The Dark Knight Rises

Did I just mention franchises in the last review on Ice Age? Seems to be a trend here, but since Christopher Nolan took this franchise and helped completely overhaul it starting with "Batman Begins", it has been a truly worthy venture. "The Dark Knight Rises" is supposedly the last of this franchise, but not to ruin any surprise, it screams sequel.

Despite his tarnished reputation after the events of "The Dark Knight", in which he took the rap for Harvey Dent's crimes, Batman/Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale), after a stretch of reclusivity, feels compelled to intervene to assist Gotham City and its police force headed up by Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) and Foley (Matthew Modine) which is struggling to cope and deal with Bane's (Tom Hardy) plans to destroy the city by forcing physicist, Dr. Pavel (Alon Moni Aboutboul) to design a megaton bomb.
While all this is unravelling, Batman strives to trust an accomplished jewel thief, Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) to assist him with Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and others to ultimately defeat Bane.

Others to round out the cast are Marion Cotillard as Miranda, Morgan Freeman as Fox, Michael Caine as Alfred, and Ben Mendelsohn as Daggett.

This was richly, yet grittingly directed by Christopher Nolan ("Following" '98, "Memento" 2000, "Insomnia" '02, "Batman Begins" '05, "The Prestige" '06, "The Dark Knight" '08, "Inception" '10). It was equally well written by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan based on a screen story by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer which is based on Bob Crane's creation.

The visual effects by Double Negative and New Deal Studios were absolutely a knockout. They way these guys partially destroyed the city using CGI (Computer Generated Imagery), models, and sets were amazing. The sound design by Richard King was out of sight.

With the exception of the fact that the film was a bit long-in-the-tooth, and a few things that happened were far-fetched, even though it's pure fantasy, this film had you right on the edge of your seat. And presented in IMAX, one must experience this on the large screen so as to get the full effect of the white-knuckle ride Nolan was undoubtedly trying to convey.

Out of 4 stars: 3.5                      Rated: PG-13                         165min.