An Operatic, Blockbuster.

Rating: 9/10 (20 July 2012)

Is it a perfect film? No. It is a great blockbuster? Yes, it is. Tonally, The Dark Knight Rises rises above its predecessor in the trilogy, because it manages to balance the grounded in realism and comic book aspects into a tonally coherent work. In fact, though it still attempts to ground itself in reality, this is the most operatic and most bombastic of the Batman films. And, dear lord, does operatic work with the superhero genre. After all, at its true core, Batman, and the superhero genre, is inherently a ridiculous concept. I loved the ridiculous voice of Bane and Michael Cain's constant hamming it up, crying speeches.
In recent years, the JJ Abraham's school of film-making has gained currency. The film moving so fact to one scene to the next that the audience barely has time to register the illogical steps taken by the characters. This is evident in the 2009, Star Trek film. While Nolan does this, he does it with so much more panache that it transcends the narrative, editing weaknesses associated with this modern form of film- making. The Dark Knight Rises is a pure cinematic experience. It is a film that needs It is a film that needs to be experience in the big screen. Even the hand to hand fighting sequences-- an area that Christopher Nolan has struggled with in the past -- are exemplary; they are reminiscent of the slow light saber fights in the Old Trilogy.
The biggest problem with the film is that it does not developed the relationship between Marion Colitard's character and Bruce Wayne well enough; it feels too force. Another major problem with the film is the Howard Hughes segment, it which it is they only portion of the film that drags.