When IMDb is ashes then you have my permission to review The Dark Knight Rises.

Rating: 8/10 (29 July 2012)

After the highly received and stunningly brilliant second instalment in Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy (which is in fact my 25th favourite movie to be precise) it is now time to witness the closing chapter of The Dark Knight saga, The Dark Knight Rises where we will finally see Batman hang up his hockey pads for good. So is this final instalment worth chanting about or is it just bunch of fishy pasta.
The story entails of Gotham City still living a lie from Harvey Dents decent into madness and Batman's blame for it. We now see a crippled Bruce Wayne who must deal with a city without Batman who is now obsolete however the baddie Bane forces Bruce to put on the Bat costume once again. Huhh!? Did I miss something? How did Bruce become crippled? In fact this film does have a few chinks in the plot but the spectacle and the performances lessen niggles in the plot although one or two are very distracting involving some baffling and implausible moments. Of course just like Nolan's other films, DKR is very intellectual in its story telling and characters giving us a insightful struggle of becoming a super hero which is practically Shakespearian in character portrayal and relationships along with showing the commitment Bruce has for this city like any other of the Batman films or superhero films in general. Batman/Bruce does go through a huge arc throughout the movie which puts Batman against the biggest crisis Gotham has ever faced along with personal struggles making this a truly fitting finale.
What stands out to me is Alfred pointing out the realism of the situation that Batman has been out of the game and that facing a foe such as Bane is suicide. In the previous films Alfred's irritation of Bruce's plan to stop the bad guy was usually played as comic relief but now things have gotten serious. Although Alfred hasn't got a big role in this film his relationship with Bruce is actually the thing I admired the most about the film.
The real draw in for me from the last Batman film was The Joker one of the most iconic screen villains. The films villains or should I say villain Bane and on and off villain Selina Kyle are interesting and intriguing. Bane comes across as an intelligent yet destructive terrorist with a somewhat intimidating voice that sounds like Sean Connery talking through an empty loo role. Banes motivation is also pretty weak he comes out of nowhere and decides to continue with Ducard's plan. Why did he wait for that long to spring his plan? Maybe the Joker beat him to it last time and decided to patiently wait and twiddle his thumbs until it all died down or some BS reason like that. Despite a weak and convoluted diabolical plan Bane has great gravitas and physical presence as a villain unlike Liam Neeson's character in Batman Begins. Catwoman on the other hand is a fascinating femme fatale who is very clever at deception which is established when we first see her. I'm not sure if this is an attempt at comic relief but her fighting style is funny. There is moment when she asks a guard to hold her hat while she checks for something and then she just punches him in the face. I'm not sure if this was intentional but some people did laugh at this scene (not as hard as me though.)
The end of the film is going to be a big talking point of the movie and there are about 3 twists to the plot the first twist I hated. There's a business woman called Miranda, a minor character who Bruce Wayne hands over Wayne enterprises to so it turns out that she is the true villain behind everything and that she rose from the pit that we are led to believe that Bane came out from. This twist feels very tacked on with this character who has about 2 minutes of screen time creating a poor plot twist that makes Bane less intimidating. If she was established in the other films it could have worked. Other plot twists such as John Blake turning out to be Robin I found to be an interesting variation on the character but I did feel stupid for not figuring this out earlier. I also liked the end of DKR which reminded me of the end of series 2 of Sherlock and series 6 of Doctor Who keeping us under the impression Bruce Wayne is dead but they then finally reveal at the end he isn't or is he? Just like Christopher Nolan tradition the ending of this film is up to the audience's interpretation. That's the thing with Christopher Nolan is that he twists conventions it's like there are other directors who follow the tried and tested but effective formula of a happily ever after and then there is Nolan who just defies convention. Although I'm not a huge Nolan fan I do admire him for thinking outside Hollywood's box of movie clichés.
Overall DKR is a spectacle of a finale with the audience truly behind the Batman and what he stands for. The dialogue is as memorable and riveting as ever especially from Bane (when you can understand him) along with some memorable action scenes my favourite would be when Batman reveals himself again with an action scene on the Batbike. No fuss is made about his comeback he just turns up like he never left. Now we have the full trilogy, debate will stem off which of the 3 is the best Batman movie. I'll just have to go with the "The Dark Knight" it was just more thrilling then DKR and BB. I know it's unfair to keep comparing to DK but it's probably the best comic book and one of the best movies period. How can I not compare?