Epic film but not quite as good as its predecessor.

Rating: 9/10 (21 July 2012)

So the long awaited grand finale has arrived at your local multiplex. The Dark Knight Rises is the last piece of the epic Batman saga. First off when most movies are released the sequel tends to be terrible i.e. Transformers Revenge of the Fallen. Then some movies even get a third film to fulfill the trilogy and those end up sucking as well i.e. Godfather III (so I hear). And the list could go on and on for both sequels and third films. Then every so often we are treated with something special. A great trilogy is presented in front of ours eyes to marvel at. This happens to be true with this new Batman trilogy. Batman Begins set the tone of these films, stating that they wanted to be grounded in reality and darker in nature. Then the Dark Knight raised the bar to unbelievable heights, leaving the third one in doubt whether or not it would deliver. Let me just say that it indeed delivers. In this third film we find out that Batman has been gone for 8 years, and the streets have been clean thanks to the Harvey Dent act set in motion in the Dark Knight. But a storm is coming to Gotham and that storm has a name and it's Bane (Not Bain Rush). With his arrival it forces the Batman out of retirement and back into action. Along the way we see familiar faces and a bunch of new ones. The three biggest ones are Selina Kyle who is a jewel thief, Miranda Tate who is a business woman trying to help the planet, and the street cop John Blake. These new characters are important to help Bruce out and help out Batman. I'm not going to talk any more about the story because I'm afraid of giving too much of it away. I spoiled this movie months in advance like I normally do, but I was still surprised at the epic moments when they came up. But I know I would have been more surprised if I didn't know what would happen. The Good: The story is top notch. Chris Nolan and crew really handled this story with a lot of care of not ruining the idea of Batman in all three films. Once again Hans Zimmer brings us an epic score which better be nominated for an Oscar this time. And the acting is great by all; even Bale with his strange Batman voice is toned down a bit. The Bad: Now with saying that the story is great there were some moments of confusion for me. Call them loop holes or whatever you want, I just call them parts of rushed writing. And who knows maybe the script explained it better, I have to wait to read it, but this is almost a 3 hour film so time to explain things then to be rushed. There is a lot of story and back story trying to be explained to the audience, and at times they take the time to fully explain things and at others they just rush through it; leaving me at least with a few questions. Verdict: With minor flaws this movie is still epic. More epic I think than the trailers elude you to believing. Bane is very menacing, but did not have that "it" factor where Heath had "it" with the Joker. But Hardy still pulled off a memorable villain just not quite as memorable as the Joker. This is a great film and a perfect ending to the trilogy. Placing this Batman trilogy up there with the greatest like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, even the Godfather. It was a very fulfilling movie and ending, it just sad that we have to see it rebooted in a few years just so WB can do their damn Justice League movie. One thing is for sure whoever gets to direct that film has some big shoes to fill and I really don't think that they will be filled. On a side note, I tend to like the second film better in a trilogy than the third. Like I love Empire more than Jedi, Two Towers more than Return of the King, and I do like Dark Knight more than Rises. So for me this one is just under Dark Knight, but still a great film.