An outstanding movie crumbling under the unreasonable expectations of the audience!

Rating: 10/10 (22 July 2012)

Firstly, most of us (if not all of us), have gone (or, are about to go) in, to watch this movie with a lot of expectations. And, after a movie as exhilarating as the Dark Knight, we cannot be blamed for these (over) expectations from TDKR. We are bound to draw comparisons between the second installment and this Grand finale that we expect it to be. And this is exactly, what I felt was unfair to the makers. When I went to watch TDKR, I expected it to have a lot of things, either as good as, or better 'than the Dark Knight'. I could never think of TDKR without thinking about the Dark Knight. And in this unfair comparison process, I missed out on the true essence of TDKR. And despite my obscurity, the movie still blew me away with an ending that is befitting to a series (in fact, the only batman movie series) that immortalized a legendary hero like Batman. In spite of being a tat disappointed for "not being as good as the Dark Knight", I could (like most others), notice the outstanding performances in the movie, notably, Christian Bale, Michael Kane and Anne Hathaway. I could not still help but cheer like a kid at every appearance of the Gotham city's savior. Having said that, I still felt let down. But the fact is that I still would have rated the movie a 7 out of 10.
And then I had to go watch it a second time with my parents and my gal friend and boy am I glad I did! This time around, I watched the movie as the third part, that it is, and not as Dark knight PART 2, as most of us subconsciously, unknowingly and unfairly want it to be. And I realized that the movie has a very strong story line and invokes the right emotions. some of the scenes in the movie were so emotionally exciting that I felt like standing up and clapping. The connection to the other parts was very well scripted. The characters, well developed, the execution of the script, immaculate, the dialogues, deep. The movie had an emotion attached to it. The action scenes were fantastic.
This movie is all about the Batman, his character and his legend. As far as I'm concerned, Christian Bale has immortalized the Batman just like Ledger did the Joker. I walked out of the theater overwhelmed and sad at the same time. Sad about the fact that this would be the last installment under Christopher Nolan's direction. There is no debating the fact that Michael Kane is a brilliant actor, and once again, he proves why he is one. I did not expect much from Anne Hathaway and boy! was I in for a surprise. And about the ending, I could not emphasize enough about how blown away I was!! Nolan is a true a genius!!
So, there is, my first movie review. I believe TDKR is an outstanding movie that is crumbling under the unreasonable expectations of the audience and unnecessary comparisons to the second part. PLEASE DO NOT COMPARE TDKR to the DARK KNIGHT. These are two different animals and The Dark Knight Rises is an outstanding movie that would leave you in awe, if only you are willing to watch it and enjoy it without being presumptuous.