A let down

Rating: 5/10 (3 August 2014)

I really liked the first two movies of this trilogy and so I was thrilled to bits at the opportunity to watch Dark Knight Rises when it appeared on my TV screen.
But oh! How I was disappointed! This is one of the most frustrating let downs of a movie I've seen in a long time.
Batman, far from street-fighting criminals from the off, spends long chunks of the movie first moping about his manor, then getting holed up in an underground prison. I think these episodes are supposed to show some kind of character development but they are just insufferably dull.
Then there are the half-hearted introductions of Catwoman (half- hearted because they seem too embarrassed to allow this character to fully develop and end up portraying Anne Hathaway as a kind of confused burglar that dresses in black) and Robin.
Thank goodness there's a decent bad guy or this movie would be an unmitigated disaster. Tom Hardy as Bane is a tour de force, a twisted, exaggerated, mad villain in the best traditions of all batman reproductions. He is so good that in the end it seems laughable that batman finally defeats him.
Not great although just about watchable because of Bane. A let down.