From Harry over at "aint it cool"...He knows much more about the character and world than I do...
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I waited until after I'd seen
The Dark Knight Rises to read his rant because I don't like spoilers. Having read it (the first time I've read anything Mr. Knowles has posted), I have to agree with most of his comments that are directly related to the movie (i.e., excluding his "fan boy" style rants about how the characters are presented in other media and should have been represented in this movie).
First, let me say I liked the movie, but not as much as I liked the two previous films. My biggest problem with it is the overall story. Nolan could have streamlined the plot, eliminated some characters, cut the film's run time by 30-60 minutes, and made it a much tighter film. And--yes, I'm gonna say it--I didn't dig The Bat; it's implausible, unnecessary, and looks like a flying cockroach. Most of my other critiques of the film would contain spoilers, so that's another discussion for another time.
On the plus side, all of the the performances were spot on. Finally, Jim Gordon gets to do more than have a few clandestine conversations with Batman, and Gary Oldman is definitely up to the task; I think he gets almost as much screentime as Christian Bale. Anne Hathaway is excellent as Selina Kyle, and Nolan has found a way to make this character interesting and believable, something no other filmmaker has managed to do as well in my opinion. Tom Hardy is very good as Bane, but I couldn't understand a few of his lines because of the voice effects they applied to represent that thing covering his face. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, and Matthew Modine are very good as well, but in the end their characters are among those that could have been written out and wouldn't have been missed. Michael Caine doesn't get much to do in this film, but once again his brilliant performance solidifies the relationship between Alfred and Bruce.
Overall, I think people who liked
Batman Begins and
The Dark Knight will probably like
The Dark Night Rises; for those who didn't, this film will just be "more of the same".
As they say, You can't shine a turd.
Actually, according to Mythbusters, you can.