One of the best films ever made, worth the wait! A masterpiece!!!!

Rating: 10/10 (21 July 2012)

Firstly and most importantly the story of this film is sublime. From the very start the normal narrative structure is disregarded, as with previous Nolan's work. The story starts off with a powerful, unforgettable plane hijacking scene introducing the masked villain Bane portrayed brilliantly by Tom Hardy. It then moves to the life of Bruce Wayne (8 years after the events of TDK) and the emptiness he now lives in with the death of Rachel on his conscience and the crimes of Harvey Dent which he chose to take the blame for, for the good of Gotham. This is until Bane strikes again and forces Batman into action, along with newcomer Selina Kyle aka. Catwoman. The story continues to unfold beautifully with surprises at every twist and turn building up to a mesmerzing sensational last hour and climax. Batman falls and 'rises' in this film as Bane takes full control of Gotham causing Bruce unbearable pain by making him witness his city burn helplessly.
The acting in this movie is a step up from the last film as the whole cast do a fantastic job whereas in the last one, for the most part Ledger stole the show. Christian Bale gives his best performance yet as Bruce Wayne who actually feels like a down-to-earth human being in this one and not a distant billionaire playboy. In this one we can feel his despair and learn even more about him with the help of the brilliant characterization and development, as he faces immense challenges he must overcome and learn the true meaning of ''Why do we fall?'' whatever the consequences. The fact even he can be 'broken' shows us despite how much of a symbol he is and what he stands for, he is still physically just a man and all men can fall. He deserves an Oscar nod. Moving on, Tom Hardy portrays the huge masked villain Bane superbly and through his marvelous performance it makes him a completely terrifying and menacing person who is not to be reckoned with, especially by showing how powerful he is when he 'breaks' Batman. The execution of his master plan is very intelligently done and despite Hardy's performance not being as spectacular as Ledger's, he still does a hell of a job and his character complexity still allows him to be in the same league as Ledger's Joker. Despite how much of a monstrous person he is made to look, by the end we see his human side which makes us like him if ever the slightest, as we see he is after all still human. Maybe Hardy doesn't deserve to win an Oscar for his role, depending on how good other year's performances are but he definitely should also get an Oscar nod. These being the two strongest performances of the film nevertheless doesn't mean the rest of the cast didn't also do a great job. Hathaway portrays cunning, sexy Catwoman engrossingly, Caine does a fantastic job as always, as does new-comer JGD (John Blake) and Gary Oldman as Gordon is excellent as per usual. Marion Cotillard is another new addition to the cast, portraying business woman Miranda Tate intriguingly who is more cunning of a character than she looks and will surprise you greatly by the end. All in all, applause to the cast.
The characterization and character development of the film, as briefly touched upon before, is astounding. Each of the key characters are distinctive, have their own backgrounds and strong personalities, even the new ones and each have a fair share of screen time. This is one of the most contributing factors which makes this if ever slightly better than TDK. The old characters we have gotten used to are developed further, Caine gives a staggeringly astonishing performance as Alfred, the charming friend and butler of Bruce and contributes quite a bit to parts of the story. Bruce also is developed further very well, as mentioned before, and Bale delivers a superb performance.
The themes and issues explored also add to this film being greater/better than TDK. Bane's plan can be interpreted/associated with the Occupy Wall Street movement, the banking crisis nowadays and whether capitalism is the right direction to stay on or should the system be changed to allow a new sense of order (not anarchy/chaos, just something other than what we have now). As well as this it poses some ideas about revolution and questions - whether there ever will be a fall of capitalism or western civilization, through whatever means. This film contributes greatly to the world today and a lot of symbolic elements fill the story, unlike most/if not all other superhero films.
Moving on to technical aspects, the action of the film is bigger and better than ever, orchestrated breath-takingly from the opening scene of the huge plane hijacking to thousands of people charging at each other through the torn apart streets of Gotham, filmed on Wall Street helping to give just the massive scale of the action. The sound editing as well as the music of Zimmer are better than ever, it can be slow and calm at parts and yet mind blowingly fast, loud, intense and completely electrifying in a large portions of the film. The FX are also astonishing, especially the fact most of them were real/practical and not CGI.
Now on to the ending of the film (without telling you what it is), I thought it was spectacular, unexpected and a wondrous sense of anonymity is left with the audience leaving the major themes, ideas and further story threads allowing the audience to wonder and decide what will happen next, whilst still being given enough to be satisfied and blown away with this truly epic conclusion to the DARK KNIGHT LEGEND. Not my favourite movie probably but close, still deciding though. A strong 10/10!