The Fall and Rise and Fall and Rise of the Batman

Rating: 5/10 (24 July 2012)

He's getting too old for this sh*t. Apparently.
I am reminded of Lethal Weapon 4 (hell, Part 3 was the beginning of that series) during The Dark Knight Rises. True, people grow old and weary, but these are fictional characters and that's not what I wanted to see, for Gotham's sake. Likewise, I wouldn't welcome Sean Connery's return as Bond in today's world – I want to see my "super" hero be just that, not one hobble from retirement and doesn't "go back for that one final job" cliché.
Allow me to explain. In The Dark Knight Rises, many years have passed from the previous installment – although you wouldn't know it with the many flashbacks, Bruce is sequestered and all-but in a wheel chair. Naturally, someone(s) sparks life back into the ancient Wayne and back-from-retirement comes Batman.
Now, stating Batman returns (again) is not a spoiler – but this is: don't get used to seeing Batman for too long. He's in barely 10% of an almost 3-hour film. This very well-crafted film with very good cinematography and deep characters – both older, established ones and new ones, is an entertaining character-driven story, but light on both action and Batman.
Personally, I like my Superhero/Comic Book movies with the actual Superhero at center stage. Obviously, that wasn't the goal, and so be it. It was entertaining for the other aspects.
Bane (a barely understandable and muffled Tom Hardy) enters the realms of Gotham with a mission – and bang while burglar Selina Kyle (a delicious Anne Hathaway) steals various items for (no spoiler, but for very, very weak) reasons of her own. After countless conflicts with practically dozens of character pairs, Gotham is under siege and it's up to a broken man to "learn to pick himself up" again and save the day.
(I really didn't want to give away the majority of the story or spoil any more – but in a nutshell, that's the gist.)
While the movie isn't terrible, or bad by most reasons, it's filled with plot holes, pacing issues and a grand minimum of 40+ minutes could have been cut easily. That all said, it's worth a viewing and it was a nice conclusion to the Dark Knight trilogy. Also, I loved Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Anne Hathaway and their characters.
Suggestions for the inevitable reboot: MORE BATMAN. Oh, and keep a great story with great performances, definitely, but fit MORE BATMAN in there, please. Please.