When I first saw Batman Begins, I was pleasantly surprised at the darker, yet entertaining tone that this reboot displayed. Especially after the abomination known as Batman and Robin. Then The Dark Knight came out and I was even happier with the much darker tone that the movie displayed. It was a great movie all around and one of my favorite's to this day. Obviously, when I heard about Nolan going ahead with another film, I was very, very eager to see what he would do to finish off this brilliant story. Long story short-I was thoroughly satisfied.
The story held up pretty well, despite a few "inconsistencies", and provided a good end to Nolan's story. Although I can't go into these inconsistencies too much, I will say that they will most likely catch your attention and do somewhat take away from the movie. However, by the end of the film, you don't mind it as much and for what lacked in explanation was made up for in execution. Speaking of which, I would like to go into the performances.
Christian Bale does a brilliant job on his final portrayal of The Caped Crusader and really emphasizes the fact that Bruce, although trying to do the right thing, has gone through hell and back. Even though him coming back was not as memorizing as I imagined, but still great non-the-less. Which brings me to the next character: Bane. Bane is a monster. An immovable force that also directly represents an unstoppable object and it is all thanks to Tom Hardy's brilliant acting. Nolan's version, although straying far from the comics, is still intimidating, merciless, and, above all; a perfect match for Batman.
However, every story needs a shade of grey that represents both sides of good and evil, AKA: Catwoman. Although I was hoping for someone else originally, Anne Hathaway has fun with the role and is one of the highlights of the movie. Her ability to flawlessly switch from the sweet and innocent damsel in distress to the sexy, badass thief was really captivating. Her and Batman also had some great scenes and it was fun to see two similar, yet completely different characters work together on screen. Gary Oldman and JGL also do great as Jim Gordon and John Blake. Other supporting characters like Miranda Tate, Lucious Fox, and Alfred are also acted out greatly. Although I will say Alfred nearly brought me to tears in the few scenes he was in.
The action was also great, even though the last Batman vs Bane fight could have been longer and more intense. As stated earlier, the scenes with Batman and Catwoman fighting thugs were great to see on screen and even better than I imagined. Other aspects, like the editing, were very well executed. The soundtrack from Hans Zimmer was probably the best out of all the movies as well.
In the end, despite some aspects in the plot being somewhat flawed, this is definitely not only one of the best Batman films ever, but one of the best films period. Although not as good as it's predecessor, The Dark Knight Rises is a satisfying ending to one of the best Batman tales yet and stands, by itself, with a rating of 5/5.
Until next time, this is Hal Jordan signing off!