RVCA

Thought The Dark Knight Rises was mediocre at best. You know it's a bad sign when you're sitting there rooting for the villain to kill everyone and get it over with.

This film made it clear that the success of its predecessor hinged largely on the Joker. I don't just mean his performance, as stellar as that was; the duality, the polar clash of opposing ideas between Batman/Joker was pretty well executed and a delight to watch. Bane was... a very typical superhero villain who was given shockingly little character development and backstory. He did headline the most interesting scene in the film, which was unfortunately shown in the previews (the stadium blowing up), lessening the impact.

A lot of plot explanation was left up to the imagination of the audience as well, and that always sucks. (SPOILERS) I'm supposed to believe that every criminal and half-criminal in the city works for Bane from the get-go? I'm supposed to believe he can somehow quarantine an entire island just by blowing up the bridges? I'm supposed to accept a half-assed 5-sentence scene with the president as explanation for why Gotham is completely shut-off from the rest of the world for 5 months? You're telling me the might of the entire United States couldn't do anything to help aside from quarantine everyone in? And then don't get me started on Batman's miraculous escape from the pit... awful awful awful.

For 2-and-some-change hours, it felt like a 4 hour film. But since this is Christopher Nolan and Batman, I know everyone is creaming their pants over it.