Review; The Dark Knight: An adequate conclusion.

Rating: 7/10 (23 July 2012)

(Bear in mind this is my first review)
Firstly, all criticism aside, the concluding moments of this film were done fantastically with no remnants of cliché' in what could have been a catastrophic ending for Dark Knight fanatics. Furthermore, performances were superb with Bale, Hardy and Oldman bringing their A-games to the piece. In particular, newcomer Anne Hathaway's excellent portrayal of the provocative Selina Kyle was riveting and provided an essential dash of light-entertainment to The trilogy's typically dark and anxiety-ridden story line. Also, Joseph Gorden Levitt (another newcomer) played an excellent 'honest-cop' James Blake. The script was solid and, although their are constantly several parallel subplots running throughout, Nolan weaved the basics of the piece with care and precision. Lastly, the underlying philosophy of the film is truly inspiring and remains consistently emotive.
There were, however, some serious flaws with certain details film that hinder in the mind after viewing. For example, in a scene where Bruce Wayne has to escape Bane's prison (an underground camp that has a hole which provides an escape route to the surface), Wayne is expected to climb up the wall and perform a leap between two suspended platforms to escape. A rope, that is tied to the top of the hole, is used to ensure Wayne (or any of the other prisoners) don't die whilst attempting to escape. There is no explanation for why they don't just climb up the rope on its own (considering its source is outside the hole on the surface), it just seems common logic? Anyone with half decent upper-body strength and stamina could climb up that rope and leave, there appears no need to jump between the suspended platforms if the rope on its own leads to the surface. (Please correct me on this if I'm wrong I've only seen the picture once).
There are also continual loose-ends and evidence of careless scriptwriting dotted throughout the film, for example, when Batman escapes from the police in his jet, surely one of the hundreds police would have found his bike parked in a storage tank about 50 metres away from them? His jet also appears to be parked in an alley-way, surely curious pedestrians would have seen a state of the art military jet parked in the alleyway beside a busy road? It also appears quite trivial how Bane and his mercenaries didn't find Batman's jet on the rooftop he parked it considering they had control of the city and 5 months to find it.
Nolan's strive for ultra-realism and grittiness extends to the sound editing and sometimes certain sound effects are unpleasant to the ear (for example, gunshots) for the sake of the director's philosophy. Furthermore, Bane is sometimes unintelligible which doesn't sit well with the viewer when they consider a multi-million budget film has somewhat trivial sound editing. A rather subjective matter is the combat choreography and editing, I thought it was fine, however, it's obvious it won't appeal to some who feel it could have been done on a more grandeur scale.
There were problems with the mass street-brawl scene between the police and the mercenaries. Personally, I thought it was rather far-fetched and it didn't sit well with the nature of the first two movies, nor Nolan's realist philosophy. In the same scene, Batman's jet shoots and disarms one of Bane's armed vehicles which prevented the police mob being cannon-fodder. However, Nolan appeared to ignore the fact that the two other armed vehicles sat right beside it could have just opened fire instead. In my opinion, logic is almost entirely absent from the film.
The film was above par, however, it is extremely difficult to ignore the problems I just stated and, overall, it doesn't measure up to either of its predecessors. The cast performances, the sheer scale of the film and it's solid back story save this film from mediocrity.
The Dark Knight 9/10 Batman Begins 8/10 The Dark Knight Rises 7/10