The Dark Knight Rises.... but not very high

Rating: 5/10 (21 July 2012)

I can sum up my view of the film in 3 words: long, disjointed, disappointing. Don't get me wrong - I think Christopher Nolan is without doubt one of the cleverest and most imaginative film-makers in the mainstream industry. This is more a case of franchise fatigue than anything else. Batman Begins was superb: a truly great and rewarding superhero movie which took us away from the previous comic-book adaptations with an intelligence and character depth not seen before. The Dark Knight - the central performances aside - fell a long way short of that initial promise. The Dark Knight Rises takes it up a few notches again... but that's all.
Part of the problem, for me, is that Nolan over-complicates what is, on paper, a very basic story. Too many layers, too many build-ups that don't pay off. And although Anne Hathaway is both a good actress and a gorgeous screen presence - just what, really, was the point of the whole 'Catwoman' part of the film? I don't feel that it added very much. If anything, it over-burdened what was already a cumbersome plot. At one point, just about half-way through, I heard the chap next to me whisper to his partner 'Do you know what's going on?' It seems she didn't, really. If they'd then both turned to me for an answer, I couldn't have given one - and I managed to follow Inception without too many problems.
I gave up trying to follow the plot around this time and just concentrated on the action, of which there was a decent amount - though with long, meandering, haunch-aching gaps in between. Some of that, too, was disappointing. Some of the fight sequences - especially between Batman and Bane - felt really heavily stage-managed: carefully choreographed moves with little hint of spontaneity. It IS all choreographed, of course. The point is, it's not supposed to be obvious.
One further thing that spoiled it for me: it doesn't help if one of your main characters wears a chunky mask over his nose and mouth for the whole movie. The sound quality of the cinema where I saw this was excellent. Even so, many of Tom Hardy's lines were muffled and incoherent. It rather detracted from the invincible image he was supposed to be presenting - like Mussolini giving an address with a handkerchief stuffed in his mouth.
Christian Bale gave his best, as usual. But even with him, there was a sense of his becoming jaded with the whole thing - like he'd played it for all it was worth, and there really wasn't much more to add.
Christopher Nolan has said that he has no plans to take the story any further. So, this looks like being the end. I hate to have to say it, but it's probably not before time.
RIP Batman.