Epic conclusion...but still not as I had expected

Rating: 7/10 (20 July 2012)

I have to say that Nolan have succeeded in creating the "Epic conclusion to the Dark Knight series" but still, for a movie with so much hype and expectations and as a great fan of Chris Nolan's Batman, I have to say that I am disappointed in a few aspects, and it made me leaving the cinema frowning (I'm not saying that the movie is bad, it has its moment of epicness, but still...there's something missing here and there)
When I first watch the trailer, listened to the Bane's voice, and looking up a lot about Bane's origin, my expectations of this movie rocketed. Added by the fact that Nolan cast Tom Hardy (which I am a great fan of him, and his superb performance in the movie "Warrior" made me believe that he would be the best choice in performing as Bane), I expected to the see the same rage, anger and destructive fighting-style as the one Tom hardy showed in the film "Warrior". I couldn't wait to see Bane's monstrous fighting. I had also expected Nolan to give plots and scenes that can match the previous movie. But, unfortunately TDKR did not manage to give me what I had hoped for.
First of all, casting Tom Hardy as the destructive Bane was a perfect decision, but Nolan had failed to utilize Tom's potential and failed big time in the fight choreography. In the scene where Bane "breaks the bat", it looked to me like Batman was losing on purpose rather than overwhelmed by Bane's superior fighting skills. The camera was also very disappointing because I could not see the fighting clearly and most of the time the camera shoots either too close covering only one of the character or shooting only the back of either Bane or Batman so I couldn't see what was going on. In both fighting scene, it lacks passion and it looked like it was faked. To add that disappointment is how quick and easy Batman to defeat Bane in the second battle. It really changed the image of the undefeated Bane into just another strong henchmen. It made me a really angry because i was like "dude, i wanna see a real fight!!"
Secondly, overall plot of the movie was as amazing as I had hoped for, but it was executed poorly. It made me think that Nolan was fitting too many important scenes causing a lot of the trivial scenes to just jump from one another. It was too quick. Its as if Nolan was pressed by the time limit then tried to jam all the scenes. The plot was amazing, but it just didn't exceed the Joker's scheme of mayhem. And when Talia al Ghul makes her appearance later in the movie, Nolan suddenly throws away all the importance of Bane, reducing him from a powerful evil mastermind into Talia's underdog. So not cool.
Anne Hatheway's performance was incredible, two thumbs up for her. Personally I prefer Hatheway's catwoman than Michelle Pfeiffer's. But her role and connection with Batman should be more emphasized. Christian Bale failed to perform the old and weakened Batman, rather to show that Bruce Wayne is now just tired and lazy to walk around without a stick. Michael Caine did a perfect job as the worried alfred, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt caught my attention with his energetic spirit.
To summarize, the movie was great but it needs a better plot and motives for the villain. Unlike the Joker's taste for chaos, Bane's motive is a lot like just another terrorist movie. Tom Hardy as an actor was excellent but Bane's role as "Gotham's reckoning" is disappointing. Some of the action scene was boring to me, and somehow in the last moment of Batman's attempt to thwart Gotham's destruction looks an awful lot like "The Avengers". It was so damn cheesy, what the hell is wrong with you Nolan? Ran out of idea? But still, the last 10 minutes of the movie was a great success, it made me forgot about the whole wreckage of the movie, delivering the Epic Conclusion.
This is my first review, I'm sorry if some of you don't agree with me, this is only my personal opinion and I hope it helps.