Predictable and Incoherent

Rating: 5/10 (16 August 2012)

I have registered on IMDb just to review this title, when I saw "Best Movie of the Year 2012", "Even better than the first two movies" I think my brain just froze wondering if we actually have all seen the same movie.
I am a great fan of the series, but even with a biased point of view I cannot rate this movie higher than a 5/6, and here's why.
INCOHERENT Do you seriously believe that a city would send its whole police force just to follow a lead? Worse, after that they seem to spend like 2 or 3 months trapped with no way of interacting with the outside world, yet they are still perfectly in shape when going up to the surface. I don't know if you have tried to spend 2 or 3 weeks in the dark, without any clue regarding the daylight, but I can assure you that you quickly start to suffer from sleep deprivation, nervous breakdown, stress etc.
THE PRISON Worst point of this movie in my opinion. First, how climbing a wall is going to make him stronger than Bane? From what I saw in the first fight, it was clearly a physical issue and not a psychological one (or at least it's what I have been given to see). Then, I felt really betrayed by the plot, they talk about this hole like the hell on earth, so I started to feel excited wondering if Bruce would have to become a bad ass beating the other prisoners to get stronger and finally more like Bane (which would have make better sense than climbing a wall, but then again it's just my opinion). When I look at the prison in the first movie, the conditions seem far worse than this hole in the desert where basically nothing happens. Finally why makes him fail two times? we know that he will eventually manage to get out, why not use this time differently? I really don't get the choices made regarding the editing.
PREDICTABLE Catwoman coming back at the end of the movie, no really? Again we know that she will play a role in this movie so why treating us like ignorant by presenting a moody character who just want a clean start? Regarding her skills, I wouldn't think having problems with the justice is such a big deal (she manages to steal from Batman remember), but ho surprise she has a heart after all. It's really a shame, I really like her performance otherwise.
WHERE IS BATMAN 165 minutes of movie, my only conclusion is that they could not afford a serious editor who would have had the decency of asking the production "hey guys, is this really The Dark Knight Rises or I am in the wrong place?" And when finally he comes out of the shadow, he gives us one of the most boring fight in the whole series (it was 1/3 of movie so we obviously knew that he was going to get beaten). I am not saying the development of Bruce Wayne was not interesting, but half an hour of mystery "where is Bruce Wayne, where is batman" was too much. Catwoman manages to steal from one of his safes.. read the sentence again and find the mistake, yes the Bruce Wayne who uses a tank as his car, who is worth billions, get robbed like the tenant of a candy shop.
THE END I am French so obviously I am great fan of Marion Cotillard, but she's just not credible as the mean daughter who want to take over daddy's work. It escalates in 3 minutes (with an epic Friend Zone anecdote that surely have made some teens cry + a few flashbacks to compensate the lack of development regarding the characters), maybe to compensate the overall predictability of the movie, and Batman after being stabbed just remains still, you have to understand a knife is really a big deal after having fallen from 30m, been on fire (first movie) or being hardly beaten (broken back 1hr earlier). I don't care if I am surprised or not, I am batman I am being stabbed I do something, I react at least "ouch that hurts"...
Having said that, there are a few surprises which fortunately improve a bit the quality, but again I feel there was much more consistency between the first two movies. In my opinion, there are just too many holes in the plot, too many bad decisions in terms of editing, not enough Batman scenes, and not enough development regarding the supporting cast. That said, I wouldn't say that I have wasted 10 bucks, I had still a good time but it really could have been much more better. A special mention to Michael Caine who has brought - I think - so much in the 3 movies, providing an outstanding and consistent performance.