Despite the heart-breaking tragedies that occured in Aurora, Colorado late Thursday night, The Dark Knight Rises, well, rose out of the ashes. The conclusion to Christopher Nolan's epic trilogy of Batman films managed to smash box office records by earning $261 million in it's opening weekend, becoming the biggest opening for a 2D film in history. It is only surpassed by the recent 3D films Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 and Marvel's The Avengers, which opened with $169 million and $207 million, respectively.
How did Batman not beat Harry Potter and The Avengers you ask? Well I'll tell you how. The massacre that has haunted the release of The Dark Knight Rises isn't the only ailment that's held it back. Widespread fear and hysteria in the last few days have caused cancelled midnight screenings around the globe, as well as a large bulk of tickets being refunded. And of course the #1 factor: The Dark Knight Rises wasn't released in 3D!
Box office experts are already saying that although Harry Potter and The Avengers grossed more money due to 3D making ticket prices more expensive, The Dark Knight Rises actually sold a higher number of tickets. Now I don't know about everyone else, but am I the only one that thinks that this is a bit unfair? TDKR will now be known as #3 on the list of biggest opening weekends because Christopher Nolan took the high road and created a film with time-honored art and commitment as opposed to current trends and eye-candy. Shouldn't movies be measured by number of tickets sold and not how much those tickets cost? Where is Hollywood's sense of logic?
But alas, the Marvel fanboys will celebrate, and the DC fanboys will feel defeated (until Oscar season of course). But the way I see it, there's no point in either side feeling a sense of triumph or loss. As a firm fan of both Marvel and DC with no favorable preference, I see it silly that fanatics that favor Marvel think that this situation is anything to be proud of. It took all of Marvel's headling and most iconic characters combined in one movie to barely edge out just one of DC's. If anything, these so-called Marvel fanboys should be relieved that they were scantily bailed-out of a major embarassment had the Bat used 3D in his flick.
Aside from all of the flim-flam that oh-so gracefully comes with the release of a major blockbuster, I'm no going to change the subject into a direction that may surprise you; I'm going to speak about the actual film! Here it is, plain and simple: The Dark Knight Rises is one of those films that truly deserves all of the hype surrounding it. It was fantastic. It was brilliant. It was everything I could have hoped for and then some more. Yes this is going to be a very positive review in case you haven't already guessed it. Something else I should mention is that from this point on, this review will be a No Man's Land of spoilers so consider yourself warned. Still reading even if you haven't seen the film? Stop now! 1..2..3.. Okay leave!
I'll start by saying that I just want to congratulate all of the great actors involved with this experience. What they've accomplished with portraying these characters is sheer greatness. The show-stealer for me was Anne Hathaway as The Cat. Near-perfect portrayal of the character. Anne's chemistry with Christian Bale was surprsingly awesome. When I first heard the news that Anne would be playing Catwoman, I had a little trouble envisioning her and Christian Bale attaining the same amount of chemsitry as Adam and Julie, Michael and Michelle, and Kevin and Adrienne. But Christian and Anne surpassed every other romance between The Bat and The Cat in my opinion. And it was all made worth while when the red-herring relationship between Miranda and Bruce came crumbling down when she not only revealed herself to be Talia (Epic win!), but also went on to reveal that she'd been the evil mistressmind behind Bane's plot, and on top of that she basically came out and said that she was infatuated with Bane, all in the process of shoving a knife into Batman's stomach. Jesus Christ! Talk about rubbing salt in the wound! *Catwoman kills Bane with perfect, dramatic timing*
Joseph Gordon-Levitt was awesome as Robin John Blake, a fine addition to the cast. I feel like this role may take his career to more great places. You may be wondering why I'm starting a full paragraph about John Blake when I crammed Catwoman and Talia Al Ghul into one. Well, I'm not. Moving on.
Morgan Freeman's Lucius Fox didn't go above and beyond his last two times, and he didn't have to. He was good old Lucius Fox, just how we know and love him. Nothing overdramatic, but just a pinch more of adrenaline added to the character. Just enough for us to know that even our calm Lucius is getting uneasy. One of the many masterful ways how Chris Nolan let the audience know that shit's going down! Something I noticed is that the Alfred/Lucius roles were reversed. We saw more of Lucius and a lot less of Alfred- a refreshing change. Basically it was the complete opposite of the sequelitis that The Dark Knight mildly suffered from after Batman Begins.
STUFF I LIKED
Selina Kyle
Bane
Everything
Holly Robinson
The unclusion of the Roland Daggett character
Everything
The "I guess we're both suckers" kiss
The ending
Bruce and Selina at the cafe
Everything
So if you're still here and you read through my entire disheveled "review" of The Dark Knight Rises, all I can say is that I truly hope you've already seen this masterpiece. Not only my favorite Batman film, but my favorite film film. Thanks for your time and I'll see you on the flip side!
