Review Tuesday: The Dark Knight Rises

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES is the third and (supposedly) final chapter in the current Batman series of movies with Christian Bale as the Caped Crusader.

A well calculated evil from Bruce Wayne's past turns up to destroy him and Gotham City.

The movie starts eight years after the events of THE DARK KNIGHT. No one has seen the Batman since the death of Harvey Dent. A chain of events forces Bruce Wayne to put on the cape again as a storm hits Gotham, a terrorist by the name of Bane.

The rest of the movie is really a set of chess moves put into action by bane outsmarting the police, government, and Batman every step of the way.

The movie is PERFECTLY cast. Bale has always been a great choice for Batman, but when I heard about Anne Hathaway in the role of Catwoman, I wasn't so sure. Once I saw her on the screen in her catsuit, however it changed my mind. She puts on the Selina Kyle persona like a pro. I used to think that Michelle Pfeiffer and Lee Meriwether pwn3d this role, but Anne can easily join them. She had all the moves and was overwhelmingly sexy on the screen. She's impressed me many times in the past, I have no idea why I doubted her in this role. Extraordinary actress. Another new character introduced, (Robin) Blake played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt was intense and a very necessary character in this flick. Marion Cotillard as Miranda was a very surprising character, and well chosen. There's something about that woman that she always kinda freaks me out in movies. She has a coldness to her, which might be natural, but was essential for this role. Of course I have to spend some time with Tom Hardy as Bane. The brutal villain with the evil plan to destroy Gotham. The man has an awesome screen presence. Terrifying. I don't know if that's his real voice or not (kinda sounded like Sean Connery!) but hearing the intelligence coupled with the brute strength and you knew this would be a force to be reckoned with.

The movie is nearly THREE HOURS LONG. You wouldn't know it, though. It moves along very nicely and never drags. The mix of the new and old characters keeps you riveted. The resolve of the good guys and the evil of the bad guys makes this an instant classic for fans of the genre. It's a comic book movie, but without the comic book cheese. It's dark, depressing, and hopeless at parts, but the human will triumphs in the end. If you haven't seen it yet, you will. You should.

Word has it that this si the end of the current Batman franchise, but the ending is open enough for another, and Bale has said he'd be willing to don the cape one more time. If they can make another great movie like this, I hope they do!

More on IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1345836/