The Daily Shift‘s Katy Quinn reviews the most infamous movie of 2012 and is highly impressed…

Since 2005, Batman has been dominating our screens, each time introducing a new and more frightening villain than the last. The Dark Knight Rises is no different. The dark tone and realistic approach is what makes The Dark Knight franchise so different from other Batman films. I will say just one thing before I continue; those of you who have maybe not seen the first or perhaps the second films should do so quickly, otherwise this one will make no sense.

The focus of the movie is on the Harvey Dent Act which has meant clean streets for Gotham City for eight years with more than 1,000 criminals behind bars and refused parole. Bruce Wayne/Batman (Christian Bale) having taken the fall for Dent’s death- which was not his fault if you’ll remember- is now a recluse in his own home allowing the city to hate him. Harvey Dent or Two Face as he became known did not die the hero Gotham has made him, instead he lived up to one of his more memorable quotes: “You die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain”.

The Dent Act is the basis for unrest in Gotham and so the city has a new villain to contend with; Bane (Tom Hardy). I must say at this point, Bane’s mask makes it almost impossible to understand what he is saying which is very frustrating and annoyingly, it makes him breathe like Darth Vader. Bane is unhappy with the divide between the rich and the poor and his plan to destroy Gotham must bring Batman out of his hermit existence.

I don’t know why everyone hates Gotham and people are always looking to destroy it, how they still have a population at all after all that has happened is beyond me.

Catwoman is another addition to this movie and I have to say I was apprehensive but surprisingly impressed. Anne Hathaway managed to curb her seemingly whiny nature and instead plays the conniving, manipulative character with superb conviction. What audiences will like about her also is that you never really know which side she is on, but that is the point. The action is non-stop and my heart was racing for pretty much the entire 2 hours and 45 minutes.

There are a lot of questions raised that are not answered. Such as, if Bane is fighting for the people then why is he trying to destroy the people? Joseph Gordon Levitt appears as Police Officer John Blake, a Robin figure of sorts, and I have to say I thought his performance was fantastic. Marion Cotillard, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine are all outstanding but unfortunately, I thought that none of them were really given the screen time they deserved.

Watch out also for our two homegrown actors, Liam Neeson and Cillian Murphy, who are reprising their roles as Dr Crane (Scarecrow) and Raz Al-Ghul from the first movie. For the first time in a long time, I spent most of the movie really believing that maybe Batman cannot defeat this villain, perhaps Bane is too much for him.

It certainly seems that way when they fight and Bane breaks Batman’s back and leaves him to rot where nobody will find him.

Trust me, you will be sitting on the edge of your seat for the entirety of this movie and when it is as long as this, you’ll feel like you just ran a marathon. With Hans Zimmer’s epic music, which always gives me goosebumps, and the wonderful direction of Christopher Nolan this movie is a force to be reckoned with and comes to the kind of conclusion that will leave you satisfied.

There is no actor or actress who leaves a lot to be desired, there is no scene that I thought didn’t belong and this is certainly a franchise which will go down in movie history. After all, Batman is “the hero Gotham deserves, not what it needs” so I will be very surprised if this is the last we see of the caped crusader.

*Image by MarvelousRoland via Flickr