The Dark Knight Rises

It was worth it.  The Dark Knight Rises is an explosive ending to Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy.  And something that doesn't happen much in trilogies--this third installment is the best one.

At first I was a little concerned.  Bane is my least favorite Batman villain, especially after Schumacher's version.  And The Dark Knight is a tough act to follow.

During the eight years after Batman defeated Two-Face and the Joker, Bruce Wayne put himself into seclusion and becomes a broken oldish man.  Crime is practically eradicated thanks in large part to the inspiration of the late Harvey Dent, ... or so they thought ... they didn't know Bane.

The first quarter of the movie was a little confusing.  This is normal with Jonathan Nolan scripts (that's Christopher's brother).  Sometimes you have to watch his movies two or three times to figure out exactly what's being said.  On top of that, the actors don't always speak clearly and sometimes the music or sound effects are too loud to hear the voices, especially in the scene where we first see Bane.  (I'm still not sure exactly what happened in that scene.)

There's even one scene where I thought, "Where in the world did this come from?"  That scene was not set up in any way, nor was it resolved later, so I'm still confused.

But once the real action started, the movie was practically perfect.  It was very satisfying.  Tom Hardy did an excellent job with Bane.  I love the eyes.  The voice sounded a lot like Sean Connery, but I got over that.  In contrast with Schumacher's Bane, it was refreshing to have such an intelligent and insane villain.

Anne Hathaway made a great Catwoman.  It's a toss-up who's better: Hathaway or Michelle Pfeiffer.  (Remember to give Pfeiffer a handicap for working with an inferior script.)  I'm sure some of you purists might say Meriwether or Ertha Kitt blow them both away.  To each his own.  :)

The movie builds to an awesome ending.  Enjoy!  Though, remember Nolan isn't one for "gimmicks."  Half of the audience stayed till after the credits, and there's nothing to see.

And finally, if you were to throw a rock at the screen, it would be nearly impossible to miss an Inception cast member.  This is not a complaint.

My recommendation: Go see this movie.  See it now before your coworker spoils anything.  Be part of one of the record-breaking weekends.  And if I haven't said it already ... Enjoy.