Director: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Running Time: 165 minutes
Certificate: 12
Extras: The Journey Of Bruce Wayne
Epic in scale, huge in it’s reach, and beautiful to look at; THE DARK KNIGHT RISES hit nearly every mark on the big screen. Landing on DVD (and extras packed Blu-ray) does it still have the power to entrance?
Eight years after THE DARK KNIGHT Gotham is clean, Batman (Bale) is wanted for murder, and Bruce Wayne’s ego still hasn’t recovered. An attack on Gotham’s powerful by mercenary Bane (Hardy) breaks the peace, forcing Batman to become the hero Gotham needs once again.
THE DARK KNIGHT RISES is film making at its most ambitious: Christopher Nolan puts every single cent of the reported $250 million budget on screen, Bale gives a performance only he could – making a man in a bat suit believable and sympathetic – whilst Tom Hardy manages to be effective acting only with his eyes, and Anne Hathaway damn near steals the film – amongst other things. But the films quality is not in question, the grandiosity that left us awe inspired in the cinema is.
Truly great movies don’t need a big TV, a cinema, or 3D to be effective; their story, structure, and composition should make the superfluous a bonus, not a necessity. The IMAX Nolan used for large parts of THE DARK KNIGHT RISES will make little difference to Jimmy on his laptop, or Sue on her 40″ TV. Hans Zimmer’s score should be as wondrous through the cheapest speakers as it was through your local multiplex. And, for those who struggled, Bane’s vocal should be heard as intended. Fortunately, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES is a great movie; it succeeds on each level detailed, and manages to hit harder emotionally at home than possible in a room with 50 others.
Issues from its theatrical run are still present: how does he get back to Gotham, and why is it suddenly nighttime, but this is nit picking. THE DARK KNIGHT RISES is powerful filmmaking from a master of his art. IMAX, cinema, home projector, LED, LCD, Plasma, CRT, Laptop, Phone it doesn’t matter one jot, this is a masterpiece for the ages.
Extras: Insultingly DVD buyers get only a short The Journey of Bruce Wayne which whilst excellent isn’t enough for those unable to afford Blu-ray. Blu-ray gets the following: The Batmobile, The Prologue: High-Altitude Hijacking, Ending the Knight, Return to the Batcave, Beneath Gotham, The Bat Pod, Batman vs Bane, Armory Accepted, Gameday Destruction, Demolishing a City Street, The Pit, The Chant, The War on Wall Street, Race to the Reactor, The Journey of The Dark Knight, Gotham’s Reckoning, A Girls Gotta Eat, Shadows & Light in Large Format, The End of A Legend, Trailer Archive.
THE DARK KNIGHT RISES is released on Blu-ray and DVD December 3rd
