When the Joker began terrorizing Gotham City… “The Dark Knight Rises”

Directed by: Christopher Nolan

Starring: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy

Grade: A

When the Joker began terrorizing Gotham City, Batman had to outsmart the devious psychopath.

But Bane, with his threatening gas mask and 200-plus pounds of muscle, proves his physical advantage can do more damage than The Joker’s knives and mind games.

“The Dark Knight Rises” completes the Dark Knight trilogy, wrapping up Bruce Wayne’s journey as Gotham City’s Dark Knight in an epic conclusion that proves Batman’s vulnerability and challenges the standard villains of the past films in the franchise.

“Rises” surpasses its former installments with its grandiose production, but the film’s greatest strength is still its characters. Following up on the legendary performance by actor Heath Ledger in its prequel, the new release does not disappoint in terms of complex, well-developed and at times tragically twisted personalities, as its actors turn in powerful and affecting performances.

Christian Bale plays the hot-shot-billionaire-turned-vigilante in the same was as he always has, but employs a more wounded character because of Wayne’s eight years to stew in depression over the loss of Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal). Wayne’s alter ego Batman faces his most difficult reckoning yet, as he not only battles new evils, but also confronts the depths of his fears.

The two new villains that take the screen with Batman are Bane (Tom Hardy) and Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) — also know as Catwoman. Hardy and Hathaway take on their roles brilliantly, adding life to the final installment of the trilogy and diverging from Heath Ledger’s outstanding performance as the Joker in the previous film.

Hardy took the masked villain Bane and created a monster. Both Bane’s appearance (his large frame towered in comparison to Batman and his shoulders seemed to expand with each scene) and the way he portrayed the homicidal maniac was haunting.

Bane’s signature gas mask alters his voice dramatically. Not only does it create a muffled, robotic configuration, but Hardy employs an almost compassionate tone at certain points in the movie, making the paradox in his voice utterly terrifying.

Hardy transforms his character into something so evil that Batman needs to reach near death to compete with the villain’s darkness. Bane proves that belief in his message and a fear of death can make him indestructible, and it’s only when Batman inherits similar standards that he has a chance of defeating this brutal man.

Hathaway’s Catwoman was a flawless cinematic creation. The coy demeanor that she uses to mask her ruthless attitude makes Selina Kyle a captivating character.

Though she sets out to hurt Gotham residents who live excessively, her desire to escape a life of villainism for normality adds complexity to the role. Selina Kyle, donning a black leather skin-tight suit and bright red lipstick, adopts her own Robin Hood-esque moral code — steal from the rich to give to the poor. But even with her audacious demeanor, it’s clear that the Catwoman does not want to continue a life of crime but merely uses it to get out of the reality she created.

Hathaway made Catwoman a bold force, and though she is far from a hero, she exemplifies a powerful female character that the past films seemed to lack. Though the first two installments featured Bruce Wayne’s love interest, Rachel Dawes, Selina Kyle uses her femininity and suave intelligence to manipulate and control the men around her.

But despite the well-executed villainism, “Rises” lacks the perverse intensity that its predecessor brilliantly portrayed. “The Dark Knight” thrusted audiences into psychotic anarchy that made it wonderfully dark. Each character faced certain moral decisions that wrestled with the nature of humankind, forcing even the best of Gotham City to fall into darkness.

Nolan faced an impossible task in following the high-profile performance of the Joker, and he brought the franchise back down to a more humanistic level, creating a plot derived from terrorism, rather than sick criminality.

That’s not to say that Bane’s terroristic acts aren’t just as horrifying. Because of the realistic nature of the film’s events, the character Bane could be more of a psychomaniac than even the Joker.

The difference lies in their mission. The Joker awoke absolute fear in Gotham City through the mob and its criminal activity. But as the prequel showed, the Joker had no rules and his psychotic unruliness ignited a chaotic killing spree. He wanted to watch the world burn, and Batman was just a minor detail in his less-than-organized plan that added to his personal amusement.

Bane has an agenda, a way to ruin Gotham City, and a personal vendetta with Batman. He does to the city what the Joker did to the minds of the people. He created social anarchy, forcing the people into a ruthless state that controls their very existence.

Bane is a man with a mission to ensue anarchy, which can cause more fear in reality. Batman has the opportunity to run over both the Joker and Bane with his motorcycle, but where The Joker welcomed it on foot like a madman, Bane came at him full force as an equal.

Though this final film did not set out to portray the same mental insanity that its predecessor emulated, it almost felt in some instances like a short-handed attempt to reach a preset ideal. Where “The Dark Knight” begs the question of innate depravity, “Rises” seeks to impress audiences with dramatic stunts and shocking twists amidst a slew of painful fight scenes between Batman and his many foes.

And even though it may not be the mindwarp that “The Dark Knight” was, the various stunts in the final installment were impressive. The film trailer’s featured plane scene took stunt work to an entirely new level, demonstrating Bane’s reckless behavior and setting up the movie for a series of intense violence.

Luckily for Gotham City, not every new character seeks revenge. John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) struggles with the same moral compass as Bruce Wayne. As a police-officer-turned-detective, he challenges his authorities, but still adheres to the law.

With a similar family situation to Wayne, Blake feels the anger that runs through his bones, the same anger that helped to create Wayne’s alter ego. He sees the injustice that will continue to plague the city in every way — a task he cannot fully take on as a detective.

Pittsburgh helped these new characters light up the big screen proving that it doesn’t take a mask, face paint or blade-infused stilettos to steal the show. With multiple scenes filmed in Pittsburgh, it’s no surprise that most Pittsburghers are excited by the film’s local impact.

Scenes such as a Gotham Rogues game and Bane’s formal entrance to Gotham City, which were filmed in Heinz Field, and Batman and Bane’s final fight scene, filmed in front of Mellon Institute, represent the city and its exceptional appearance in the cinema.

Fueled by an array of terroristic villains and featuring our favorite protagonist, Nolan wanted to end the franchise on an epic level, and with the level of physical torment and destruction that Gotham City and its favorite source of inspiration undergo, he certainly achieves his goal.

Though it doesn’t have the same shock impact that the second film showed fans four years ago, “The Dark Knight Rises” incorporates each character’s strengths and illuminates them to create something horrifying — Gotham City’s final reckoning, a look into unfinished terroristic threats and the Batman’s biggest sacrifice.