7.5. A slightly weak Nolan film and at the wrong time.

Rating: 7/10 (28 June 2019)

Okay, first of all, hats off to Nolan. The concept is great. Bane is the strongest villain the protagonist had to ever face in the trilogy, both, as Batman and Bruce Wayne. I said "strongest" because he makes the situations way more worse for Bruce. He breaks him down to the deepest level, brings the city down, all of Fox's inventions are stolen, and all hope is completely lost as the city gets in the worse and worse state (no pun intended) as months pass. And to defeat him, Bruce has to become more stronger than he ever was, that is, I'm talking about Character development. And this is the very point where the problem arises.
In the first two installments of the Dark Knight trilogy, we saw a character development happen, and the last scene where we got a hint that the Joker is coming. This third movie undoes everything that the first 2 movies were built up for. The character arc is thrown away. We see Bruce struggling again. He is thrown in the deepest pit. The things are difficult. Millions of innocents dying because of his immobility. Bruce didn't had to endure this much in the previous movie (and I'm absolutely not saying that Bruce losing his love was nothing. All I am saying is the stakes are way high without an iconic character, which creates a conflict with the second movie). And plus, a Joker cult was already built by then. The reason Dark Knight (2008) got so popular was because of the iconic Joker, and the time it was spent by Nolan to mold that character. The whole trilogy was at its peak at that 2nd movie. And so The Dark Knight rises is a slightly weak film. Not because it doesn't have Joker, but because it undoes the character development that Joker did on Batman, by breaking him down again. Had this movie been a prequel or been the 2nd movie instead, it would've have attracted as much attention as The Dark Knight (2008).
So overall, this movie is absolutely not bad at all (The way each upcoming situation becomes more difficult as one situation is cleared, that is what makes it amazing). It's just weak. But this movie is still a must watch.