The Dark Knight Rises

This movie delivered.  It was a different sort of beast than its predecessor, The Dark Knight, but no less memorable.  It was even more dark and gritty, and it was much more introspective with more thought and less action.  I am not sure yet whether I would say this final installment of Christopher Nolan's Batman legacy was better or worse than his previous films, just different.  Stronger in some areas, and weaker in others.  But I am sure most everyone can agree, no evil villain can beat Heath Ledger's Joker.

But even putting Joker aside I was disappointed with Bane, primarily because I could only understand what the Sean Connery-sounding Tom Hardy was saying about 70% of the time.  But man did Hardy bulk up for that role!  Anne Hathaway was a very pleasant surprise, I thought she would be too "sweet" to play the role of Catwoman but she seriously kicked butt and was totally believable.  Also appreciated her cat-like qualities without her needing to literally dress like a cat (with the "ears" appearing as a by-product of her goggles).

And it goes without saying, but I will anyway, that the acting was fabulous, the visual effects top-notch, with Nolan pretty much being awesome as usual.  But bear with me in the need to point out that no one, not even Bruce Wayne, can get from remote Uzbekistan to Gotham in less than two hours.