"If it never quite matches the brilliance of 2008's "The Dark Knight," this hugely ambitious action-drama nonetheless retains the moral urgency and serious-minded pulp instincts that have made the Warners franchise a beacon of integrity in an increasingly comicbook-driven Hollywood universe. Global B.O. domination awaits.(...) Production designers Nathan Crowley and Kevin Kavanaugh opt for a grittier, more working-class Gotham this time around, a fully inhabited city of rundown street corners, public-works offices, bombed-out bridges and fetid sewers (...) Lee Smith's editing maintains tautness and energy over the estimable running time, and Hans Zimmer adds a few ivory-tickling grace notes to his magnificently brooding score"
by Justin Chang in Variety
"Big-time Hollywood filmmaking at its most massively accomplished, this last installment of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy makes everything in the rival Marvel universe look thoroughly silly and childish. Entirely enveloping and at times unnerving in a relevant way one would never have imagined, as a cohesive whole this ranks as the best of Nolan's trio (...) As before, the production values are opulent and sensational; nothing short of the highest praise can be lavished on the work of production designers Nathan Crowley and Kevin Kavanaugh, cinematogtapher Wally Pfister, costume designer Lindy Hemming, visual effects supervisor Paul Franklin, special effects supervisor Chris Corbould, editor Lee Smith, composer Hans Zimmer and sound designer Richard King, just for starters. (...) Nolan remains proudly and defiantly old school (as only the most successful directors can get away with being these days) when it comes to his filmmaking aesthetic"
by Todd McCarthy in The Hollywood Reporter
"The Dark Knight Rises is the King Daddy of summer movie epics (...) There's no denying the visual pow of the film, more than half of which was shot with IMAX cameras. From the opening skyjacking to the blowing up of a football field and a nerveshattering prison break, the film shakes you hard and often (...) just let The Dark Knight Rises propel you into Nolan's carefully wrought maze. You may have to fight yourself out. But a movie this potent and provocative is well worth the battle."
by Peter Travers in Rolling Stone
"A disturbing experience we live through as much as a film we watch, this dazzling conclusion to director Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy is more than an exceptional superhero movie, it is masterful filmmaking by any standard. (...) The director benefits not only from the recurring presence of his performers but also from his top-flight crew, with repeaters who include cinematographer Wally Pfister, production designers Nathan Crowley and Kevin Kavanaugh, editor Lee Smith and costume designer Lindy Hemming. (...) The close collaboration that this kind of creative familiarity ensures is key to Nolan's ability to make such persuasive, enveloping films."
by Kenneth Turan in Los Angeles Times
OSCAR POTENTIAL CATEGORIES
- Best Director (Christopher Nolan)
- Best Cinematography
- Best Art Direction
- Best Original Score
- Best Editing
- Best Sound Editing
- Best Sound Mixing
- Best Visual Effects
BUT...
it is based on a comic-book character and The Dark Knight Rises isn't considered as "brilliant" as the second installement of Nolan's Batman trilogy and this kind of comparisons don't benefit its Oscar chances in bigger categories (but we can't forget The Dark Knight was a victim of a huge Best Picture and Best Director snub in the 2008 Oscar race and nominating TDKR in at least one of these categories may be seen as an apologize from the Academy for the past snub and as a way to honour the victims of the Aurora massacre). The pre-Oscar awards season will say a lot about this one's Oscar chances... but it is unlikely to get a Best Picture nod.
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