On Thursday Australia will be one of the first markets in the world to screen The Dark Knight Rises, and hence, the first to truly evaluate the “epic conclusion” to what is already the greatest super hero franchise of all time. Will it live up to hype? Early reviews of the final installment in the trilogy have labelled the experience as emotionally satisfying and praised writer/director Christopher Nolan’s ability to marry super hero sized scale with intimate character moments. Also drawing particular praise is the sheer force of Tom Hardy’s performance as the physically intimidating villain Bane, though many have also missed the absence of Heath Ledger’s iconic Joker, who, prior to the actor’s death, would have made at least some kind of small cameo appearance in the final film. Despite that, the film currently holds a 91% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, is arousing early Oscars talk and is still our most anticipated film release of the year. Even if you saw and loved Batman Begins and The Dark Knight and need little convincing to watch The Dark Knight Rises here are some early spoiler-free reviews to get you excited…
Empire: “With spectacle in abundance and sexiness in (supporting) parts, this is superhero filmmaking on an unprecedented scale. Rises may lack the surprise of Begins or the anarchy of Knight, but it makes up for that in pure emotion. A fitting epitaph for the hero Gotham deserves.”
The Hollywood Reporter: Big-time Hollywood filmmaking at its most massively accomplished, this last installment of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy makes everything in the rival Marvel universe look thoroughly silly and childish. Entirely enveloping and at times unnerving in a relevant way one would never have imagined, as a cohesive whole this ranks as the best of Nolan’s trio, even if it lacks — how could it not? — an element as unique as Heath Ledger’s immortal turn in The Dark Knight. It’s a blockbuster by any standard.
Digital Spy: “The Dark Knight Rises barely lets up throughout its two-hour, 45-minute running time as Nolan precision-engineers a full-throttle blockbuster with the walloping, Hans Zimmer-backed action sequences of The Dark Knight and the emotional weight of Batman Begins. It’s the events of the 2005 series restart that tie very closely to what unfolds in Rises, as Bruce’s past and present collide for a jaw-dropping trilogy closer. The Dark Knight Rises is intelligent, heart-pounding spectacle cinema that grips like a vice from minute one and won’t let go.”
The Wall Street Journal: “”The Dark Knight Rises” is notable for many things-thrilling chases, supercool vehicles, majestic vistas, an epic scale that hasn’t been achieved since “The Lord of the Rings,” a redemptive climax that brings an end, more or less, to a complex saga. The most stunning thing about the film, though-and this is said not by way of praise, but with anxious wonderment-is how depressing and truly doomy most of it is…”The Dark Knight Rises” allows no choice; it’s immersive and assaultive to a degree that could only have been achieved by the conjunction of a quintessentially somber comic and a filmmaker with a complementary sensibility, marshaling the vast technical and financial resources of an entertainment conglomerate.”
Time Magazine: “The movie may not top The Avengers at the worldwide box office, but it is a far, far better thing – maybe the best, most troubling, assured and enthralling of all the superhero movies.”
Rolling Stone: “The sheer scope of Nolan’s vision – with emotion and spectacle thundering across the screen – is staggering. The Dark Knight Rises is the King Daddy of summer movie epics. For nearly three hours, Nolan juggles themes that took root in 2005’s Batman Begins and reached doomsday perfection in 2008’s The Dark Knight with the late Heath Ledger’s masterful, Oscar- winning performance as the Joker.”
Variety: “Few blockbusters have borne so heavy a burden of audience expectation as Christopher Nolan’s final Batman caper, and the filmmaker steps up to the occasion with a cataclysmic vision of Gotham City under siege in “The Dark Knight Rises.” Running an exhilarating, exhausting 164 minutes, Nolan’s trilogy-capping epic sends Batman to a literal pit of despair, restoring him to the core of a legend that questions, and powerfully affirms, the need for heroism in a fallen world. If it never quite matches the brilliance of 2008’s “The Dark Knight,” this hugely ambitious action-drama nonetheless retains the moral urgency and serious-minded pulp instincts that have made the Warners franchise a beacon of integrity in an increasingly comicbook-driven Hollywood universe.”
The Guardian: “The dark knight duly rises for the bruising final stanza in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, a satisfying saga of revolution and redemption that ends the tale on a note of thunder. If viewers were wanting a corrective to the jumpsuit antics of The Avengers, or the noodling high-school angst of The Amazing Spider-Man, then rest assured that Batman delivers in spades. Here is a film of granite, monolithic intensity; a superhero romp so serious that it borders on the comical, like a children’s fancy-dress party scripted by Victor Hugo and scored by Wagner.”
