Some good performances ruined by its sheer bombasticness

Rating: 3/10 (25 July 2012)

Anne Hathaway is a revelation in her surprisingly good turn as Catwoman and Gordon-Levitt is great as a policeman who knows the secret of Batman's true identity. He represents the only slice of reality in this popcorn flick, but unfortunately his role is underwritten. Caine and Oldman aren't given much to do and that leaves us with the usual heavy-handed Bale and Tom Hardy's bland, one-dimensional villain whose voice has been dubbed by an actor who sounds remarkably like a highly intoxicated Sean Connery hamming it up. The screenplay is rather silly and has too many dull stretches, which the producers have tried to cover up by adding an extremely noisy and very annoying soundtrack to scenes that are too boring to discuss here. Add a couple of ridiculous plot twists, a perfunctory timebomb ending which would be more at home in the Batman series of the late sixties, except for the numerous loud explosions which only serve to cover up that this film could have (and should have) been wrapped up within 90 minutes.