Now I understand why there's no 'Batman' word in the title

Rating: 5/10 (31 July 2012)

Before I see this movie, I noticed something peculiar about TDKR: it is the only Batman movie without the hero's name in the title. Initially, I thought it was nothing to do with the story and stuff..one could never guess the miracle comes out of Christopher Nolan's mind, regardless of the literal packaging whatsoever.
Alas, I am wrong. Intentionally or not, the exclusion of word Batman in his own final showdown is not without a reason: It is because Batman only appears once or twice from the start to finish – get this, Batman is a guest star in his own (or more precisely, supposed to be his) movie. You can say TDKR is a movie about Bruce Wayne, Bane, underground prison, or even neutron disaster – but certainly it IS not a movie about Batman – I mean, could you count how many times Batman appears throughout the movie?
Though the 'idea' is actually cool – the aging and helpless Bruce Wayne struggling to rise in his days of doom – in fact, when I watch this movie, I got a kinda feeling of deja vu – been there, done that. I watched almost all Batman flicks ever released, but in my opinion, TDKR is the only one when I saw that the 'story did not get the feeling'. You'll see scenes of twisted emotions, despair, and pain to the point you will forget that you are not watching a Twilight franchise, instead you're watching a Batman movie! A super hero movie with touches of melodramatic scenes is no taboo at all – but I don't know, I just got the impression that the story fails to match the whole Batman feeling. To make the 'feeling' even worse, this move runs in an astonishingly 165 minutes –for the duration one expects to see tons of heroic actions. Unfortunately, it did not happen.If you're longing for the intense actions a la The Avengers, you'll most likely be disappointed. I don't know if it is because of the 'idea' of the uniqueness telling of aging Batman in this movie, but prepare to suffer for boring and long dialogues between action scenes. Even the opening scene do not serve us instant action. Forget instant brawl between Batman and Mister Freeze in the opening scene of Batman and Robin or Two Face in Forever...This one? Well, speaking of this, speaking of this...blah blah...
There are two more people who will get disappointed by this movie. First: the one who expect jokes. As we all know, Batman is identical with psychopathic characters and hilarious quotes, so some sincere laughs are understandable. Remember Bane as a somehow clumsy character in Batman and Robin? Not gonna happen again this time, Bane is taken too seriously, and everything else too. I can't remember the last film I watch in theater that I barely heard anyone laugh between scenes like when I was watching TDKR. The second? OF course the gadget freaks. We also know that Batman is famous for his sophisticated and unique gadgets, batarang, batclaw, batcomputer, etc. Yes, if you think what I'm thinking, this film has virtually nothing of those. Yes, there are batmotorcycle and batplane of some sorts, but forget Batman zips from tower to tower, or even flaps his wings. No acrobatics this time!
One more little example: just look at the Gotham City landscapes portrayed in the this movie, and you'll realize how different it takes from other past flicks – it is now a boring and tasteless one, for a fantasy city - or had Christopher Nolan forgotten that this is a fantasy setting? I really missed that glamorous lighting and unique landmarks that appeared in Keaton, Kilmer, and Clooney's Gotham City versions.
I'd rather spend five more hours re-playing Batman Arkham City in my Xbox 360 than spend more five more minutes re-watching The Dark Knight Rises in any theater.