is Bane's voice, which is very goofy and removes a lot of his intimidation factor. This, combined with someone really upping the grit on Batman's voice, just makes this movie feel like two guys trying to convince the audience they're cool. In addition, this movie also has a twist villain who reduces Bane to just being her pawn. Talia al Ghul is honestly not a very good twist villain and comes off as an even worse villain than Bane. Couple this with one of the worst death scenes in a movie, and I feel she should've been cut. However, as if having the villains wasn't enough, for some reason this movie feels the need to ruin both Batman and Alfred. In addition to the goofy voice, Batman also now talks about no killing and guns, only to then shoot someone in order to both kill them and create a situation that kills Talia in the finale like an absolute hypocrite. The worst character, though is easily Alfred, who seems weirdly obsessed with getting Bruce a wife and persuading him to give up on being Batman throughout the movie, which is such a weird and bad trait for Alfred to have. Eventually, this insufferable trait gets to the point where Alfred leaves, which is not something any other version of Alfred would do, but now we're not with these characters, we're with what Nolan thinks these characters should be like. Unfortunately, I hate Nolan's ideas of what these characters should be like. However, this movie's worst point is the plot holes. For some reason, Talia wants to complete her father's mission, which was to blow up Gotham because it has too much crime. The issue is the fact that crime is now at an all-time low due to the Dent Act. Even if this just means crime has gotten to an all-time low and has gone underground rather than vanishing, logically, this should also make Gotham safe enough to warrant not blowing it up. This is just one of many plot holes, like Bruce Wayne somehow sneaking back into Gotham in 23 days after being dumped in the Pit with no equipment, or the guy in the Pit somehow fixing a broken spine with apparent ease, but I digress. This movie's not bad. It's enjoyable enough for what it is, but I feel it has too many flaws to be considered a worthy successor to one of the best comic book movies of all time and one of my favourite movies ever made. It's mediocre, which is fine on its own, but I feel it deserved to be better.