Mixed Feelings for Third Outing

Rating: 6/10 (20 July 2012)

Let's face it, the Joker was always the best villain, and it is difficult for any other villain to fill those shoes. I had high expectations for this movie that I think never could be met. There might be other issues I have with this movie that may have been more my mood than how good the story was. There was a sense of too much layering on perhaps a story with too many plot points. Then there is long second act, where Batman takes a leave of absence, where we are required to spend time with our other new characters. Sadly, Michael Caine is missing for most of the film this time around, but at least he handles the heavy stuff really well when he's on screen. Anne Hathaway did not seem like an obvious choice for Catwoman, and frankly I still believe some other actresses could have been more catlike. I have always recognised Hathaway as a capable actress, and find her quite attractive. I just can't buy her being tough, sorry. I thought Commissioner Gordon's character was underwritten in this film. The newcomer that had a lot of stuff to do, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, seemed to be written as a way to connect the dots as the big spectacle is slowly pieced together.
As I patiently waded through all the details of the big city takeover, I was thinking that this feels like a Tom Clancy novel, which spends a great deal of time, sometimes an agonisingly long time, building up to the big spectacle. I felt as long as the details they are throwing at me are plausible, I will go along with it. The thing that was nagging me throughout was Tom Hardy playing the type of villain that looks like a wrestler from WWF. Maybe the Rock. Hardy is just not menacing enough. A big component of The Dark Knight has always been the Hans Zimmer bombastic score, which had some amazing finesse for the 2nd film. Here, there really wasn't any signature theme I could latch on to. In fact, as the third act continued on with a lot of running around, it felt like the score was doing some extra heavy lifting in order to carry the momentum. Sorry to say, but it almost going into Michael Bay territory.
I am still trying to decide how much I liked the finale, and whether it was worth all the buildup. This is where the less you know the better, because frankly that is all the film has going for it. Director Nolan and his screenwriter brother probably talked about resonance when building the character's backgrounds, but they dug a little too deep I think. What they probably felt would be a poignant twist to a main character, turns into something too far fetched (even for a superhero movie). The character's twist could have been something less directly attached to the villain, and slightly more plausible. The places where the film felt a little bloated is when it tried to get political (didn't we all learn that lesson from George Lucas?). There are places where the dialogue concerns stocks and assets and takeovers, and so on. The 2nd film avoided all of that.
I will recommend this film, because as an event film it will be hard to avoid anyway. However, in comparison to the other juggernaut release of summer 2012 - "The Avengers", TDKR didn't have a lot of excitement to the plot and a villain that did not match up to other villains.