The Dark Knight Rises

Finally, the movie I've been waiting all year to see has arrived!  And folks, it does not disappoint.  In fact, this final Nolan/Bale Batman film is a slam-dunk.  If you haven't seen it yet, get your butts to the theater, and then go seven more times.

I've been a Batman fan for a long time.  I can still remember the Christmas I got a Batman action figure and Bat-mobile.  The toys were based on Burton's films.  The Batman had a string that pulled out of his utility belt.  It was awesome.  I remember being obsessed with Batman Forever, and defended it as the best of the films for a long while. That was until Batman Begins, anyway.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that I loved each of Nolan's films.  Batman Begins proved that comic book movies didn't have to suck.  (Looking back, I think every Batman movie before Begins sucked.  I bought into them as a kid, but come on, they're lame.)  The campiness of previous films was gone, the hero was seriously disturbed, and the villains were as realistic as could be hoped for.  I was one of the doubters and never saw the film in the theater.  (I'd been stung too bad by the horrendous Batman and Robin, which even as a kid I hated.)  When I got around to seeing it on dvd I almost pooped my pants with joy.  Then The Dark Knight hit theaters, forever changing the super-hero genre.

The Dark Knight was a tough sequel to top.  Heath Ledger gave the best performance of his carrier as the Joker, and easily slaughtered every other comic book movie villain.  But it wasn't just Heath that make TDK such a success.  Every minute of that film was full of tense, interesting conflict, that tested Batman to his limit.  TDK was a tough one to beat, but The Dark Knight Rises did indeed do so.  Go see it and tell me I'm wrong.