Movie Review: The Dark Knight Rises

I read something the other day that said "The Dark Knight Rises" wasn't going to be filmed in 3D because Christopher Nolan (writer/director/producer) had never met anyone who likes 3D. However, he likes filming in IMAX and people seeing this movie in IMAX would see something extra, something nobody has seen before. So, knowing that tickets were in short supply, I got my tickets online for the IMAX version. The website I got my tickets through listed the show time as 3:30 even though it was really 3:15. We thought we were going fairly early, but lost part of our lead to the city and part of our lead to the wrong time. Then I got in a fight with the machine that made me scan my cards 20 times (no joke) before I could get my tickets. Once I was in the theater there was 10 minutes until the show started. The only remaining seats were in the front 3 rows. Of an IMAX screen. Fuck that. We got our money back and saw Batman on a regular screen an hour later with great seats.

And it was worth it. Nolan was under serious pressure to kick some serious ass with this movie. He not only has to compete with the success of his previous Batman movie with it's legendary Joker performance by Heath Ledger, but this summer he's competing with the success of "The Avengers". He pulled it off and then some. I was really impressed. I'm not going to debate which of the three are best. But none were particularly lacking.

Catwoman got reduced to her cat burglar core and rebuilt. No tail. No whip. No cats. She just develops cat ears when she puts her goggles on her head. She's not a bad guy. She's just trying to use the rich to dig herself out of a hole.

Bane doesn't use the venom that he's known for in the comics and video games. He's just a walking tank. A tank with an accent he got from watching Sean Connery. But I'm not going to tell you much else about him. Spoilers.

Bruce... what he's been up to since the last movie was the most surprising of all.

Watching the movie, for Batman fans, will become a game of "name that storyline" as it draws from several major story lines from the last twenty years. It also draws upon previous movies, including flashbacks to the relevant scenes.

I will be getting this on DVD. I may see it again in IMAX to find out what's going on off screen. Because I really doubt that the IMAX version will be release on DVD or BluRay.