For the record, it's English. I was born in Tilbury, Essex, made temporarily 
American citizen?"
During the forties, the fifties and, to a lesser degree, the sixties, most films had a supporting feature – the ‘B’ movie. These tended to be low budget with unknown actors starring in what was considered novelty films; UFO stories, monster movies, and corny super-heroes. At the time, many kids who accompanied their parents to the movies tended to enjoy the low rent ‘B’ movie more than the more adult main film. As a consequence, when these kids grew up to be filmmakers, many gravitated to want to make ‘B’ movie subjects of their own but with main feature budgets and production values. Director Christopher Nolan must have been among that group. With films like Momento, Inception and his own Batman trilogy, Nolan has taken gimmicky, support movie subjects, and with huge budgets and a ton of creativity turned the ‘B’ movie into something resembling high art.
The third in the Nolan Batman series begins with an impossibly elaborate hi-jacking sequence that could kick-start a Bond film. The aerial sequence is audacious in its content and breathtaking in its execution. Cut to
The world outside of Wayne Manor, principally Gotham City, has lead a relatively crime free and peaceful existence for several years, but a new threat emerges forcing Wayne out of his imposed hiding and back into the Bat suit once again.
The Dark Knight Rises is a long and unapologetically brooding, two hour and forty-five minute journey that feels bloated and overly complicated in its first half and a white-knuckle thrill ride that never lets you relax in its second half. Director Nolan has crammed the almost three hour adventure with plot, and lots of it. Like The Dark Knight and Inception, the film demands attention. It’s an earnest attempt to make the ultimate caped crusader film in epic form with back stories for everyone, and while there are way too many characters involved in telling what should really be a simple plot, those who take their graphic novels seriously should feel sated. For those who don’t, The Dark Knight Rises may seem like an over-indulgent, sprawling mess.
The most imaginative action sequences, those moments that can be best described as having the wow factor, have become a staple of a Christopher Nolan film. They’re expected. Here there are several, one of which – the football stadium sequence – appears in the trailer. To tell any more is to spoil the fun. All of the action is superbly choreographed, though for me the best scenes involve an emotional Alfred appealing to
If you see the film on the huge
The plot is convoluted with too many characters – as much fun as it is to see Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman I was never completely sure what she had to do with what was going on – and I’m not convinced that the subject warrants such a serious approach, but the film is crammed with so many cinematic riches and imaginative stunts you tend to overlook what you don’t understand or can’t hear and just go for the ride for fear of being left behind.
