An entertaining, "respectable" ending to an epic trilogy

Rating: 7/10 (7 April 2013)

Rarely do I have as many mixed feelings and opinions after having seen The Dark Knight Rises. It felt epic. It was moving. It felt long. It worked well as a book-end to the trilogy. It felt forced.
The performances were excellent. Anne Hathaway as Selena the Cat Woman. Joseph Gordon- Levitt as Blake, Michael Caine, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman and so on. The last 30 minutes were just fantastic, worth the previous two-plus hour wait. Better than the Batman Begins but fell short of Heath Ledger's Dark Knight (could that movie been as good without him?).
Overall I think it suffered from being too grandiose by trying to do too much. The multiple acts didn't click together as they did in The Dark Knight. The suspension of disbelief was less "suspended" than utterly confounded ... how did Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) go from emaciated cripple to muscle-bound butt-kicker in one day? And the finale, while enjoyable, had so many twists and conveniences it would have made my head spin if I wasn't enjoying it so much.
To be fair, I think the best way to judge The Dark Knight Rises is as an attempt to close an epic story-line with a focus on continuity between the three films, reinforcing Nolan's conflicting "hopeful nihilism" philosophy. I look forward to watching all three back-to-back to see his vision uninterrupted by tragic events and the passage of time.