The Best Cinematic Experience I've Ever Had, If You'll Pardon The Superlatives.

Rating: 10/10 (22 July 2012)

So.
I am fully aware I am among thousands who have popped up at some place or another to praise this movie; yet I'm simply so energized off of it that I have to express it somewhere. It was simply incredible. Everything about this movie was done right, and I'm personally astonished that it managed to do so.
I'm not a comic book fan much at all. When movies like these come out I just see them as movies. I have no loyalties to any characters I felt need to pay heed to. I watched the 2008 Dark Knight and was just blown away. I immediately claimed it to be my favorite movie; I was worried the hype would leave the movie less than it was claimed when in fact it was more.
Even with a pretty brilliant marketing campaign, when I came into the movie today, I didn't expect Rises to match up to the one prior to it; sure, it'd be excellent but I didn't think you could improve off of the one before it. I have to say, in my eyes, this easily outdid the one before it, and that's a feat.
I could go on for hours about just how incredible everything was; you can tell Nolan knew what he was doing and it shows so very well. The story was excellently told and took a lot of risks doing so; very rarely does a movie villain accomplish what Bane has, especially in superhero movies. I found that very refreshing. The world he created was so immersing I could almost swear I was living in it. Directors and creators have the power to create worlds like that, and Gotham was rendered as realistically as you could imagine.
The screen writing was incredible. No line of dialogue was wasted; everything said was useful, entertaining, engaging and meant something. Any philosophy dealt with was dealt with a measured hand and there were some truly unforgettable quotes in here, everything from Alfred's talk to Bruce about his vacations to Italy to "there is no true despair without hope" and even the chant heard towards the end all will have a place in my memory, and sometimes there is nothing more eternal than a quote.
Each actor/ess gave it their all and were easily the strongest parts of the movie, portraying their characters so well you'd forget who they really were, even immediately recognizable faces like JGL, Hathaway and Freeman. All of the newcomers did incredibly well; personally I didn't expect a huge amount from Anne Hathaway and yet exceeded my expectations. Joseph Gordon-Levitt's John Blake was a force to behold, easily as much of a hero as Batman himself.
Easily the best in the movie was Tom Hardy as Bane. The bar was set high for the villain of Rises seeing the iconic status of Heath Ledger's Joker, and yet Bane matched those standards with his character; everything from his body language to his linguistics and his character itself stole every scene he was in, just as the Joker did. He is a totally different type of villain, though, certainly, and in any other world he could easily draw you to join his school of thought if you weren't careful. Hardy did more than portray that character, he helped define it.
Also, as a smaller, lighter note, I wouldn't mind seeing a voice changing Bane helmet in the same style as those kid's Darth Vader helmets. In fact I'd probably buy one; for some reason I could listen to Bane read the phone book.
The score was, of course, as excellent as could be expected from Hans Zimmer. Rises was perhaps the most heart-poundingly epic ever constructed, and Zimmer's score was certainly the ribbon on the packaging. While I don't usually notice the smaller things like editing, I noticed how much easier the fight scenes were to watch than in other action movies of this magnitude; they were worth watching, very engaging and not easily forgettable.
Overall, this was just an incredible movie worth every minute spent in there and every penny paid. I can understand if you wouldn't like it, but odds are it would be for the more personal preferential reasons I do. It's the kind of movie that instead of anticipating the end, I felt down once you leave the theater because it's kind of over, and I'll never watch it for the first time again. I'm glad I did see it, though. Simply put, it's the best cinematic experience I've ever had.
**********/10