Overly complex, overly long and ultimately underwhelming

Rating: 7/10 (20 July 2012)

Ultimately, this is an excellent film, but after seeing this as part of an all night trilogy viewing, I have to say it is not as good as The Dark Knight.
The film opens with, strangely for Nolan a quite farcical scene that introduces Bane. I won't spoil it, but please tell me, who takes 3 unknown prisoners on a plane without even looking at their faces? Really??
The proper story starts, and to chose words like jaded, withdrawn, cynical, tired, lethargic and disconnected, is how we find our hero and Police commissioner. So ultimately this is how the audience is manipulated into feeling too, and so act 1 is ultimately a long "downer" as lots of elements are put in place for the last 2 acts. But, after sitting through six hours of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, I was left feeling it was too much, and I started getting bored with the overall emotional shade of the film, coupled with the lack of action and the lack of any real story. It was like watching a plate spinner getting 40 plates spinning on pointy poles, necessary for his act, but ultimately boring for his audience.
The second Act is where our bad guy makes his play and gains the upper hand. One of the strongest sources of praise for The Dark Knight, is the ultimately real-world story telling. But what Bane unleashes on Gotham, takes us back to the more comic book villainy of the first film, which I won't criticise, but for me is not as rewarding as the realism of the second film. All the while our good guys are slow, wrong footed, and creaking under their mental baggage, so we are two thirds through a superhero film, where our superhero has been anything but. Action has been thin on the ground, and we have all been through the ringer, and we are crying for some redeeming pay-off.
After the third act, our her is restored, all has been put right. However, ultimately our pay-off for all we have been put through in the first two acts is only satisfying if you can shrug off the memory of what you have just been put through. It's much like childbirth, you need your brain to be swimming with endorphins to blank out the pain of labour, and for me, I didn't get enough endorphins to make the experience totally rewarding.
Add to this, a slightly facial bad-guy twist, and a groan-worthy sequel shoe-in, I have to say that Nolan has tried to squeeze in far too much, and Batman's saga creeps over the line, rather than ending with a bang, so much so, you will feel convinced that this is not the final part of the story, and we will need another installment to accept that our hero has sailed off into the sunset.