Well I am not a comic book nerd (and no you are not allowed to check my closet to see if I have comic books there), and I don't mean to rain on anyone's parade, but here is my review on The Dark Knight Rises, which I just finished watching 10 minutes ago.
So I got into the theater, wait in line to buy my ticket and looked at the "showing hours" I was 10 minutes late, and the guy in front of me was trying to make conversation with the "ticket seller guy". I mean you can talk to the guy but AFTER I buy my ticket on a movie that started 10 minutes ago (according to them). So I buy my ticket, proceed to enter the theater and debated on buying popcorn and a soda. I read that the movie was kind of almost 3 hour long so I decided not to, and anyways everyone knows the popcorn and the soda is gone before the movie starts. So now at my seat they were showing the previews. So basically I made it and didn't miss a thing. And to my surprise I even got to see the "Man of Steel" preview which was awesome.
And then the movie starts, I am ready for it, so I strapped to my seat and was prepared to be amazed. (I am going to try not to give any spoilers btw). To my surprise I wasn't amazed, yes the movie looked good but the first scene of The Dark Knight was better than the first scene of Rises. It set the tone. But this scene I already saw in a "preview" before Harry Potter (I think) and it involves a plane heist. Cool scene by the way but I am not impressed. And then it just dragged and dragged, exposition after exposition of scenes that could have been cut because they served no purpose (More on this later on). And then I stopped to look at my phone and check my Facebook statuses. And then I stopped. I thought "I bought a ticket and I am going to watch the movie even if I don't like it. I mean, it is no Avengers, but I have to watch it".
And then something happened. The movie started to show it's true form. Scene after scene my interest began to grow, and that is when I noticed that all those scenes in the beginning that I thought could have been cut came to fruition. Nolan gave us the salad before the steak. Here have a salad, and you go "Ohhh its a salad, kind of good but why would I need a salad?" and then you see the steak, and notice that the salad was there to prepare you for it. That is what I felt about the movie. It started slow but it picked up, and once that happened it didn't let go. You feel the struggle, you feel the pain, and you get more excited when heroic things happen. And then you see familiar faces, and you know the story is getting better. And then you question the story and then you think that they tried to pay you for the fool but you knew better (even tho you didn't). And at the end you end up with a feeling of satisfaction that closely resembles killing a craving.
At the beginning of the movie I thought "This is in no way, shape, or form better than the Avengers". But when I left the theater I knew that I had just seen a masterpiece, and that The Avengers, as good as it is, could not compare. And at the end something happened that made me yell "I knew it" and you will probably do the same.
So that is my sort of review (sans spoilers) of The Dark Knight Rises. And I am still digesting that amazing piece of steak.
