Bringing The Dark Knight Rises up in conversation is almost always sure to provoke mass debates of the polarising kind. People either seem to love or loathe this movie - whilst some see it as the perfect ending to a great trilogy that did justice to what came before, others view it as a mess of a motion picture; a plot-hole ridden, anti-climax of the highest order, complete with bad villain. Wherever you allegiances lie, it's time to face the facts: Rises is a flawed movie. There are a lot of reasons to dislike it. But that isn't to say that it's a bad picture. On the contrary, it's an admirable blockbuster - one that tried to do things differently and succeeded in half of them. Christian Bale's tortured performance as the Caped Crusader is admirable, however, as are the bold set-pieces. It is not, however, worthy of its place at 59 in the IMDb Top 250. There were likely few who walked out of this movie feeling as excited as they did following The Dark Knight; a certified disappointment. Its worst trait, though? It bores on a second viewing - something a Top 250 flick should never, ever do.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
