Review: The Dark Knight Rises on Blu-ray

I was lucky enough to attend The Dark Knight Marathon that our local theater presented this last summer.  It showed Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and then culminated in the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises.  It was an amazing experience to see those first two movies in the theater again.  But, did the third Christopher Nolan Batman movie live up to its hype?  Is the Blu-ray worth owning?  I'll try to answer these questions, and many others, here.

SYNOPSIS
Taking place 8 years after the events of The Dark Knight, Bruce Wayne is in seclusion and has not been Batman since.  But, a new terrorist named Bane has arrived in Gotham City and threatens to undo what he and Police Commissioner Gordon had worked so hard for.  Bruce must then become the vigilante to fight his most formidable foe yet.

MOVIE REVIEW
Seeing this movie directly after watching its predecessors was a mixed bag. On the one hand, it was amazing to see those two glorious films again on the big screen.  But, on the other hand, it raised my expectations for the third movie to almost impossible levels.  I ended up seeing it again the next weekend so I could take it in on its own, which did help give me a better impression of it.

I felt like it was a good superhero movie, but just not a great Christopher Nolan Batman movie. It is much better than Thor, Iron Man 2, Captain America, Superman Returns, and many others.  I just was hoping for more from the genius, Christopher Nolan. I suppose what they say is true: it's very hard to end a franchise.

The acting is good, but nothing to write home about.  I think Michael Caine (Alfred) gives the best performance in this movie.  Christian Bale gives a good deep performance, although probably not his best.  Anne Hathaway was a delight to watch as Catwoman.  Tom Hardy did good as Bane, however his character was really deflated at the end, in my opinion.

The music was not as good as Batman Begins or even The Dark Knight.  It was fine, just not as deep or emotionally prescient as Batman Begins (which I consider to be the gold standard for comic book movie soundtracks).

The cinematography was amazing and probably the best of the trilogy.  The lighting really invokes the right emotions and of course is beautiful to look at, like all of Wally Pfister's work.

BLU-RAY REVIEW
The Blu-ray is a good buy, especially to complete a collection or to look at how they made the movie.  The featurettes (i.e. small documentaries about how they made the film) are plentiful, well done, and very informative.  Getting into the mind of Christopher Nolan and his crew is well worth the time and money you put into watching/purchasing it.

The HD quality of the film really brings out the beauty of Wally Pfister's cinematography.  There are some movies that should be watched in HD because or the lightning and detail, and this film belongs on that list.  Like I said, this is the best cinematography of the trilogy and the HD really makes that evident.

CONCLUSION
I give the movie 4/5 stars.  Not the best of the trilogy, but still in my top 10 superhero movies list (which will be released at a later date, I'm sure).  The Blu-ray is worth it if 1) you are completing your collection, 2) you are a junkie for how films are made, or 3) You really liked the film.  Most of the special features can be found on the 2-disc DVD, but not in HD.  This week it's at the low price of $17.96 at Amazon.  It will go up by the end of the week, so now's the time to buy. The Link is below:

The Dark Knight Rises (Blu-ray/DVD Combo+UltraViolet Digital Copy)