Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight Rises

Yes, it isn't a horror movie. But ever since I was little I have been a huge Batman fan. In fact I was border-line obsessed with Batman Returns and dressed as Catwoman three Halloweens in a row. It's just something magic about the city of Gotham, and all it's villains. Sadly, Batman Returns is really the only Batman movie I'm actually a fan of. Superhero movies really aren't my thing even though I do enjoy the Sam Raimi Spiderman movies, and Watchmen. I do believe though the darker the story is the better. Sorry but I just didn't jump on the Avengers bandwagon.

Many thanks to Christopher Nolan for taking a character who's whole series was going down in flames, and rising it from the ashes with a brand new reboot that forever changed the eyes of remakes for all time.

I'll admit, I haven't seen Batman Begins, nor do I really have the urge to. I saw

The Dark Knight in theaters after all the hype it got after Mr. Ledger's sudden death. I was blown away. It had been years since I saw such an epic movie and it's safe to say that was one of the greatest superhero movies ever made. Perfection at it's greatest.

Then back in 2009 I saw my first trailer for Inception and I was hooked. Beyond curious I wondered exactly what this movie was about. How can we forget that awesome trailer with all those loud boom sounds. When it was finally released I was blown away. Never before had I seen a movie so many times in theaters and never got sick of it. In fact it's one of my all time favorite movies. It was very ahead of it's time and changed my outlook towards movies forever.

I was very excited to see The Dark Knight Rises, and was pretty bummed out after hearing about all the trouble that has happened since the movie released. Putting all of that aside, today I went in knowing zero about the movie. First off they shot the film in Pittsburgh, which was close to where I just graduated. Second I hinted and asked a few questions to some friends of mine who are huge comic book fans. My main thing I was most curious about Joseph Gordon Levitt's part.

I'm a huge Joseph Gordon Levitt fan and this was way before he broke out with his 500 Days Of Summer role. Long ago I have many fond memories watching him in such parts like 3^rd Rock From The Sun, Halloween H20, and 10 Things I Hate About You. Watching this cute long haired child actor breakout and become a superstar, I've noticed he's picked more and more interesting roles.

I mean come on let's face it he ruled in Inception and the hallway fight scene was what really made the movie. How kick ass and amazing was that scene?

I was very fold of Christopher Nolan's choice to make this a trilogy even though I haven't seen the first movie yet. After proving he's a genius with creating an original story like in Inception, I was very egar to see how he would end this story.

This movie was very political and I'll admit took a very long time to get rolling. I feel as though it could have been done much better, but it gave the audience enough time to get to know each character and learn how slowly these people's life's were being affected.

Bane was a great creepy villain (Tom Hardy yet again steals the show) that accent of his had me beyond creeped out. Watching how quickly Gotham ran into ruins and madness was very interesting and had sorta an Escape From New York feel to it.

The rest of the cast was as always very impressive and we saw some old faces from other Nolan projects.

The next big thing was Catwoman. Now of course I feel very protective of this role since Batman Returns was one of my all time favorite movies growing up and I pretty much worshiped Michelle Pfeiffer in that role. I mean everything about her was perfect. Between her shinny vinyl stitch costume, her back story, being thrown out a window by Christopher Walken and then bit by hundreds of cats! I loved the sexual love/hate tension between her and Batman and loved the last shot of the movie. This was one character I sadly missed by the series and even though I never watched it, Birds of Prey sounded like a very interesting TV show when it first aired.

I'm not the biggest Anne Hathaway fan in the world, and was sorta on the fence after seeing a few leaked photos of her on set. Surprisingly enough, I was very pleased with her portray of Catwoman and liked Nolan's direction with her, even though some of the dialog seemed a bit forced.

I liked the tragic story of a city that goes to ruins and how a fallen hero rises up to give one last night. Sure the movie had it's flaws, and I believe if maybe they took a few things in a few different directions it would have been 100% perfect, than maybe it would have rang closer to The Dark Knight. Instead Rises tells the closing chapter and in all honestly the last five minutes was that really made the movie for me. I'm not ashamed to admit I got goosebumps and found it a fitting ending to three very epic movies.

And also, MONTHS before this movie was released and having not looked up any spoilers, I guessed the ending which I was very impressed and pleased with. So much in fact I wouldn't mind seeing a forth movie sometime down the road.

Who knows, we'll see...

Four Stars!