The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

It's, well, dark. Jack, Amy, Zach, and I took some time out of our beach vacation a week and a half ago to see the Batman blockbuster and weren't disappointed. You most likely know that this is director/co-writer Christopher Nolan's final installment of his Batman trilogy, and no one is supposed to reveal the ending (you know I won't). I covered Nolan in Inception, referred to Christian Bale (Bruce Wayne/Batman) in The Fighter, Tom Hardy (the villain Bane) in Warrior, Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Officer Blake) in 50/50, Anne Hathaway (Selina Kyle/Catwoman) in One Day, Marion Cotillard (Miranda) in Contagion, and covered Gary Oldman (Commissioner Gordon) in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. There are nearly 300 actors listed on imdb, so that's as far as I'll go.

As Amy drove to the movie I read aloud the some of the 98 trivia points, some of which were fun to know in advance, e.g. the mayor of Pittsburgh, Luke Ravenstahl, a former college football place kicker, makes a kick in the football game, shot at Heinz Field, home of the Steelers.

The special effects are good, the IMAX brings it into sharp detail (3D wasn't available, which was just fine), the gadgets and action scenes are first rate, the costumes and set dressing pretty great. There's a bit too much bare hand fighting for my taste (another trivia point is that Hardy based his voice/accent on an iconic bare hand fighter). Also, this movie is 12 minutes longer than the second one, The Dark Knight, which is 12 minutes longer than the first, Batman Begins (2005). I would've been happy with 12 or 24 fewer minutes of fighting. Towards the end I started losing track of plot details and references to the earlier installments: Zach had to explain them to me later. The script, perhaps at fault for my lapses of interest, was co-written by Nolan's brother Jonathan, who co-wrote with Christopher the scripts for The Prestige (2006), The Dark Knight, and by himself wrote the short story on which Memento (2000) was based. The story is co-credited to Christopher and David S. Goyer (a number of movies I haven't seen, screenplay/story for Batman Begins, story for The Dark Knight, and screenplay for the upcoming Man of Steel, which has an enticing trailer that we saw recently).

With 87% from critics and 92% from audiences on rottentomatoes, this is, as of August 5, the second highest grossing movie of 2012.

Once again Hans Zimmer (last in these pages in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows) provides the exciting soundtrack, heavy with timpani, low notes, and chanting. You can listen to all the tracks from the CD here, or, for true fans, there's an app for that, but it's not free.

You already know if this is your thing--action, intrigue, Batman. If it is, see it on the big screen.