In Defense of The Dark Knight Rises

The final installment of a trilogy (or any franchise for that matter) is almost always the most divisive as people were either satisfied with the ending, or not. One of the most notoriously divisive closibg chapters in recent memory is The Dark Knight Rises, which despite recievibg critical acclaim, was disappointing to alot of people. Frankly, I find The Dark Knight trilogy as one of the best series of films in the superhero genre, with the closing chapter being a worthy addition and a solid conclusion to the franchise. The film has very memorable performances from Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy and Michael Caine with Hardy being the standout as the intimidating and powerful Bane. The film also has a great story involving Batman coming out of retirement and Bruce Wayne learning to find peace for himself and for Gotham. Speaking of which, the city of Gotham feels the most like a breathing character this time around as the citizens express fear, anger, courage and promise throughout the film. The action was also a major step up in this film as it features some of the most intense and distictly choreographed fight scenes in the franchise. The revelation of Talia Al'Ghul at the end of the film seemed to rub people the wrong way as they felt it undermined Bane’s role. I don’t agree because I feel as though Bane was still a great villain and narratively speaking, it makes sense Talia wanted revenge for her father’s death in Batman Begins. How do I mean? Well, to me, it seemed obvious that someone from the League of Shadows would’ve ennacted revenge against Batman after Ra’s Al'Ghul’s death and they’d need a different approach to taking over Gotham. But of course, there’s the most controversial part of the film: the actual ending. To summarize, Batman carries the bomb out to sea and after it explodes, most people assumed he died. Then Alfred sees him in Florence and simply nods to him. This has been the subject of debate since the release of the film with some saying it’s implausible and others defending it. Personally, I don’t think there’s a definitive answer as this is one of those ambiguous endings where the audience is left with something to think about. The Dark Knight Rises is one of those films that I personally liked despite mixed opinions from audiences. That’s not to say it’s perfect, though; as much as I liked Selina Kyle in this film, I don’t think her kiss with Batman was warranted. I also feel as though everybody pretended The Joker didn’t exist, which I get wanting to honor Heath Ledger, but I feel as though a simple mention of his name wouldn’t have hurt. Lastly is the way Talia died, which could’ve been done better because it looks as though she played dead as opposed to actually being dead. To close off, I’d just like to address the worst criticism of this film: “It’s not as good as The Dark Knight.” You mean the film that’s been hailed as the best superhero movie of all time, with the best villain ever put to screen, and setting a new standard for superhero movies? To me, this argument is nothing short of stupid as all The Dark Knight Rises had to do was be an entertaining movie on its own merits.