It wasn't a bad movie, nor would I say we fell into the curse of the bad third act (Spiderman 3, etc.). Sort of like Return of the Jedi compared to Empire Strikes Back (and I LOVE Return of the Jedi).
Bane was great, how I would want comics-Bane done well, its just that he's not as iconic a villain as the Joker or even the Riddler.
There were a few too many characters, not quite a problem; some hated Catwoman; I thought Hathaway was actually really great -- this criticism is to her praise; she was almost under-used (almost). I loved how she used that duality-camouflage, you know when cops show up pretending to be a frightened flighty girly-girl to sneak away.
As an "Elseworlds", it was great; it wasn't trying to tell the iconic "what if Batman were very realistic" story. It was trying to tell the story of Nolan's Batman.
Many have pointed out that Batman would never quit for 8 years like he did. Well, even in The Dark Knight, *Nolan's* Batman stated he hoped there would reach a point where he didn't need to be Batman anymore....not so much for himself, as that he hoped the police wouldn't need him. Arguably, the Dent Act is what gave Gordon this power. So Batman respects the Good Cops enough to leave them alone when they don't really "need" Batman (it would only make them look weak that they can't chase him).
Is this "the" Batman? No, but Nolan did establish the Nolan-Batman as like this.
Heck, even the cartoon show had to come up with a plausible reason Batman would quit before dying (to save a hostage he had to pull a gun on a criminal, not that he fired, but this is how he could "Succeed" in his final mission without dying, yet realize he was too old to go back out again).
So my one general complaint, that pervades the movie, is sort of the whole point: Nolan skipped ahead in time to the point when Batman is kind of too old to keep doing this. They made it a point when he's at the hospital to point out that all of his cartilage is shot, his body has all sorts of trauma -- one of the science of Batman specials pointed out that even Olympic athletes are only active for a decade or so, and realistically, Batman can't keep this up forever.
By all means, this was a *logical* point, and Nolan is skipping ahead to the END of this Batman, sort of like The Dark Knight Returns, in which Batman is kind of old for this.
So it wasn't a rip-roaring feel-good movie like Amazing Spiderman, Batman Begins, or The Dark Knight.....but he was skipping ahead to Batman's Ragnarok. He really can't physically keep doing this for so long.
So my overall feeling is that this was depressing, but I understand *why* they did it.
And it really does feel like Act 3 of a coherent storyarc formed by the entire trilogy; it ties in well with BB and TDK, and gets back to why he made Batman in the first place; people need legends to believe in, anyone can be Batman with the mask, but then Bane reveals the lie about Harvey Dent.
So it was "good" indeed "fitting", though on a lazy afternoon I'll be rewatching The Dark Knight, not TDKR.
As I said before, Bane is *scary* in this, but he's just a hulking bruiser. This is exactly as he was in the comics though; no tricks, no gimmicks, just a hulking brute (who is nonetheless quite articulate). And that kind of makes him more scary, because he's just there to HURT Gotham, to physically destroy swaths of it. Not as psychological as the Joker.
But this is much as it was in the comics: the Joker threatens Batman's very soul, by taunting him that there is no justice and all is chaos, and Batman cannot easily disprove this, even if he can physically overpower him. Bane, on the other hand, is a thread to Batman's body....more than the Joker, you get the real sense that he could *kill* Batman and *destroy* Gotham in this, I mean within the first act this is a real possibility. You never got that from the Joker. But ultimately, the Joker's psychological challenge to everything Batman stands for is more intriguing and has more lasting impact. But that's as it was in the comics.
