TR Review: The Dark Knight Rises

Spoiler-free Review: Since some people took my assessment of The Amazing Spider-Man as “fine” to somehow mean “I hated this movie,” let me be abundantly clear — I really, really liked The Dark Knight Rises. A lot. So much so that I have a hard time comparing it to The Dark Knight (which I loved) and Avengers (which I definitely enjoyed more, but am willing to acknowledge DKR might be the better movie). What DKR does best is turn Chris Nolan’s three Bat-movies into a true trilogy — not three random stories, like the three Raimi Spidey movies, and not one story told over three movie, like Lord of the Rings. Dark Knight Rises takes both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight and builds upon them in a way that becomes more than the sum of its parts — and while this probably does no good for anyone watching DKR first, it has the benefit of actually improving Batman Begins and The Dark Knight by making them part of a larger, more epic tale. Again, let me be perfectly clear — I thought The Dark Knight Rises was great. Indeed, the first word that came to mind when the lights came on in the theater was “epic.”Now, all that said, I don’t particularly feel the need to see DKR again or even own it, like I do with Avengers. But in terms of wrapping up Nolan’s trilogy, Dark Knight Rises is pretty perfect in my opinion. More specific and SPOILER-FILLED thoughts after the jump.

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