Director: Christopher Nolan

Cast: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt,

Rated: PG-13

4.5 out of 5 stars

The heated rivalry between DC and Marvel comics re-ignited with the release of Marvel’s Avengers and DC’s The Dark Knight Rises, and it has rarely been more fierce. Many fans are as interested in seeing which movie will ultimately perform better in the box office as they are in the movies themselves.

However, The Dark Knight Rises is fundamentally different from Avengers. For better or worse, Dark Knight is much less fun and much more serious.

Christopher Nolan’s Batman is one of the most pathetic superheroes to ever fight evil. This fact is what makes his version of Batman compelling, and that’s what makes the film’s villain, Bane (Tom Hardy), so monstrous.

In the Batman comics canon, Bane is known as the villain who “broke the Bat.” During the first few minutes of Nolan’s two-hour-and-45-minute saga, the move introduces the audience to a Batman, played by Christian Bale, who’s already broken.

In Batman Begins, a young Bruce Wayne is a witness to his parents’ murder at the hands of a robber. In Dark Knight, Wayne loses his childhood friend-and his hope for a normal life. In Dark Knight Rises, Wayne struggles with the responsibility of managing a limping Wayne Enterprises while physically worn after countless battles with Gotham’s criminal underworld. Wayne has never looked weaker.

With such a solemn protagonist, the film’s few moments of humor seem to only highlight Wayne’s pain. Audiences may miss a wisecracking Alfred (Michael Caine), a witty Wayne and a hint of anything resembling Joker’s dark humor from The Dark Knight.

Instead, The Dark Knight Rises introduces audiences to an Alfred who can’t seem to carry on a conversation with the stubbornly depressed Wayne without shedding tears and urging him to find life beyond Batman’s cowl. After Rachel’s death in The Dark Knight, however, life as anything other than Batman doesn’t seem appealing to the troubled Wayne.

Joining the troubled Bat is a collection of other characters highlighting just how far Wayne has fallen. Nolan rounds up many of his old many of his old Inception cast members for this task. However, with Hardy, Marion Cotillard and Joseph Gordon-Levitt joining Anne Hathaway and other returning actors, The Dark Knight just barely holds it all together.

All of the actors give amazing performances, even if we don’t see much of some characters such as Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) and Alfred. Hardy manages to evoke terror in spite of his face mask, both through his eyes and his unrelenting attacks on a broken Bat. Nolan also gives Gordon-Levitt and Hathaway an ample amount of time to shine.

Many fans were apprehensive about Gordon-Levitt’s role as John Blake, as well as Hathaway’s role as Catwoman. However, Blake fits well in Nolan’s Batman universe, and Hathaway’s performance brings just a bit of light to a very dark film. In fact, a few audience members may wish The Dark Knight Rises had a little more of her.

There is no doubt that Nolan and all of the cast and crew told this story about the depths of despair with a sense of refinement and sophistication many have come to expect. However, with little humor and fun, it is unclear whether The Dark Knight Rises will see the same success as The Avengers, a much happier film.