'The Dark Knight Rises' - Movie Review

Christopher Nolan directs the third, and evidently final, Batman movie. At least in this series. They left the door open for a sequel - way the hell open, and straining. But I think Nolan is done.

Batman has disappeared for eight years, and simultaneously (no one noticed?) Bruce Wayne has become a total recluse. Batman took the blame for the death of Harvey Dent (as shown at the end of "The Dark Knight"). And apparently Wayne/Batman has no cartilage in his knees ... but that's okay, because he has military-grade prosthetics to help him. Bruce Wayne is drawn out of his house by the cat burglar Selina Kyle ("Catwoman" in canon, but I don't think she's ever called that in the movie - played by Anne Hathaway), who steals a pearl necklace from him ... and a copy of his fingerprints.

This is followed by the arrival of Bane in Gotham. Bane controls an incredibly dedicated and well trained militia, and is revealed to have had connections to Ra's al Ghul and the League of Shadows (we met them in the first movie).

The movie is long and tiring, and - while not so bad as the second movie (excepting, as always, Heath Ledger's performance) - just gritty and kind of uninteresting. I found the ending to be particularly improbable and hard to swallow - not to mention that someone named "Robin" finds himself in possession of the batcave at the end of the movie. I quite liked "Batman Begins," but it was all downhill from there ...