The Mark of Zorro: THE DARK KNIGHT RISES Gets an A

When I walked out of the theater after seeing The Dark Knight back in 2008 I had an enourmous smile on my face. My enormous smile was caused by the greatness of The Dark Knight. To this day I still consider The Dark Knight one of my favorite movies of all time and obviously one of the best Batman movies ever made. Notice how I said one of the best not the best Batman movie because after seeing The Dark Knight Rises we have a new contender to challenge The Dark Knight for Batman movie glory.

Let me first start off this review by saying that Batman has always been my favorite superhero. He is my favorite for two reasons. One is that he doesn't have any superpowers. I find it easier to appreciate and relate to heroes more that don't have any superpowers because they are more human and it's easier to attach yourself to a normal person fighting crime rather than, for example, the god of Thunder. The second reason is that Batman can be the "Dark Knight" meaning that he can make the choices no one else can and bring justice to Gotham by any means necessary.

So the story is that it has been eight years since Batman took the fall for Harvey Dent's crimes and now it is Pax Romana in Gotham. There's not much crime, the police are getting bored and all is well. However, as we all know (if you've seen the Dark Knight) that this peace time in Gotham was built off a lie and I like that people like Jim Gordon and a few others are still dealing with this. It creates a tie in between The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises which I really appreciate. Whenever movies are linked it feels all the more epic which is exactly what Christopher Nolan was trying to go for.

Anyway Gotham is in peace and Batman is in hiding for being branded a criminal and no longer needed that is until Bane steps onto the Gotham scene. Bane is the biggest threat Gotham has ever faced and now Batman must stop him.

Of course this being a Batman movie the story isn't always that simple but the description above is the main plot to this movie.

This movie seems to have some new characters that I have to talk about. For instance the new villain, Bane. Bane is the biggest threat to Gotham ever. Even more so than the Joker. The Joker was some scrawny little thing but was a serious threat to Batman because of his brains and his unpredictability. Bane however is physically superior, mentally superior and is worst of all patient.

I loved Bane. He had the same effect on me that the Joker had. I always wanted him on screen and couldn't wait for him to come back on screen when he wasn't. Tom Hardy did a great job and created a very memorable and menacing villain.

Plus you've got to remember Batman is not in his prime. He's getting back in the swing of things and is still a little rusty. Alfred even has his doubts in Batman when he imagines him going up against Bane. When your loyal friend who usually always believes in you has doubts about something you are going to do you know you are going to be in trouble. Even I was worried for Batmans sake.

I know a lot of people are worried about Bane's voice because it was hard to understand in the trailer but they fixed it up for the movie and it was much easier to understand.

The next most anticipated new character in this movie is Catwoman played by Anne Hathaway. I'm sorry Michelle Pfeiffer but Anne Hathaway was a much better Catwoman. She was everything Catwoman should have been. She was sexy, manipulative, cunning and could kick anyone's butt. Plus I liked that we understood why she was who she was and made us like her by the end. The best Catwoman award goes to Anne Hathaway.

Also I love that even Joseph Levitt's character and Marion Cotillard's character are important to the story. Although they were a little un-developed I loved how good of a job this movie did at introducing these new characters and made them matter.

Despite my sheer love for this movie it did have some minor problems. For instance there were a few quick fixes and plot holes in this movie which could have easily been avoided if more time was spent on them.

Like in the beginning Bruce's leg is all messed up and it seems like its going to be hard for him to be Batman again. Luckily though they find this magic knee brace thing that fixes his leg in about five seconds. There were few other quick fixes like this that I can't give away due to spoilers but once you see this movie you will know what I am talking about.

Christopher Nolan did a great job with the conclusion of this franchise. He made this movie extremely epic. Every time I either got chills, cheered or was on the verge of crying was a direct result of Christopher Nolan making this movie epic. And yes I did those things often while watching this movie.

 So which was better? Dark Knight or Dark Knight Rises? I honestly cannot say. i feel that The Dark Knight was the better made movie but The Dark Knight Rises was the more epic movie. This movie was a lot like Lord of the Rings. It had its few problems but those problems were able to be overlooked because the movie was epic. However I can honestly say that The Dark Knight Rises deserves a solid A.