Like watching a really long Daredevil

Rating: 1/10 (22 July 2012)

Iron Man and The Dark Knight are the gold standard for 21st century super hero movies. This film, supposedly the last in the Christopher Nolan trilogy (though there is a cliffhanger) ranks in the nether regions with Thor and Daredevil, scrabbling around looking for scraps of entertainment. It's also nearly an hour longer than Dark Knight and probably 30 minutes longer than it needs to be. Nolan can't figure out what to do with Catwoman while Anne Hathaway never comes close to eclipsing the memory of Michelle Pfeiffer's performance. But the biggest and worst mistake was the villain: Bane. (Why not the Riddler, many will ask. Why not indeed?) Bane has a box strapped across his face,which makes it impossible to understand him, particularly during several, long, bombastic speeches he's given. It's a distracting, distancing device that keeps the audience from really SEEING the character. Michael Caine and Joseph Gordon-Levitt give compelling performances and the special effects and set design are as huge as you can expect from the budget. But there are a number of scenes that too closely--and tastelessly, mine the memories of New York City post-9/11. And overall, it's just too long, crammed with exposition and flashbacks. It's very, very expensive dreck and a big disappointment.