Worth the wait and every penny

HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE

KATHMANDU: Christopher Nolan has done it again! He exceeds the expectations of the audience. After The Dark Knight, one will have high hopes, and no one in their right frame of mind can be disappointed with The Dark Knight Rises. The word that you are looking for here is — brilliant. It has emotion, humour (perhaps not everyone will get it), action, drama...

Nolan has a knack of casting people in the perfect role. This time many characters have been added to the film and two inseparable names when Batman is mentioned are — Robin (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Catwoman (Anne Hathaway). Also if you have always wondered how Robin teams up with Batman, you will have your answer in this flick. Even the existence of Catwoman makes a lot of sense.

The movie begins when three captives are handed over to the CIA in Uzbekistan. They board the plane and in midair are questioned about their plans to kidnap Dr Pavel. Within no time they find out, this was the plan — getting captured and blowing the plane to pieces. And the plan is executed under the command of Bane (Tom Hardy). It is a success.

On the other hand, a ceremony to honour Harvey Dent, the officer who was allegedly killed by Batman, is being organised. Except for Commissioner Gordan (Gary Oldman), Batman and Alfred (Michael Caine), Bruce Wayne’s butler, no one knows the truth behind the Dent episode. In all this, Batman/Wayne has lost the love of his life and shuns the world. He is in a period of mourning and cannot move ahead.

But Bane has different plans for him. He is blowing up the entire Gotham city, terrorising people, trapping more than 3,000 policemen underground, punishing all the rich, rescuing the criminals and above all making Batman watch all this like a cripple from the pit of hell, where he is captured.

But Batman has to save the city, he is the hero. The question however is, will he? What about Robin? Will he help? And Catwoman? Where is Commissioner Gordan? Why is Bane doing all this? The only way out is to watch the film.

As mentioned, earlier praises are not enough for Nolan. This is completely a director’s flick. He has given rebirth to Batman, a superhero with a human touch. He gets weak, angry, stumbles, is afraid, yet he rises again battling all that. Christian Bale has projected all this with ease as Batman and as Bruce Wayne. He naturally is the best Batman ever!

Of course the villain of the film — Bane; Hardy makes the character look so gruesome that you fear him. He is very soft and polite, but he pierces every soul making them yearn for death. The call however is only ‘Bane’s’. That’s how the effect is, you forget it is Hardy playing Bane.

Oh and the Catwoman, she is sexy, vicious, a thief and believes in the survival instinct. But there is more to her than that. Hathaway is ‘the’ Catwoman.

How can one forget Robin when you are talking about Batman? It’s been evident that Robin is the hot headed one and always wants to rush into things and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is just the person for this. The moment you see him, you know he is Robin. That’s how well Levitt has portrayed the character.

What more does the movie need? A brilliant cast, direction, special effects, background score, batmobile and the list doesn’t end. All you want to do after watching the movie is clap and hoot. Again brilliant is the word!