The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

(Spoilers ahead, although I've tried to keep them vague.)

Sadly, this movie falls very flat as a superhero movie for one very important reason: there's hardly any superhero even IN it. The movie is almost 2 1/2 hours long, and we get *maybe* an hour of Batman himself. Most of the movie focuses on the police investigation and Catwoman's "should I be a good guy or a bad guy" dilemma. On my Facebook, I referred to it as "Batman's Friends Slowly Solve Mysteries," because, really, if you take Batman completely out of the equation, you lose hardly anything of the story. There are very few ties to him, emotionally or plot-wise, so there's no reason he couldn't just be pulled out of this movie entirely and have his few actions done by a police officer or even a random bold citizen of Gotham. It's a good crime story and an entertaining action flick, but as a Batman movie, it fails miserably. 3.5 stars.

Best Part: I did love the surprising reveal of the villain. Didn't see that one coming at *all*. I like when movies can take me by surprise.
Worst Part: WHERE IS BATMAN, DANG IT? SOMEBODY CARE!

Flickchart: #686, below Limitless and above Everyone Says I Love You.x