After Batman was forced to tarnish his reputation at the end of the last film for the greater good, now 8 years later, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale -3:10 to Yuma) is a shell of his former self, frail, secluded & his business in a weak financial footing. In comes the masked man mountain Bane (Tom Hardy -This Means War) with his menacing raspy voice, set to turn Gotham into a smoking crater with a nuclear device. Beaten even further down by the stronger willed Bane, can the Dark Knight find it within himself to rise again & save Gotham for one last time ?

Overall i found The Dark Knight Rises to be an enjoyable film, but it did have quite a few set backs in places, some that i had to overlook for the sake of it being an action hero movie. Firstly it was a little too long at 2 hours 45 minutes, the action set pieces are spread through the film reasonably well, but it is more so about the relationships between the characters, so it can lull for periods of time with the action bookending it. With Wayne being in bad shape, there aren't many action sequences early on with Batman, in fact, it's not until about 45 miniutes in that he appears as Batman. While most of the time he is Bruce Wayne, as you'd expect with the test of Wayne's character scenario. Some of the scenes were a bit silly & hard to swallow, but as i said it's an action hero film so you have to give it a little leeway. The main standout of this, was when the almost entire police force marched under Gotham, then being locked under ground leaving the City to fend for itself(*roll eyes*).

On the plus side, the acting was very good as you'd expect with a fine list of actors & no more so was it needed here with it's main emphasis on dialogue. Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman & Micheal Caine added they're usual solid performances(and continuity), in particular Caine putting in a very emotional turn. Other stand out's were Anne Hathaway (The Devil Wears Prada) as Catwoman, who stole the scenes she was in, with a very sleek, sexy & limber (meow!) performance. Tom Hardy as the villain, Bane, was formidable in size & fearsome with his Hannibal Lecter appearance, he had some good menacing scenes, still, not quite the most memorable of baddies. His voice struck me as comical at first when i heard it (Jeremy Irons on helium ?), but it slowly grew on me as the film went on. The visuals were good for most of the action set pieces, but perhaps the big fight scenes with Batman/Bane were a bit one dimensional due to Banes more, brick out house, physical style combat. The story itself was decent, with Gotham darker than ever, although, on the plot side you could predict some parts, and i did enjoy the surprise twist's, as well as the fact it left the door open for a continuation.

In conclusion, the The Dark Knight Rises is a very dark & heavy hearted film that lacks the action chops of what has come before it. However, it manages to hit home emotionally at just the right moments through the lulls, thanks to the great acting talents on show. I was certainly engrossed & clung to each action sequence as my reward. Recommended.