The Dark Night Rises 2012

     It has been eight years since Batman took the fall for the murder of Harvey Dent.  He has not appeared in public for any reason and rarely leaves his estate.  Bane, a new evil presence has appeared in Gotham City and he aims to take over the city by force.  Bane was once a member of the League of Shadows.  Batman was also a member but Bane was forced out due to his extreme behavior.  It is also rumored that Bane escaped from a middle-eastern prison called The Pits of Hell. 

     This is final installment in director Christopher Nolan’s extremely violent Batman trilogy.  There are ultra-violent scenes of torture and death that are too intense for younger teens.  There is a disturbingly high body count with massive explosions, kidnappings, broken necks, shootings and hand-to-hand combat.  Not much blood but LOTS of death and mass destruction.  The film’s villain, Bane is monstrously muscled, frighteningly sadistic and very scary looking.  

     This is long and there is so much going on it’s hard to keep track.  There are many errors in voice to lips moving, character errors, geography and facts.  It’s almost too much to follow and take in during one viewing.  Many references to Batman’s past also muddy the plot.   3 ¼* (This movie is above OK but not into good)

165 min, Action directed by Christopher Nolan with Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Marion Cotillard, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Note:  Imdb 8.4 out of 10 with 1,466,129 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 87% with 364 critics 90% audience with 1,211,563 ratings, Roger Ebert 3*, Common Sense Media Sandie Angulo Chen age 15+, 4* out of 5*, positive messages 1*, role models 2*, violence 4*, sex 2*, language 2*, consumerism 2*, drinking drugs & smoking 1*, Letterboxd 3.7* out of 5*, Metacritic 78 out of 100 with 45 critic reviews (positive 37, mixed 6, negative 2),  8.2 out of 10 with 4,225 user scores (positive 3,548, mixed 362, negative 305).

Special Note:  Christopher Nolan told the actors and actresses the ending of the movie verbally to avoid any leaks.  Dr. Johanthan Crane also known as The Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy) is the only villain to appear in all three of The Dark Knight movies.