Up until last Friday morning, if you had asked me what my favourite
movie trilogy was I would have said the Red
Riding saga without missing a beat. With Year of Our Lord 1974, 1980
and 1983 Channel 4 managed to craft
one of the tightest, most fascinating epics I’ve ever had the privilege of
watching. But again, only up until last Friday morning, because I’ve seen The Dark Knight Rises and its quality by
itself and as the final part of a series has cemented Christopher Nolan’s Dark
Knight trilogy as one of the greatest of all time.
I loved Batman Begins when it
first came out. Since then, I’ve recognized its flaws but the movie is still
great in spite of them. When The Dark
Knight hit cinemas in 2008, it wowed me unlike any movie before (my good
friend Xander Harrington will attest to how I was left practically speechless
until we left the cinema). Going into Rises,
it seemed unlikely that Nolan would be able to top himself, especially
considering the late Heath Ledger’s powerhouse performance as the Joker in TDK—as
well as the fact that few final chapters in trilogies tend to be the strongest.
But Jesus Christ, he did it. Christopher Nolan somehow did it.
