Movie: 'The Dark Knight Rises' (2012) [revised]

Well, I just went to see 'The Dark Knight Rises' and I thought I'd emit some opinions. There might be SPOILERS ahead, so please be warned. A major problem with this idea though is that I have very little to say. It's just a very disappointing and dull movie. A disjointed mess, in fact, where no character is used to its potential or even justifies its existence. Commissioner Gordon is a non-entity, Batman barely appears, Bruce Wayne is flat, Bane is a nothing with a hilarious voice, and only Catwoman really justifies the time we spent on her. Actually the character played by Matthew Modine was one of the most well executed despite being appalling anyway. If I were to make in the movie's defense I would point out that this is epic story is a hard one to even attempt, and the results are mixed due to having too many strands going on in earnest, none of which are developed enough to be satisfying. Let's count them:

1 Bruce's relationship with the Batman concept
2 Gordon doing what the plot demands
3 Bane wandering around proclaiming
4 Miranda's energy campaign, Bruce time, and parental issues
5 Blake pushing Gordon and Wayne and saving various days
6 Alfred taking his walk
7 Lucius and his reactor woes
8 Selina Kyle and her betrayals and motivations

Hmm. That's eight things. Eight arcs, if all of them arced, and not all of them do. It's too many. There's the idea of a good movie here, and it's drawing from good sources: 'Knightfall', 'No Mans Land', 'The Dark Knight Returns' and pre-Crisis Batman retiring to go off with Selina Kyle to live happily ever after. Tellingly, those are at least four different major comic book stories of which I've only read a few. The novelisation alone of 'No Mans Land' makes the isolated island Gotham portion of this movie looke very unconvincing and unfulfilling in comparison. It is rather sad that the characters are so thin, since they all have potential to be so much more. This is a long-standing problem from the previous film. Yes, don't tell the more fanatical Nolan-lovers, but I didn't like 'The Dark Knight' much. In this movie it's all especially dispassionate and unengaging and represents the worst of Nolan.

There are good points to this movie, and it's definitely worth watching, but overall for an Oliver like myself it would be nice to see a Batmobile with a bat symbol on it, or a batplane with some affectation.

Now I shall retire to my bunker and hope the Internet doesn't come down on me like a brick in an attic.
O.