Powerful and a strong second half, Stretched first half, nothing exceptional to pin-point or praise

Rating: 9/10 (10 August 2013)

The third instalment of an epic series by an epic director needs to be epic; and it is. The Batman (Bale) takes the fall for Harvey Dent's murder, and for eight years stays off the streets of Gotham City. Bruce Wayne is now a cripple and has invested a fortune in developing a sustainable source of renewable energy. When he learns that the reactor's core can be converted to become a nuclear weapon, he shuts down the project and hence millions of dollars of Wayne Enterprises gets permanently locked onto the project, leaving the company in the red. A cat burglar, Selina Kyle (Hathaway), performs a job where she lifts Bruce Wayne's finger prints and sells it to Bruce's rival. Unknown to Selina, her act triggers a sequence of evens where a terrorist by name of Bane (Hardy) intends to take down Bruce Wayne, The Batman and all of Gotham City for good. Superficially, the movie is still the tried and tested good winning against the evil unlike the more un-conventional approach that the earlier movies took. The biggest let-down of the movie was Bane and his character's inability to live up to the reputation of The Joker. The Dark Knight's core reason for succeeding was The Joker, nothing more and nothing less. No doubt the movie was a brilliant work of art, but minus The Joker and it all turns bland. Bane, was the more conventional villain who is strong and muscular, has a stereotypical behaviour and belief and can be associated with any modern criminal. He is far too conventional and a tad uninteresting. The first half took its own sweat time in establishing the plot and foundation which made the movie slow and a bit boring. The second half picks up pace dramatically to end in a superior climax. Although the climax is impressive, it can still be counted as predictable and not what the audience might have expected. The movie definitely packs a whole lot of punch and entertainment but no aspect of it shines out and can be termed as outstanding. Too predictable and conventional in a lot of ways, but don't get me wrong; its still a treat!