Better, But Not the Best

Rating: 8/10 (28 July 2012)

First of all, the reason I am giving this a 9 is because I want this movie to do well even though deep inside, I feel I should give it a 7-8. The reason for this includes multiple points, and not just the villain,although I will add my opinions about the villain.
The comparison to The Dark Knight is inevitable merely because it was the movie that completely overturned what people thought a superhero was and turned it into something serious and realistic. The problem was that, The Dark Knight Rises seemed to totally ignore the messages that were brought out and went straight back to the connections with Batman Begins. I'm not saying this is bad, I just feel that this was not the movie to sequel The Dark Knight and instead a sequel to Batman Begins.
I also feel that the way Christopher Nolan directed The Dark Knight Rises was just like Batman Begins in the the way that it's all about the future instead of what's going to happen then and there like The Dark Knight.
Lastly, as far as comparisons to past movies, The Joker defiantly took over the screen much more completely than Bain could. This has nothing to do with Heath Ledger "acting better". Since the reason for this was that The Joker's character was created to show insanity at it's cruelest and most powerful, so to show this Heath Ledger had to act the way he did, whereas Tom Hardy played his character perfectly but it was created to just show physical and brutal force at its worse. This could be a problem to people who just liked The Dark Knight because of Heath Ledger since Bain does not bring the same personality that The Joker did.
As for specifics in the movie I feel the movie was carried out very well. Although I did think too many characters were brought on that were not necessary. Two things about the movie that I thought was done amazingly was the score and the camera work. They brought the intensity that was needed and in my opinion, nailed it.
In conclusion I felt this movie carried out what it was trying to do which was a noble ending to The Batman even though I feel it could've used past techniques from the Dark Knight more instead of just Batman Begins.