Dark knight rises. Slowly.

Rating: 7/10 (28 July 2012)

This film was decent. Really really decent but I'm unsure where all the 10/10 reviews are coming from. It's in no way as good as TDK.
My main issue is the villain. In TDK the villains got to do all the acting. Two face and the joker were stellar performances. Unfortunately, and this is no fault of Nolan or Hardy BA e spends the whole time with his face covered. It makes it difficult to understand as you don't see his mouth at all and it's hard to see any real acting going on from him.
His voice was also really off putting. At times I couldn't decide whether it was a distinguished gentleman's accent or a mock Transylvanian accent. He certainly wasn't raised in either of those locations.
Cat woman is getting a lot of credit and I can't say a bad word about her. She's very very decent, but she is not in any department as good as Pfeifer. Not even close.
The set pieces are OK but as some have said they're a bit wooden, poorly acted. I don't think they made enough of the "Break You" bit either.
It takes an absolute age to get going and for me tries to cram too much in. Don't get me wrong there are breathtaking scenes all the way through but this film for me is saved in the last half hour.
It finishes in style. Around 30 minutes of hold your breath genius. The very end for me is perfect and the way it unfolds and ties up is very satisfying.
I was tempted to give this film a 1 as I think the IMDb rating needs to be more realistic. The everything's the best ever/worst ever knee jerk ratings that are handed out bug me big time but in the end I have to be honest. This is a 7/10 movie. In the same leave as Batman Begins but can't hold a candle to the DKR.