Movie Review: 'The Dark Knight Rises' -- 3 stars
[object Object] Credit: Tom Hardy as Bane and Christian Bale as Batman face off in Wall Street in "The Dark Knight Rises." as Bane and Christian Bale as Batman face off in Wall Street in "The Dark Knight Rises."
The Dark Knight Rises
3 stars
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Starring Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Gary Oldman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Caine
Rated PG-13
Class warfare, terrorism, 9/11 and societal collapse flicker ominously throughout "The Dark Knight Rises," Christopher Nolan's third and final Batman film, a work of escapist entertainment that also poses IMAX-sized questions about America and its recently-rocked foundations.
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The Dark Knight Rises
3 stars
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Starring Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Gary Oldman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Caine
Rated PG-13
Class warfare, terrorism, 9/11 and societal collapse flicker ominously throughout "The Dark Knight Rises," Christopher Nolan's third and final Batman film, a work of escapist entertainment that also poses IMAX-sized questions about America and its recently-rocked foundations.
Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but "The Dark Knight Rises" is an epic send-off to a character, and a franchise, that made it safe for superheroes to get serious.
Though not so serious that fans won't enjoy it.
Opening eight years after "The Dark Knight" with a rusty Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) emerging from self-imposed exile, "The Dark Knight Rises" introduces two Batman villains. One is Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway), a lowborn cat-burglar who preys on the rich, and the other is Bane (Tom Hardy), a masked monstrosity who stokes the populist rage of Gotham while leading it toward doom.
Hathaway's sneer is almost as deadly as her serrated high-heels, and her anti-elitist sarcasm provides the film's few moments of humor; Hardy's tank-like body is a thing of impressive ugliness.
Things bog down badly with a late-hour spiritual odyssey, but "The Dark Knight is a satisfyingly grand finale and - surprise, surprise - a rousing opening chord to another.
Rafer Guzman is a Newsday staff writer.