Review: The Dark Knight Rises

Amazon Price: $17.96		Starring: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy Directed: Christopher Nolan Release Date: July 20 2012 Run Time:  165 Minutes Format: Blu-Ray Audio: Eng / Subtitles: Spanish, French, Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures

It has been eight years since Batman vanished into the night, turning, in that instant, from hero to fugitive. Assuming the blame for the death of D.A. Harvey Dent, the Dark Knight sacrificed everything for what he and Commissioner Gordon both hoped was the greater good.

For a time the lie worked, as criminal activity in Gotham City was crushed under the weight of the anti-crime Dent Act. But everything will change with the arrival of a cunning cat burglar with a mysterious agenda. Far more dangerous, however, is the emergence of Bane, a masked terrorist whose ruthless plans for Gotham drive Bruce out of his self-imposed exile. But even if he dons the cape and cowl again, Batman may be no match for Bane.

Audio

Audio Format(s): English DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio, French/Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: Spanish, French, English, Portuguese

The audio is great all the way around with good bass depth and sound effects coming out of the surround sound. Besides the mixing on Tom Hardys Vocals it gets an almost perfect score with it not being 7.1. The film brings a great score as well the fills the room with sound.

Back to Tom Hardys ( Bane) Vocal mixing. His voice is almost 2x louder than every one elses and find that kind of annoying. But the score helps the movie out a lot as for sound.

Rating:

Video

Disc Format: BD-50
Encoding: AVC (MPEG-4)
Video Aspect: 2.40:1, 1.78:1 (IMAX Sequences)
Resolution: 1080p/24

The film shows off  great detail, good dark’s and vibrant colors when they enter the screen as most scenes are dark. But the film doesn’t and as with most live action films compare to animated films like Finding Nemo.

Through out the film on the Blu-Ray format the Video Aspect changes from 1.78:1 (fills the whole screen as its shot in Imax) to 2.40:1 (widescreen) and is kind of annoying, I think.

On the DVD Format of the film You don’t Have The Imax shots so the scenes that are shot in Imax are just normal Widescreen Aspect. But That means the scenes are cropped and you can see that in the photos below when I compare the Blu-Ray PQ Quality the DVD’s

• 72 minutes of Imax Footage

Click the photos for a closer view

(Iphone Used to take Photos)

As you Can see the DVD is cropped due to the Video aspect.

The Blu-Ray Blows the DVD version out of the water in PQ as Details are a lot more noticeable like the pimples on Banes neck….you cant see them in the DVD Version haha. The Straps on Banes vest give the most comparisons as The DVD you cant see the details on the straps at all.

Rating:

Theatrical release Date: July 20 2012

Blu-Ray Disc release Date: December 4 2012

• The Batmobile – 58 minute documentary
• Ending the Knight – Multipart making of documentary:
• Production:
• 1. The Prologue: High altitude hijacking – 8 minutes
  2. Return to the Batcave – 3 minutes
  3. Beneath Gotham – 2 minutes
  4. The Bat – 11 minutes
  5. Armory accepted – 3 minutes
  6. Game day destruction – 6 minutes
  7. Demolishing a city street – 4 minutes
  8. The Pit – 3 minutes
  9. The chant – 5 minutes
  10. The war on Wall Street – 6 minutes
  11. Race to the reactor – 8 minutes
• Characters:
• 1. The journey of Bruce Wayne – 9 minutes
  2. Gotham’s reckoning – 10 minutes
• Reflections:
• 1. Shadows & light in large format – 5 minutes
  2. The end of a legend – 9 minutes
• Trailer archive (four segments)

The dark Knight Rises is a Great film but not as good as The Dark Knight. TDKR is filled with good action great story lines but is filled with Plot Holes, bad mixing on Tom Hardy’s Voice, and only and maybe only a 1/4 of the run time of the film you get to see batman. Other then the bad  the film is a good watch. Its dark, gritty, heart pounding thanks to the soundtrack, and it has heart.

Bane is cool, some hate his accent but Tom Hardy was a beast in this and I loved it. The film also has a twist and a turn but that’s when the Plot exposes its holes and I must say this is the first movie I ever watched where I had to think..  wait a minute.  With the good and the bad TDKR is a great film to watch and even own but I must tell you, You need to plan out when you want to watch it as its 2 hours and 40 minutes long.  So get some popcorn turn out the lights ( You need to do this as a lot of scenes are dark) and have fun.

I give The Dark Knight Rises a 4 out of 5