For my take on the Aurora, CO theater shootings click on the link.  http://geekalabama.com/2012/07/20/real-life-horror-the-colorado-theatre-shootings/

The shootings at the Aurora, CO theater did not deter me from going to see The Dark Knight Rises early Saturday morning.  When I walked into the theater I did check and notice where the emergency exits were just in case.  I am sure many other people did the same thing this weekend.  And an employee from The Grand Theatre walked in and announced to everyone about no cell phones which was a change.  The theater for a 10am showing had a good crowd and the movie was awesome!  Below I am going to talk about the movie so if you have not seen the movie do not read below!  SPOILER ALERT!

The movie opened when Bane hijacked a plane with CIA agents and a nuclear scientist in the air and after doing his business which included drawing blood. (turned away)  The plane that was hijacked was let go and was doomed to crash.  After that action packed scene the movie goes through an hour of mumbo-jumbo stuff that felt boring and it stretched way too long.  The movie takes place 8 years after Batman became a criminal in the police’s eyes.  Gotham City is a very safe place and Commissioner Gordon does a very good job as the police commissioner.  James Gordon wants to tell the crowd about the cover-up of Harvey Dent‘s crimes but stops short.  But the speech he had prepared later fell into Bane’s hands and while following an abduction lead that leads Commissioner Gordon into the sewers he is shot and he goes into a sewer line where police officer John Blake finds him and is later promoted to detective while Mr. Gordon is in the hospital.  There was a great chase scene in this part of the movie but other than that I felt a little bit bored.

Bruce Wayne has been in hiding in his mansion and is in very bad shape.  His business Wayne Enterprises is near bankrupt after his investment in clean energy that is designed to harness fusion power and was suggested by business women Miranda Tate was shut down; this would later be the nuclear bomb Bane uses to bring Gotham City to its knees.  Several people want Batman to return but you could tell that Bruce was not in the shape to do it.  You have to feel bad for Bruce’s health and his business that is nearing bankruptcy.

The movie finally begins to pick up when Bane attacks the stock exchange and enacts in very risky investments in Bruce Wayne’s name.  Batman suddenly appears and goes after Bane but the police wants Batman so badly they steer all of their resources to arresting him.  But Batman gets away in this futuristic Batmobile called The Bat.  Bruce Wayne has to give up control of his company and suspects that John Daggett had help from Bane; but later Bane kills him off.  Batman later catches up with Bane in the underground sewers but he is not in great shape and is overpowered by Bane.  This was a great fight scene with two guys going after each other in combat.  Bane’s guys blows into Wayne Enterprises and takes a bunch of weapons and vehicles.  Batman is then taken to this underground prison in the Middle East and Bane tells Batman “When Gotham is ashes, you have my permission to die.”  At this time Batman is in very poor health and is near death.

Then the movie gets really good!  The second part of the movie was just a great treat.  Bane has been part of a concrete company that has planted explosives all throughout the city.  And many of the city’s police forces goes into sewers to find Bane.  And then we see some awesome computer effects.  Bane pushes a button to set off the explosives and the entire football field collapses behind a player running the ball for a touchdown.  And much of Gotham City’s infrastructure is blown apart as well including many of the bridges.  Bane then kills the nuclear scientist that had the power to disarm the bomb and the entire crowd is shocked.  Bane now has complete control of Gotham City and it is about to get ugly.  Bane storms the prison where many people are held because of the Dent Act.  The act gave the police enormous powers over anyone.  Bane reads the letter about the Harvey Dent cover-up and then blows the doors open and all the prisoners escape.  Bane also says that anyone who tries to escape or enter Gotham City will cause the bomb to go off.  So government forces has to block anyone trying to leave the city.

Bane and all of the criminals starts to act like the Wall Street Occupy Movement that is on steroids.  Martial Law is put into effect in the city and the rich and powerful are forced out of their homes.  The rich and very powerful people also goes through a court show trial that is almost like a circus.  They are given no rights and they are all sentenced to death or exile.  Exile is when the convicted has to walk on the ice across the river.  But they never make it and drop through the ice to their deaths.  Gotham City has been thrown into a state of lawlessness and the people are suffering with limited supplies and power.  By the way if you are trying to depict a city with hardly any power.  Why during the chase scenes you see many traffic lights that are on and working?

The chaos in Gotham City lasts for months and at the same time Bruce Wayne is starting to recover and get back into shape in that prison pit.  It takes Batman lots of time to recover and to escape the prison by jumping onto several ledges.  It takes Bruce several attempts to escape the prison while the other prisoners cheer him on.   He climbs out of that pit and starts his return to Gotham City.  Commissioner Gordon was found and was sentenced by the court to exile.  And before the commissioner falls through the ice Batman appears!  And with the help of several people they rescue the trapped police force and we get set for an awesome fight scene!  We see hundreds of police officers and hundreds of Bane’s forces run toward each other and fight!  Batman and Bane fight each other again with Batman winning and after saying to Bane “Then you’ll have my permission to die” Batman gets stabbed by a knife from Miranda.  She reveals that her real name is Talia and that she was the child who had escaped from the Hell on Earth prison.  Bane almost died in that prison protecting her because he loved her.  And Bane wears the mask because of damage from other inmates in the prison.  It is a very strange love triangle.  They were both rescued by the League of Shadows and were trained by Ras Al Ghul.  Bane was excommunicated from the group and Miranda wanted to kill Batman for revenge from the killing of Ras Al Ghul.  She wanted to destroy Gotham City because of its greed and her father’s death.  She hits the trigger button but nothing happens.

The bomb’s signal jammer has worked but the countdown to an explosion was still on.  After a great chase scene the bomb can not be disarmed and Batman attached it to The Bat and flies out into the sea where the bomb explodes.  The people from the orphanage watch as they think Batman is dead.  And after we go through scenes mourning Bruce Wayne and Batman’s death we see Alfred in Italy.  Then we see Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle nearby.  Bruce Wayne faked his death to get away from everything and is now enjoying life.  And the city is celebrating the life of Batman with honors and a statue.  Meanwhile John Blake quits the police force and has the directions to the bat cave where we all think he will become the next Batman.  I felt like the last hour of the movie was a bit rushed in many points.

Overall I thought the movie was a great ending to the Christopher Nolan trilogy.  The movie showed all of us what could happen when someone has too much power.  It also showed what might happen when the police has too much control and if the Wall Street Protesters get their ways.  I give the movie 4 1/2 stars only because I felt the movie went around 30 minutes too long.  And I recommend everyone to go see the movie.  To wrap up this post I wanted to honor the people who were killed in the Aurora, CO theater shootings.

All images copyright from Warner Bros.

• Jessica Ghawi, 24
• Veronica Moser-Sullivan, 6
• John Larimer, 27
• Jesse Childress, 29
• Alexander Boik, 18
• Jonathan Blunk, 26
• Rebecca Wingo, 32
• Alex Sullivan, 27
• Gordon Cowden, 51
• Micayla Medek, 23
• Alexander Teves, 24
• Matthew McQuinn, 27

Related articles

• Movie Review: THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (badassdigest.com)
• Review: The Dark Knight Rises – Redemptive end to a complex saga – Zee News (zeenews.india.com)
• Movie Review | ‘The Dark Knight Rises’: ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ With Christian Bale (movies.nytimes.com)
• Does Batman Die In The Dark Knight Rises? (contactmusic.com)
• Dark Knight Rises Review (gabrielletheauthoress.wordpress.com)
• The Dark Knight Rises review (wired.co.uk)

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