Had potential at the time but in retrospect, this is Nolan's worst.

Rating: 6/10 (1 July 2018)

Let's start with the positives. The cinematography is so glorious to look at and the Bat suit photographs so well here. Wally Pfister and IMAX cameras make a good marriage. The sheer scope in each frame is downright impressive and in some ways, this tops the Dark Knight in terms of scale and coverage. Bigger, grander, larger and louder.
I can remember looking forward to this so much, back in the summer of 2011, we were treated to some leaked footage which showed Batman facing off against the masked antagonist Bane on the snowy streets of Gotham. I figured that Bane had invaded Gotham and that Batman had come out of hiding to face this new threat. The trailer arrived that Christmas, showing an out of breath Batman backing away from the hulking Bane.
So, I had created my own mythology here. A nuts and bolts battle to the death which could have cost Batman his life. Instead, we barely got to see Batman - Bale only appears as Batman for a mere 30 minutes or so in a clunky 2h 44min film that overstays it's welcome.
The first fight between Bane and Batman was hard to watch and I felt for poor Bruce Wayne getting his ass handed to him and literally broken. We needed more interactions with these two characters. Instead we got Wayne in the hole and Bane mumbling his way round Gotham.
Hardy is a powerhouse but wtf was he saying? It was tedious after ten minutes. His speeches on the football field and outside the prison are ridiculous and nonsensical. How was his plan to release prisoners from jail to give Gotham citizens their city back ever going to work?
I feel that this script was rushed, Nolan was clearly under pressure to deliver a sequel within a set window of time and the grandiose sequences were clearly put in to try and top the film that went before.
6/10