as good if not better than the Dark Knight

Rating: 9/10 (28 July 2012)

contrary to what many others are saying I thought this was a better movie to the previous two. It doesn't have the Heath Ledger factor but I personally found the Dark Knight's ending with the boats a little underwhelming. Not so here, the Dark Knight Rises is excellently paced and it builds from the outset to an incredible finale
Bane is a intimidating villain, and this version is a really dark take on the character. I'm sure kids will be scared witless. Yes his voice is hard to understand at times but the audio effect used is really nice, and actually once we hear him a little more clearly like in the football stadium he becomes less ominous. We never actually get to see his face and it is amazing to think Tom Hardy is under there, he looks massive and very powerful
The best thing about Catwoman is that no one actually refers to her as Catwoman. I had my doubts about Anne Hathaway's ability to pull it off but she really is magnificent, as memorable as Michelle Pfeiffer but a completely different more real world take on the character in keeping with the rest of Nolan's films. No proper cat costume but every bit as feline, she plays a person torn between her slightly villainous nature, and her good side and love of Batman perfectly
Ra's al Ghul is also woven beautifully into the story, everything is seamless and it really is brilliant story telling with a lovely twist at the end with the very lovely Marion Cotillard which luckily I had not read about.. it was a great bookend to a trilogy which must be the best ever made
I find it difficult to believe that Bale will not return for another episode or two despite what he says, he really is brilliant. The ending is left perfectly open ended with an introduction to Robin - Gordon Levitt is a great choice and from what I have seen is one of the most promising young actors around right now
A special nod to the audio in the movie which is really incredible throughout especially when Gotham explodes, also some nice Catwoman versions of the score which reminded me of Nick Arundel's work on Arkham City
For those that say this is not the proper Batman.. in the first episode Batman was trained by ninjas and that was not in the comic books until 1989. Nolan made it very clear from Begins that he was reinterpreting Batman in a more modern and realistic way, so if you're a Batman purist who likes the golden age style Batman then technically you should've given up after the first movie. Bane is not a guy twice Batman's size who drank the venom formula with tubes protruding from his body, he is a tough and gritty mercenary of realistic proportions. Similarly The Joker didn't use chemicals, electric shock hands and laughing false teeth he used knives and dirty explosives more like the darker Joker from the graphic novels. The theme has been very consistent throughout the trilogy and it has been an awesome journey. This is an outstanding end to it