Weaker closing chapter to the trilogy

Rating: 8/10 (29 March 2019)

In spite of all its many problems, and it does have them in abundance, this is still are very solid and well put together movie from a technical standpoint. Regrettably, screenplay wise, it's not as well written and the secondary characters and especially the villains, are not as interesting and well written as in the first two movies. Tom Hardy's Bane is meant to be menacing and to a certain extent, he is. He clearly put a lot of effort and gym hours into creating an imposing physical presence, but his choice of going with a weird sounding voice for his character, mostly undermines his character's onscreen presence. As for Marion Cotillard's Talia Al Ghul, she comes off as underdeveloped, doesn't have enough of an onscreen presence, which is a shame, being as she is quite a charismatic and competent actress (her previous role in Christopher Nolan's Inception proves that). That aside, a positive addition to the cast is Anne Hatthaway's Selina Kyle. She does a solid turn as Catwoman, although she is never mentioned by her nickname throughout the movie, and manages to flesh out her character showing her as being both vulnerable and a tough cookie. The work of the rest of the cast is, for the most part, correct, with a few standouts in the case of Gary Oldman, who is his usual solid-self, and especially Michael Caine's Alfred. They're both given the best dialogue in the movie and make memorable use of it. Christian Bale is consistent throughout and nicely conveys a man who's been broken down, both physically and psychologically, by years of crime fighting and zero recognition for it, even if he sometimes goes overboard with his Batman's voice.
Now for the good stuff. Action set pieces, like Batman's first outing after years in hiding, his brutal fight with Bane, defeat, and consequent imprisonment in The Pit and his final escape from it, with the added enhancement of the use of IMAX cameras, are surely the standouts here. Nolan makes ,once again, great use of Hans Zimmer's score and the ending, though far fetched, is quite emotional.
The addition of Robin's character as a surprise twist at the very end, teasing a future come back of the character in the future and Bruce's relationship with Talia, come off as forced and added only for the purpose of plot convenience. All in all, a solid, although somewhat disappointing end to the saga.