THE DARK KNIGHT RISES 2012 (Dir: Christopher Nolan)

 My rating - 9/10

Contains spoilers so beware!! (Apologies for any spelling or grammer mistakes)

The expectation and wait for The Dark Knight Rises was extremely high, for months and months and months my friends and I have been discussing and predicting plots within the film (in which  a few of them were right). The anticipation and wait between the Dark Knight and the The Dark Knight Rises was absolutely worth it. 

The opening sequence really built the tension as we were straight away introduced to the antagonist Bane, the fast paced editing wowed the audience as we given an insight into the mindset and animosity of Bane. Tom Hardy gave an outstanding performance as Bane for an actor to have been restricted to just his eyes and voice was challenging but he proved what a great actor he is and found Hardy's use of voice chilling. The physicality of the performance also showed the strengths of Hardy as an actor. A problem I found was Banes death it really let the film down the anti climax was disappointing as we waited about 15minutes for Bane to return to our screens then we see him and he is killed and that’s it, SO FRUSTRATING. There was a lot of pressure on Hardy to give such a performance after Heath Ledgers outstanding Joker portrayal in the Dark Knight but personally I felt that both were as strong as each other in different ways, there's no way you can compare them. 

In the past I have never rated Christian Bale, I found the use of his 'batman voice' irritating and very hard to understand but actually it worked well you could understand the majority of what was said!! Bale was strong and played both Batman and Bruce Wayne brilliantly. One thing that I felt was lacking from this film was the chemistry between Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) and Bruce Wayne, the scenes that depicted the ‘attraction’ between the two were rushed and almost a bit childlike I did feel myself slightly cringing at points...But saying that Anne Hathaway’s performance as Selina Kyle /catwoman  (which she wasn’t directly referenced as catwoman, ) was flawless and is totally forgiven for her  horrific/poor/ dodgy acting in ‘One Day’ 2011 (Dir: Lone Scherfig). Unfortunately the same can’t be said for Marion Cotillard, for me I felt Nolan cast her wrongly and throughout she was very wooden.

The story itself was great I couldn’t keep my eyes off the screen as every moment there was another twist, the fact that Joseph Gordon-Levitt is Robin was slightly predictable but was a brilliant ending for a fantastic film!