The Dark Knight Rises...he shouldn't have bothered!

Rating: 3/10 (2 August 2012)

I was a big fan of the first two films and had high expectations for Nolan's third chapter of the series however 45 minutes into the film, all hope faded of this being a memorable finale. Here are some of the many reasons why:
If your going to give your chief villain a face mask, at least make his voice clear enough for the audience to understand, not just the on screen characters. Too many times I found myself guessing what Bane was talking about based upon the other characters responses.
The storyline was too long, too complicated and the ending a big anti climax for a trilogy finale. By the third film, you expect all the loose ends to be tied up. Yet this film (with the exception of Bane who was needed as a villain) was intent on introducing more new characters such as Robin and Catwoman. This wouldn't have been a bad idea but the film concentrated too much on these new characters with hollow 'seen it before' stories and seemed to neglect the old ones such as Commissioner Gordon and Fox with painfully dull, secondary narratives.
The film jumps from one scene/plot to the next very quickly, often not giving a clear explanation of how a character got to a location or how a character achieved an action. You were often left guessing or 'filling in' the gaps yourself which became annoying and added confusion to the storyline.
The fight scenes in the film were also disappointing. In the previous films Batman often relied on his gadgets to aid him in fights, yet this film dismisses this aspect altogether with the exception of 'The Bat' which never really got you intrigued or excited. Most of the action scenes were characters 'slugging it out' and quickly became boring to watch.
What disappointed me the most about this film was the lack of emotion. There was no feeling of a tense struggle between good and evil like number two. There was no feeling of hatred or darkness which made Batman Begins and The Dark Knight what they were. In conclusion I think this Batman trilogy will be remembered as great but unfortunately, because of the short comings of The Dark Knight Rises, it will never be remembered as a masterpiece.