Having given viewers an alternative version of 'The Dark Knight Rises' at the end of season 2, 'Uprising' gives us a cheap recreation of the dumb climax of that movie, complete with people who forget they have guns and use their fists instead! Having been bulletproof in his first appearance, Vinnie Jones's 'Brick' is now vulnerable to knuckles, and loses a fist fight with John Barrowman (yes, I know he's Malcolm Merlyn, but I find the idea of Mr Jones getting his ass kicked by Capt Jack Harkness risible somehow!)! How come he shrugs off a bullet to the head, yet goes down from a few punches? The Malcolm flashback sequences might have been less laughable if they hadn't given Malcolm that awful haircut, but the 'showdown' with the man he believed killed his wife felt rushed and perfunctory, maybe it should have been built up to over a few episodes. Oliver's return was also poorly done, borrowing from TDKR to give the city some kind of spectacular message that the Arrow was back would actually have been a good idea here. But by far the dumbest plot twist was Oliver's decision to have Merlyn train him to fight Ra's Al Ghul. The idea that he would turn to the man who set him up to be killed by the head of the League of Assassins, who in fact set him up to be killed because he couldn't beat him himself, makes absolutely no sense whatever, not to mention the reversal of principles involved that alienate him from Felicity. So, overall I considered this episode disappointing, and in the ways it borrowed from TDKR actually kind of stupid.
Review of Uprising
