Disappointing Third Act

Rating: 5/10 (23 July 2012)

Admittedly, I'm not a huge fan of comic book hero movies but I've absolutely enjoyed the first two Batman films. Batman Begins and The Dark Knight were propelled by an excellent vision: solid writing backed up by superb direction and acting. The story is what mattered most to those who crafted those films and it shows. Unfortunately this is not the case with The Dark Knight Rises.
I had high expectations going into this film, which is perhaps part of my letdown. The first two movies were so good that I expected the same with the third. Instead the story took forever to develop and when it finally did seem to get to where it was going it came up short.
Bale, Caine and Freeman weren't given much to do and basically dialed in their performances. Gordon-Levitt and Hathaway however were very good. I'm not a fan whatsoever of Ann Hathaway, but must admit she was excellent as the catwoman, a part that actually was written quite nicely.
Bruce Wayne/Batman struggles in this film to crawl out of a long depression. Once he does, he is not the hero he once was. He's sent to an underground cave of a prison by Bane and his escape is anti-climatic to say the least. Oh...did I mention Bane--extremely one dimensional and boring villain. I didn't presume we'd see anything as spectacular as Ledger's Joker, but Bane was to say the least (excuse my pun) a joke.
The Batman movies are best viewed on the big screen and I'm glad I went to the movies to see this film. However, I'm disappointed in the end result. A lot of one-liners that you'd expect from the previous Batman series of the 80s and 90s, some cute, but most made me want to throw up. In fact after the movie was over I went to the men's room and a man was throwing up profusely in one of the stalls--I couldn't help but think it was because of the poor writing for this movie.
In a nutshell the writers tried being too nostalgic weaving small aspects of the past two films into this one. They tried putting the city of Gotham into a similar major dilemma we say in the second film. They included characters from the first film that seemed out of place in this film (Scarecrow & Liam Neeson's character). They tried introducing Robin and left the door open for a ridiculous 4th installment. Perhaps the worst insult was showing aerial views of New York City as a depiction of Gotham. Though I always assumed Gotham City was a caricature of NYC, I never expected an explicit connection visually and found it to be in poor taste considering the real life terrorist attacks that happened in NYC. Very poor choice by the director Nolan.
My ratings is 5 of 10 stars and I think I'm being kind. Don't take my word for it if you've enjoyed the other two films. Go see this movie and decide for yourself. Just keep your expectations low.