Review: The Dark Knight Rises

With the hype sky-high after the success of The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan's third and final installment in the Batman franchise was always going to struggle to match up to people's expectations - but quite how short The Dark Knight Rises falls will be a surprise to many.

The main problem with this final film is that whilst the success of the series has been in its realistic setting of the superhero's story in the modern world, too much of The Dark Knight Rises plot stretches the believability to breaking point, taking the viewer out of the film to question whether what happened actually made any sense.

That's not to say this is a bad film - there's plenty to enjoy in the action set-pieces and the performances of Anne Hathaway and the return to the fore of Christian Bale as The Caped Crusader himself, who is back inform after taking a backseat to performances from Aaron Eckhart and Heath Ledger in the previous film. Tom Hardy is good as his nemesis Bane, playing him more like a Bond villain than you may expect - it would be unfair to compare him to Ledger's Joker as they are very different type of villains, but Bane could've done with a bit more development to show why exactly he has managed to amass a cult-like army of followers.

The Dark Knight Rises also suffers from trying to cram too much stuff into one film - it would arguably have been better following the lead of the final installments of the Harry Potter and Twilight franchises by splitting the story into two parts, as it feels like there is at least 4 hours of film crammed into 2 and 3/4 hours, with several minor characters introduced and subsequently getting lost in the shuffle, leading to some underwhelming moments the should be much more powerful as the film hurdles through several of its multiple endings, of which the final one seems a little bit too much like trying to repeat Nolan's trick from Inception, copping out from the proper ending that actually suited the story.

The Top 5 Familiar Faces In The Dark Knight Rises (Spoilers)

1. Lieutenant Jim Dangle (Thomas Lennon) as a Doctor wins the award for the strangest casting, wisely giving the shorts a miss this time around to give Bruce Wayne the once over.

2. Bellick from Prison Break (Wade Williams) appears once again on our screens as a prison guard. With his previous record it won't come as much of a shock that all the prisoners don't stay captive for long.

3.By now most people will know that Carcetti pops up in the IMAX prologue that introduced Bane, but another Wire alumni Bunny Colvin (Robert Wisdom) briefly turns Gotham into another Hamsterdam as an Army Captain. Maybe he thought the nuke was street slang for drugs.

4. Quinn from Dexter (Desmond Harrington) has Bunny's back later as an unnamed officer who makes sure no-one crosses that Bridge - even if Joseph Gordon-Levitt does his best squinty face impression of Keanu Reeves.

5. Finally, Owen from Torchwood (Burn Gorman )plays Stryver, one of Jim Daggett's lackeys. Speaking of all stuff Doctor Who, The TARDIS might actually explain how Bruce Wayne actually managed to get back to Gotham from a jail in the middle of Africa with no money and no shoes.

Is The Dark Knight Rises Viral The Prologue Plot?

The viral marketing campaign for the Dark Knight - tracking Harvey Dent's political campaign and the chaos caused by the Joker helped raise interest in Nolan's sequel to near-rabid levels. With The Dark Knight Rises less than 12 months away the launch of a similar campaign over recent days has sent the Internet into meltdown. What we've got so far is 3 leaked CIA documents and I have a theory about what they mean.

Viral #1

Wired.com

Viral #2

Empire Online

Viral #3

@thefirerises

My theory is these documents have been leaked to raise interest before the Dark Knight Rises Prologue is screened before IMAX showings of Mission Impossible 4 in a couple of weeks. Total Film reported previously a rumoured plot for the prologue

"Bane and his mercenaries hijack a military plane transporting a dictator of a country which is in unrest (think Saddam Hussein type figure). 

'He successfully kills the leader, but makes some mistakes along the way and is unable to safely land the plane. 

'Because of the resulting injuries from the accident, he has to undergo complicated surgeries and that is how he winds up with that scar down his neck and the need for the mask to numb the pain.'

Is 'Operation Early Bird' the mission in question?

Is Bane the Operative FO439 in charge?

Is Alon Abutbul set for a William Fitchner style role in the prologue as Dr Pavel?

Is Dr Pavel the target (as opposed to a dictator)? The documents seem to suggest he is based in a country full of milita

Will the prologue end with the botched Hijack of Dr Pavel that results in Tom Hardy turning into the Bane we've seen so far?

Only a couple of weeks to see if I'm right a Mission Impossible 4 opens December 16th in USA and Boxing Day here