The Dark Knight Rises to Oscar Worthy

Rating: 10/10 (25 July 2012)

The Dark Knight Rises is terrific plain and simple. It satisfies Batman fans, Chris Nolan fans, and general movie fans alike.
The story is perfect. The Batman fans may see the twists coming, but that doesn't take anything away from the film. The movie is long at 164 minutes, but it doesn't feel long. The movie resembles the previous, The Dark Knight, in that Batman doesn't spend 90% of the movie on screen. The film develops all the characters and shares screen time very well.
This film improves on The Dark Knight (and Inception) because there are no continuity issues. The story flows start to finish. There are no dramatic left turns, or trains, that don't really make any sense.
Every high note hits. I don't want to give any spoilers, but there are a number of highlights that inspire goose bumps. Part of this is the story, part is the background music and sound, and part is the way Nolan shot the film. The panoramic shots and the "reveal" shots are perfect. Early in the film there is a police chase which might be the greatest chase scene in movie history.
Admittedly, a couple of the gimmicks don't fly. The Bat Wing (or as Lucius Fox, played by Morgan Freeman, calls it "The Bat") isn't "cool" looking, and the batcycle has already been done. Maybe Bruce Wayne heals amazingly fast with very little medical attention (a knee brace and some help from a prisoner) and maybe the advice from Alfred is a little over the top. None of this however, takes anything away from an almost perfect movie.
Christian Bale and Gary Oldman are old hands at playing Batman and Commissioner Gordon. They do a terrific job as they did in previous installments. Anne Hathaway steals the show. After seeing this movie your memories of Catwoman will be Hathaway, replacing Michele Pfeiffer and Eartha Kitt. Hathaway does an amazing job of portraying the innocent little girl and then snapping into the confident, seductive Catwoman role.
Tom Hardy does a good job as Bane. He looked enormous and the sound on his voice was fixed before the final product was released in theaters (a major concern for movie goers that saw the initial trailer). Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays yet another cool character (he's come so far from the long haired teenager on Third Rock from the Sun) and for Batman fans he's a lot more Tim Drake than Dick Grayson and exactly none Chris O'Donnell.
Morgan Freeman doesn't have a ton of screen time, though possibly more in this than in the two previous movies. He delivers exactly what you would expect of Lucius Fox. Michael Cane goes a little overboard with his dramatic monologues. Matthew Modine plays a fairly insignificant and ill defined role, but it doesn't hurt the movie.
Overall, this is the best movie of the year. Since the Academy Awards were amended to include a greater number of movies for Best Picture, in large part due to the snub of The Dark Knight, don't be surprised if this movie gets some nominations in late January.