Big on action, but lacking the drama of the first 2

Rating: 8/10 (15 November 2012)

"The Dark Knight rises," is now the third hugely anticipated movie of the Series. After the chaos left in the wake of the defeated Joker, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale)reluctantly returns to the bat cave in hopes of defeating a new ruthless enemy in the form of Bane (Tom Hardy). Bane is an exiled member of the League of Shadows but has come to Gotham to finish what the League started in the first film, destroy Gotham for ever.
The good: Again Christopher Nolan gives us a huge action thriller. The action in this movie doesn't disappoint. The acting is again pretty successful, and Bale continues to deliver as the leading role of Batman. The visuals and feel of the movie, the darkness of it, still remains as it did in the first two films and it is great. As always Batman has a few new exciting toys to play with as well.
A good job was done again with the tortured soul, real person aspect of Bruce Wayne. He is aging, takes more punishment, and is a great touch of showing him as being less of a cliché superhero and more of a human being.
The Bad: I felt the action of this movie, at times, was just too overwhelming, and the drama of the last two movies just wasn't there and this one suffered because of it. There wasn't enough background building done with the new characters that really gave you a sense of feeling a whole lot one way or another. They did give some background to Bane, but I think the mask of the character really prevented any notion of connecting with the character, even in a negative way at all.
The introduction of Catwoman(Anne Hathaway), was completely unnecessary. Her character was weakly written, and not very well acted. Anna Hathaway is a pretty girl, but just lacks the full out sex appeal every guy expects from a catwoman, and trying to bring that was a little painful to watch. Face it, much like Katie Holmes in "Batman Begins," she was just a little too girl next door-ish. I don't think anything was her fault in that regard, as it was most likely a bad casting decision.
I give it an 8 out of 10. I doubt anyone will live up to Heath Ledger's performance in "The Dark Knight," and because of that and the lack of good solid character development it cannot get a 9 or 10. Catwoman should have been cut out completely. The action was good, and I think an 8 still makes for a very good action movie as this one was.
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