Disappointing

Rating: 6/10 (18 July 2012)

Okay, some major spoilers later on, but I'll let you know beforehand.
First: Saw it at an advance screening after watching Batman Begins and The Dark Knight back to back. The story of The Dark Knight Rises (TDKR) is okay (except for a couple of things), but overall, it's long and dull. Maybe it was because I'd just seen TDK, which is a textbook exercise in movie tension and atmosphere, but I found that TDKR was simply lacking.
It lacked tension, menace, and atmosphere. The story itself is okay apart from a few things that don't really make much sense (it's based partly on the Batman comic story Knightfall). It connects back to Batman Begins with the League of Shadows, which was okay.
The villain, Bane, somehow lacks menace. He's big and tough, and beats a few people up, but not in any way that shows just how bad he really is. Maybe it's because you never really see much of his face, hidden as it is behind a mask of sorts (which they apparently made in a filthy middle-eastern jail), but there's no real facial expressions going on. This means that he's always kind of blank, even when describing horrors. Heath Ledger's the Joker was built on facial expressions (among other things), but Bane is devoid of them.
His voice is also, I found, difficult to understand at times. Whether that's due to the cinema speakers or not, it was a little frustrating.
The plot is pretty slow (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), but it too lacks tension and emotion. The ingredients are all there, but it just doesn't work too well. I'm not sure that's the story's fault as much as the way it's told. Yes, things happen, but there doesn't appear to be much at stake overall. The movie lacks an emotional core.
**Major spoilers ahead!** Okay, so Bane does a WWE move on Batman and almost cripples him. That's fine, and part of the Knightfall story. However, the problem is that it just doesn't feel important enough. By that I mean that Batman should have been broken spiritually _before_ this, making his physical breaking all the more damaging. It does go into it all, but it's not good enough. Batman enters the fight because he wants to, but his death-wish isn't pronounced enough. There's just something about it that didn't feel satisfying, but I'm not sure what.
EDIT: My mistake. The whole point of trapping the people in Gotham is documented in the film, but that brings me to this point (and one of the film's greatest failures): We don't see the ordinary people of Gotham suffer. There's nothing of the impact of Bane's nefarious plans on them, and that's where the emotional heart of the movie is lost. It's all well and fine that Batman is going through some crisis, but he's always been about protecting the people, and without that as context, it's not as satisfying.
The twist in the story is okay, if unexpected. It doesn't really add anything though.
Overall, it's not as powerful as The Dark Knight, and lacks real tension. I don't think it will be anywhere near as successful as it's predecessor. That's a shame, because I think Christopher Nolan is one of the best directors around. He seems to have lacked the vibrancy here of his earlier work, though.
6 out of 10.