DARK KNIGHT could be best picture of year.

Rating: 10/10 (19 July 2012)

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES is an excellent movie; superior script, strong characterizations, solid cinematography and augmenting action. It's just not a particularly strong Batman movie.
Chris Nolan is a celluloid genius. He has managed to appease practically everyone in his Batman swan song. He needed to satisfy cast and crew, he needed to wrap his trilogy up in a convincing, yet final manner, and he needed to ensure the relative calm of the comic fans and more fanatical fan boys. He has accomplished all three.
First, there's the saga of star Christian Bale and the Batman suit. Bale has a problem with claustrophobia, and the Batman suite has caused him fits throughout the trilogy. In THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, which runs nearly three hours, he is actually in the costume about 20 minutes. That's good for Bale, but not so good for Batman fans.
Series regulars return as well, including Michael Caine and Gary Oldman. They both offer outstanding performances, but Caine's is exceptional. It very well could garner him a nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Nolan said repeatedly THE DARK KNIGHT RISES was his last oeuvre with the character and the series. He brings the story to a definitive end, but leaves a door open for anyone foolish enough to try to follow his act. Bale also said he would quit when Nolan did. This allows Nolan to write in a darker Batman element. Ever since Frank Miller's Batman tome "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns", many fan boys wanted to see an edgier Caped Crusader on film. Knowing Bale was bailing, Nolan scripts a battered and bruised hero, silent in Gotham for eight years and demonstrating the injuries and traumas of a life of fighting crime. This should appease the Miller devotees. While the legend of Batman may continue, it will definitely not be in the guise of Bale.
While Bane, played by Tom Hardy, is credited in the comics with breaking Batman's back and putting him out of commission, the character was weak; a runt with an attitude, juiced up on a super serum called venom, to monstrous proportions. Nolan has completely reinvented Bane, for the better. He is a mercenary, quick and strong with ties to the League of Shadows and Batman's arch nemesis Ra's Al-Ghul.
Several other comic and fan boy elements are brought to closure as well. Did Jim Gordon know Batman's identity? Did Batman and Catwoman have a tumultuous love affair? And, what about Talia, daughter of Ra's Al Ghul? All of these questions, long debated in print form, are brought to closure in THE DARK KNIGHT RISES.
There's a political undertone that is alarming in THE DARK KNIGHT RISES. Hardy as Bane and Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle, preach the true Communist manifesto as they plot a rebellion against Gotham, designed to take from the wealthy and give to everyone else. Their speeches sound as if they were purloined from the ranting of President Barrack Hussein Obama and others of his ilk. "No one got were they're at alone." "If you built a successful business, you didn't do it on your own. Someone helped you." These troubling Communist mantras fill today's headlines promoting envy and jealousy in the social classes, and they are even more troubling when spewed by Bane and not a slickster in a suit on Pennsylvania Avenue.
The world Bane creates with his rebellion is not the land flowing with milk and honey that was promised; just as Obama's platitudes sound utopian, but will surely turn America into a socialist third world nation. Perhaps this is Nolan's way of suggesting everyone vote in November to ensure Obama is limited to one term, as we, unfortunately, do not have a Dark Knight to bail us out. One can only hope the message is received.
The scenes shot in Pittsburgh are a distraction. The first time you see the film, be prepared to have a selection of goobers scream and yell every time a familiar landmark or local personality flashes on screen. Some folks just don't go out too often. The recognition factor also hinders the augmenting action sequences. Nolan orchestrates the action scenes like a conductor creating a full crescendo. While the tension is building, a familiar spot pops on screen and the brain switches into recognition mode, momentarily halting the crescendo.
THE TRILOGY Nolan wraps up all loose ends in THE DARK KNIGHT RISES. What started as one man's search for the meaning of his life ends with the discovery of what he sought.
So, with the stars, cast and crew happy, the producers happy, the comic and fan boys happy, Nolan has scored the natural hat trick. He bows from the trilogy with a complete, stand alone tale, much like Bryan Singer did with The X-Men, though this story is quite a bit darker.
I originally gave BATMAN BEGINS an 8/10 rating. THE DARK KNIGHT, which I still think is one of the best films ever made, I gave a 15/10. THE DARK KNIGHT RISES easily earns a 10/10 and as such is the winner of the coveted Fist of Fiore Award for 2012. This means it is the epitome of film as entertainment. Three movies, with an overall rating of 33/30, I'd say Nolan has made his mark and it is one that surely will not be challenged for quite some time.
But while it accomplishes all these things and does so in style, it's not what one expects from a Batman movie. Our hero is tarnished, worn out, his life destroyed, his fortune lost and his friends and family alienated. He has no option but to pass the torch. It's an uncomfortable way to end a Batman story.
THE RATING FOR THE DARK KNIGHT RISES = A -30-