Your comments on 'The Dark Knight Rises' Staff By Staff The Star-Ledger
on July 18, 2012 at 1:49 PM
0719batman.JPGTom Hardy as Bane and Christian Bale as Batman face off in "The Dark Knight Rises."

The latest Batman film, "The Dark Knight Rises, isn't just another big Hollywood blockbuster.

The movie has some serious New Jersey ties.

In November, several scenes were filmed in Newark, turning the Brick City into Gotham City for two days. Jersey boy Michael Uslan bought the Hollywood rights to Batman, and it led to the 1989 version with Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson (another Jersey boy!). Since then, he has gone on to produce all the Batman films, including this one.

And how is "The Dark Knight Rises"? Film critic Stephen Whitty says this movie "embraces wit, while avoiding camp. It uses technology to create not just eye candy, but wonder." He goes on to reference how "The Dark Knight" tackled the subject of terrorism, and this film isn't as politically weighted. user Rick Rapier wrote:

Stephen, if I was Nolan I'd appreciate your praise, but your review speaks of a trilogy without ever referencing the series' groundbreaking first film. You mention "The Dark Knight" with Heath Ledger's Joker as if it were the original film and the one to introduce metaphorical terrorism, but that was the second film. Terrorism as a metaphor was introduced in the first film, "Batman Begins," before the second script was penned obviously.
It is core to the trilogy's through line, not something hit upon in "The Dark Knight." And you suggest a metaphorical Occupy movement is a contradiction to the political roots of the French Revolution. They are philosophical cousins, sharing the same angry envy at its roots and similar acts of terror to cow the opposition as well as the populace -- and ample evidence that those ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it. So, perhaps its muddled in the modern media narrative, but not historically. Not in the least. user downbury offers a bit of a clarification:

Batman Begins explored fear versus courage and the Dark Knight explored chaos versus order. Hopefully this latest installment explores more than the proletariat versus the 1%. That would be annoyingly topical and disengaging.

Read the review of "The Dark Knight Rises" and comment. Are you going to see the movie this weekend?