"A storm is coming, Mr. Wayne."

Rating: 8/10 (20 July 2012)

I don't know, maybe I expect too much from my comic book super-hero movies. "The Dark Knight Rises" was certainly much heralded, coming as it did amid a blockbuster summer line-up that included "The Avengers" and "The Amazing Spider-Man". But as good as it was, I couldn't help feeling that there was something missing in this third installment of the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy. Or conversely, maybe not something missing, but perhaps too much included in the way of excessive special effects and over the top CGI. Take the Bat-Plane for example, or whatever that thing was winging it's way over Gotham City. It just didn't look real enough to be convincing and there were times it looked comical in all too dangerous situations. Same goes for the Bat-Cycle, the laws of physics would have something to say about the way it transforms in mid-ride to transform it's wheel base and take off in an entirely different direction.
As for the character of Bane, he would have been truly menacing in a Hannibal Lecter film, but I had some trouble with his characterization here as the leader of the Gotham underworld. Upon first introduction, Tom Hardy's villain didn't have any kind of physical stature to speak of, in fact I almost laughed in one scene where he seemed to have a bit of a paunch. I know I'm dating myself, but when Bane was introduced into DC Comics continuity back in 1993, the one person I thought could adequately portray him in a movie was the villain wrestler Van Vader, or Vader for short as he came to be known. Vader wore a masked hood that added to his fearsome appearance, and would have been perfect here, WITHOUT the goofy gas mask looking gimmick. How Bane could all of a sudden manhandle Batman in this picture seemed something of a stretch for me, but I do credit the film for it's handling of the 'Breaking of the Bat' story line from the comic books.
The surprise of the picture for me was the handling of the Catwoman character portrayed by Anne Hathaway. Very sensuous, slinky and athletic at the same time, while adding an air of mystery to the Batman relationship. I'm still not sold on Christian Bale as Batman though. As Bruce Wayne I guess he's OK, but the story here didn't convince me that he came out of an eight year retirement, practically as an invalid, in order to take on the cape and cowl of the Caped Crusader. (Do the comics even use that term anymore?) It never seemed realistic to me that those couple of push-ups would have gotten Bruce Wayne in shape to take on anybody, even a human sized maniac like Bane.
Now if I were interpreting the ending of the film all by myself, it would seem a fairly common sense conclusion that Batman sacrificed himself by ditching the nuclear weapon designed by Dr. Pavel over the ocean, well away from Gotham City proper. But then you had Alfred (Michael Caine) realizing his daydream fantasy by exchanging glances with Bruce Wayne in the company of Selina Kyle at an outdoor café in Paris. So did that really occur, or was it a clever trick to keep the viewer primed for a sequel (which I know won't happen with director Nolan). The IMDb Q&A board seems to answer the question definitively, but how am I supposed to figure it out from the movie?
So all in all, that brings me back to my original thought. Even though I enjoyed the film well enough, it just seemed to beg for more in the way of compelling story telling and character development. There's also the effectiveness of the dialog. There was a good portion of what the characters were saying that I missed in the theater environment just because the voices didn't carry very well. Once it's out on DVD with captioning I'm sure I'll do a lot better with it, but I'd rather get the full experience right up front.