A deep, thrilling, surprising, exciting conclusion to one of the trilogies of all time.

Rating: 9/10 (18 July 2012)

Just woke up after midnight screening. Was blown away.
Some people may think it's crazy to call this trilogy one of the best of all time. But as Nolan said, how many good third movies of a series are there out there? This film is just as good if not better than its predecessors.
First off, the only reservation I had about "The Dark Knight" was that it wasn't as deep as "Batman Begins". Thanks to some excellent acting from the cast, "The Dark Knight Rises" manages to be deeper than "The Dark Knight" and rivals that of "Batman Begins". Nolan has often been criticised for his less emotional directing, but I think he is almost at his finest here. More care is taken to character development throughout.
Of course, the action is absolutely awesome. Nolan ensures it is not too familiar or repetitive to us, staging cool, spectacular fight scenes/chases/heists. More is at stake in this film and thus the action scenes excite and thrill more than any action film I've seen in quite some time.
The writing is of course brilliant, but occasionally sags into cheesy. There are some brilliant one-liners, essential to super-hero movies, and some quality plotting alongside it. Whenever Jonathan and Christopher Nolan team up for a screenplay, it really delivers.
The brilliant thing about Nolan though, is he is one of the only film-makers that can make a super-hero film that ISN'T PREDICTABLE. Even after reading a few minor spoilers on the net, so many of the events in the film made me think "NO!". One really, really has to admire this, as predictability is what often makes super-hero movies crushing bores.
All-in-all, the film is more than satisfying, bringing the trilogy to an excellent conclusion. Take a bow team.