An honest review from a fan of Nolan and TDK (No Spoilers)

Rating: 7/10 (23 July 2012)

So here it is, the final (maybe?) chapter of Nolan's interpretation of Batman as a hero, a person, and a man. The movie opened with a great intense sequence, one of the film's main villain performing a heist. It reminded me of TDK's opening scene with the bank robbery, and it was awesome. Because I was so excited to see this film, I didn't want to accidentally stumble upon any spoilers. No clips, no spoiler forums, etc.
The film picks up some number of years after TDK's closing scenes. Bruce Wayne has turned into a recluse, and the script seemed to suggest that only Alfred and a couple of other people have seen him in those years between TDK and this film. Bruce is old, loveless, and seemingly physically incapable of being the hero Batman was for Gotham. This film features a struggle of the hero dealing with his personal physical and symbolic losses from TDK. It almost seems as though since the ending of TDK, Bruce Wayne has lost every ounce of his spiritual drive to live, let alone remain the symbol that Gotham needed. All-in- all, the story was decent, and the excellent cast (TDK + Inception) members really helped the film stand out, but the script is where it lost me.
In short, I think that this film had more budget than it actually needed. I know it sounds crazy, considering I know next to nothing about the costs to producing a movie, but there were numerous scenes in which I felt that Warner Bros decided to show off how much money they had. There were a lot of HUGE crowd scenes, brawls between waves of opposing forces, and obviously very expensive scenes just because of the number of human beings on-screen at the same time. I know scenes like that are necessary in establishing a city in despair, but to me, they sucked out a lot of what was so great about Begins and TDK: the gritty dark underworld of Gotham. There were couple of extremely well-shot sewer/tunnel scenes, but overall, the essence of "The Batman" was completely lost.
Also, the script. Oh my god, the script. Both the Scarecrow and the Joker were fearsome, looming, and intelligent in the previous movies. They were scary, unpredictable, and without specific motives. Bane, the main villain of this chapter, clearly has some sort of a master plan that builds up to the BIG REVEAL at the end. No, that's NOT what Begins and TDK delivered, and that's NOT what I want.
Batman is the symbol of order for Gotham, I believe. And in order to create a grinding conflict between him and a villain, that villain must be an agent of chaos. Bane sure brought upon his own version of chaos to Gotham, but that he always seemed to be working up to THE BIG EVENT bothered me. Come on, Nolan. You've given us two great films that explored the development of heroes and foes, but TDKR gave in a little too much to the action-driven films of summer Hollywood movie line-ups.
The way the film is set up, I felt cheated at certain points. First is what happens after Bruce gets caught out in a storm and it's raining. It was just pure plot, and no development. I didn't feel that it was fair for Nolan to have directed such a crucial moment without even letting the audience on a guessing game, at the very least.
What really got me was the last 30 minute of the film (maybe even 20), when twists and multiple reveals started happening. I didn't expect such cheap directorial moves from Nolan, and it annoyed me that he felt those implements were necessary. And the end. THE END. People on my Facebook feeds are raving about the epic-ness of the end, but I HATED it. No more on it, because then I might actually spoil it. All in all, I think if more time and money had been spent on the actual story/script and less on the visual elements, TDKR would have felt much more smooth. Right now, it feels very clunky to me.
Is TDKR a horrible movie? No way. It's got an excellent cast backing up a stunning director, and it is a visually stunning piece of work. Is it a quality Dark Knight film? No. It felt a little too much like an action movie, rather than the great character-driven stories the first two features. Would I recommend it? Yes. Although I was thoroughly disappointed by TDKR, I think that it is one of the many proofs that Nolan is a very talent director and visionary.
Overall, I'll give the movie 7/10. Not AMAZING, not EPIC, but not HORRIBLE. You want to know what's AMAZING and EPIC? The closing sequence for TDK. I'll watch that over and over.