The Good: I remember seeing this movie opening night back in July 2012, and while I think everyone in the theatre recognized that this was an apparent downgrade from The Dark Knight, most of us were happy with it. (Judging from the clapping and cheering).

Years later, and there's still a lot to like about this movie. TDKR excels in select moments; Bane's fights with Batman, that first chase scene. Nolan is an inherently talented film maker, so there are a lot of cool shots and moments. I even like how they were inspired by No Man's Land and a lot of the stuff in occupied Gotham was pretty fun. I also have to give Nolan credit for doing something different (although this movie seems very pre-planned) and not just rehashing The Dark Knight again. And yes, a fan of the character, there are just some inherently powerful and emotional moments in this movie, especially towards the end.

Zimmer's score is also INCREDIBLE. It's big, epic, and best experienced with the best sound system imaginable. While I think TDK's score is still the best (with the gothic, dramatic piano), this one is very good as well and punctuates a lot of the film's best moments.

But...I think two Batmen and ten years later, long after Nolan has since moved on...it's fair to admit this movie is bad.

The Bad: Let's take a second to appreciate the opening scene of this film. A CIA agent is in Uzbekistan to extract a nuclear physicist, Dr. Pavel, whom is on the run after refusing to work for an elusive terrorist named Bane. The CIA decides that it's a good idea for Dr. Pavel to be leaving the country on the SAME PLANE as the suspected terrorists. Little Finger is here, playing the main CIA officer and he's absolutely terrible, his performance is hilarious and he's screaming for 90% of it. Bane reveals himself and is rescued by another plane, where armed men fly out off, killing the crew of the CIA plane and then rescuing Bane and company by attaching hooks to it and literally carrying the plane, until eventually dropping it. Before this happens, Dr. Pavel's blood is transfused into the body of a random corpse to make it seem like "he died."

Now, this opening is visually stunning and very impressive. It is mostly practical - what we are seeing on screen was ACTUALLY filmed - and it's stuff like this that keeps this movie from being a total disaster. But for Bane's plan to have succeeded, we have to assume a) a blood transfusion can somehow disguise a body, b) the CIA hasn't informed anyone of what just happened before the plane was attacked, c) the CIA guys were stupid enough to have Bane on the same plane and so on. This is a far cry from the thoughtfulness of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.

I don't want to declare.this film's shift in tone as equivalent to Batman Forever after Batman Returns...but it's not that crazy of a statement, is it? TDKR feels like a completely different movie made by a different creative team, despite having the EXACT same writers involved.

The dialog is awful in this movie. From "you're...pure evil," to "there is an evil...RISING," to basically everything Joseph Gordon Levitt and Tom Hardy say, this movie is hilarious at times. There are so, so many one liners that were obviously designed for the trailer. And there are just so many elements that seem fantastical and completely at odds with the tone established in TDK.

Whereas that movie felt mature and grounded, a legitimate and sensical crime story with heightened "Batman" elements, this one jumps the shark considerably. I think the primary word that comes to mind when I think about TDKR is...DUMB. Everything and everyone was hit by "intelligence reducing beam," that afflicted the final two seasons of Game of Thrones, apparently. I'm serious - almost every character, from Jim Gordon to Bane to Catwoman to Lucius to Batman/Bruce Wayne himself, is noticeably dumbed down. Think about the way Bruce reacts to Alfred (before Michael Caine just leaves randomly) or how everyone takes the existence of the Clean Slate at face value only for it to ACTUALLY exist. Or, how Lucius and Bruce trust "Miranda" despite the audience never seeing her before. And that's not even getting to the meat of the movie.

Tom Hardy's Bane is a joke. He's not "iconic," he's funny. He has a silly voice, says silly things in silly ways and is generally a moustache twirling Snidley Whiplash with bad audio. Say what you want about The Joker's - his plans worked out a little too well, the logistics of how he gets from point A to B undetected are suspect - but they were grounded. He terrorizes Gotham through bombings, assassinations, and kidnappings. You know, things have ACTUALLY happened in the real world.

Bane, to accomplish the SAME THING, has to invade the sewers of Gotham with seemingly THOUSANDS of men (secretly, mind you), rig explosives perfectly leading to Batman's armory, assume the cops will send the ENTIRE GCPD down into the sewers to stop him, blow up the entrances and exits, trapping them down there...

AND THEN, blowing up all of the bridges leading out of Gotham, setting a neutron bomb to detonate in a few months, transferring said bomb to a different truck every few days...You see what I mean? His plan is so convoluted and ridiculous. Consequentially, the plot is overly complicated with too many characters.

The final act of this movie is a complete mess and it devolves right after Bane is defeated (despite...Batman having suffered a serious injury and not really training or fighting anyone to prepare for him). The entire sequence with the Batplane, the "sacrifice,' the insane revelation that Bruce is in fact, alive, (complete with without a doubt, the dumbest moment in the trilogy) his non-romance with Catwoman, the Robin reveal..(the idea that Batman and Alfred just leave all of this tech in the hands of a man both of them BARELY know is incredible to me).

It's just too stupid for me to look past. There is so much wrong here and I genuinely feel this movie was fundamentally flawed from the start.

The Ugly: I used to love this movie, then like it, then tolerate it, and now, having watched 8 Batman movies in a row, I can definitively say this is not a good one. In fact, it's probably my least favourite outside of the trainwreck that is Batman & Robin.

This is a movie that gets worse every time you watch it, the complete opposite of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. However, I'm happy to say that with The Batman (2022), the future of the character looks bright, so while it's certainly a disappointing movie, we have other Batman stories to look forward to.

But, given my self-inflicted Batman immersion over the past week, yeah I'm not talking/thinking about/watching anything to do with the Caped Crusader for a little while.