KFYO’s ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ Spoiler-Free Review

The biggest-hyped movie of the past few years lived up to its billing. Allen Corbin, Cole Shooter (pictured, above) and myself (pictured, below) attended one of the numerous midnight showings for 'The Dark Knight Rises' earlier today.

I've always considered Batman my favorite of the modern superheroes and what is now being called 'The Dark Knight Trilogy' is definitively the definitive story for the character.

A quick note before mentioning more about 'The Dark Knight Rises', if you haven't seen the two previous movies in the series, ("Batman Begins' and 'The Dark Knight') I strongly suggest you watch them before seeing 'The Dark Knight Rises' (aka TDKR).

While TDKR is an incredible story, and movie unto itself, there are parts of the backstory and character motivation you will better understand if you watch the two previous films.

TDKR opens eight years after 'The Dark Knight' and the first few scenes do a great job establishing what has happened in Gotham City, what is going on with Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) and the motivation behind the main villain, Bane (Thomas Hardy).

If you read the DC comic book version of Bane in the  early 1990s during the Knightfall saga, you will be impressed how that character was transferred into the Christoper Nolan- directed world of Batman.

One of the things I liked best about TDKR was that story progressed with no "bumps in the road" or "detours". As with all Christopher Nolan movies, the pacing is fast and you won't want to miss any of the film or you'll lose major parts of the story.

Hanz Zimmer does an exceptional job with musical score in TDKR. Like with most sequels, some of the music is from the previous movies and there are new compositions too. Something else done that I liked was there were a few scenes with no score at all. It is a very rarely used technique and I thought it was pulled off perfectly.

Getting back to the action on screen, as expected, Bane terrorizes Gotham City and bringing him down becomes the number one priority for Batman.

For Batman to battle Bane, he will have to use every resource at his disposal and figure out new ways to fight.

Unfortunately, I have to stop there with the story or I'll end up giving away major plot points.

If you're any sort of fan of Batman you will love this movie. I also think 'The Dark Knight Trilogy' rivals, or betters, any of the major trilogies in Hollywood history. Yes, I am including 'The Godfather', 'Indiana Jones', 'Lord of the Rings' and 'Star Wars'.

I will end up seeing TDKR at least one more time this summer to try to pick up on anything I missed.

I give 'The Dark Knight Rises' 5 out of 5 stars.

Thanks to Allen Corbin, Paige Corbin, Becca Corbin & Cole Shooter for joining me for the movie.