Fans won't be disappointed

Rating: 7/10 (18 July 2012)

First, let me say I'm not the biggest fan of superhero movies. Yet I'll try to be as objective as possible so here it is: I saw THE DARK KNIGHT RISES yesterday in a class-A movie theater and I must say I wasn't blown away. The biggest strength of the movie is it's over-the-top budget. 165 minutes of roaring action and special effects that look indeed very slick and cool. There a plenty of scenes that will leave your jaw dropping (especially towards the end). The bad guy, a Darth Vader-like fellow named Bane, is one of the baddest I've seen in a while and Batman's supporting crew (Fox, Catwoman,...) is well cast (I never thought Anne Hathaway could do this) and fills in the gaps between the action scenes just fine.
The story is a very typical one - yet I didn't expect otherwise - and can hardly be called innovative; but that's not the goal of the film. Dialogues are standard, sentiment often a bit to obvious, and characters backgrounds not always believable. Christian Bale acts well, as do the others, but they definitely not had to force themselves to Academy Award-like performances.
The stumbling block for me is the lack of depth in the movie. Somehow It seems I've seen every second of this movie already a zillion times, and it's all quite predictable and dull at times. Again, I'm not a fan of superhero movies, and I know this movie is extremely anticipated to be the box office hit of the year. I've seen loads of action movies throughout the years though and this one won't stick very long with me.
So fans of Batman, Christopher Nolan, superheroes, video-game like special effects and Morgan Freeman in a spencer - will not be disappointed - thanks to the great production value - but in my opinion there are much better films out there that deserve the hype THE DARK KNIGHT RISES gets.