The Dark Knight Rises like a floater

Rating: 5/10 (24 July 2012)

The filmmakers raise the stakes so high in the first half of the movie that you genuinely don't know how things are going to get resolved, but then when it came time to deliver the goods, Nolan's solution is simply to get Batman to punch a little harder. The entire second half of the movie was incredibly lame, and Nolan blew it big time.
I also found it a betrayal of the trilogy's themes when Batman returns and spends his precious time (off screen) creating that flaming batman symbol atop the bridge. Batman need not have done that at all, the citizens of Gotham should have. This was the time in the series to show the affect of the Batman symbol on Gotham by having its citizens rise up against Bane, instead of wasting precious IMAX film on letting Christian Bale have his Rocky Balboa moment in that Indian prison. The citizens' insurrection as well as the rise of Robin and Catwoman should have been what inspired the broken Bruce Wayne (who really just had a dislocated spinal disc... How dumb is that?) to get himself out of that prison, not some corny ass pontificating on the nature of true fear.
I also find it to be very disingenuous storytelling when you ask an audience to emote for the loss of a character, Batman in this case, only to bring him back. Can't people stay ****ing dead anymore? I'm looking at you, LoTR!