One thing about Christopher Nolan's series of films about Batman is that they resonates with Hans Zimmer's score. It is one of the best. It underscores the darkness in the story of this lone knight, a billionaire in a time when billionaires are not particularly popular, who, after defeating the nemesis of Gotham City in The Dark Knight (2008) and been blamed for it, has retired to his mansion in a state of incognito. No-one has seen him for years.

But when Gotham is once again threatened by the machinations of soulless killer Bane (Tom Hardy), he's seduced out of retirement at the urgings of young, idealistic cop John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Complicating the mix is resentful thief Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) who got away with Bruce Wayne's mother's pearls, but not for long. She has a selfish agenda which leads to Wayne's removal from the scene so that Bane can put Gotham into chaos, with a nuclear bomb ticking that will destroy everything within a six mile radius.

It is fine filmmaking, no question.

Motivation is elusive for some characters, but the subtext of resentment of the poor against the rich, of the devastation of Gotham as a result, is obviously meant to equate to our times.

Christian Bale is Batman, that jaw speaks volumes, it was a sublime piece of casting from the get-go and he's once again solid. Anne Hathaway acquits herself well as does Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Gary Oldman as the compromised but still honest Police Commissioner, Marion Cotillard as Wayne's business partner and potentially something else, Morgan Freeman as Batman's Q. And you have to hand it to Michael Caine who squeezes real sentiment out of his role as Bruce Wayne's butler/associate.

Maybe not quite up to the standard of the first two in the series, but deserving of a very honourable mention.


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