Amazing! but a bit muddled at times

Rating: 9/10 (21 July 2012)

Dark Night Rises definitely keeps up the intensity and ambition of the previous two Batman movies. There were many things I liked about the movie:
Bane as "the man who broke the bat." The first few moments Bane spoke there was an immediately sense that his words are more wicked than his muscles. Bane uses his words to instill fear and to reveal his sinister plots as they are about to unravel, leaving the listener helpless to stop him. His followers devotion to him and his movement intensifies his threat as a power that can unite the wicked or seemingly corrupt. If the threat of the Joker was his ability to use anarchy to create chaos then the threat of Bane is his ability to use order to 'institutionalize' chaos.
I was unsure of Anne Hathaway playing Catwoman but she did it very well. She captured the wit of Catwoman as well as the balance between her desire for self-preservation and defending the innocent.
A few problems in the film were the underdevelopment of certain themes such as the Occupy Movement sentiment, criminal system as unjust, and a few more. Some people think Nolan does a good job on touching multiple themes but I find they are never fleshed out and become slightly muddled. Also, one of the twists near the end I felt was unnecessary or at least poorly executed. The last part of the movie derailed the development of Bane as, perhaps, the best villain in the series.