The Dark Knight about four years ago, virtually everyone on the planet has been eagerly anticipating the next entry in Christopher Nolan's Batman saga. The only thing exceeding our anticipation was our expectations. After all, given Nolan's track record and the brilliance of the first two films, we've all been certain from the outset that the third -- and what is purportedly the final -- act in the trilogy was going to blow us away.
But, what if it didn't? What if it fell victim to the Third-Movie-in-a-Super-Hero-Series Curse and just stunk up the place? Between the tradition of franchise-ruining third entries and the law of averages suggesting that Nolan is due for a misfire, there was a lot going against The Dark Knight Rises. And, honestly, when the first few trailers started rolling out, I, personally, started to feel like maybe the just wasn't going to be as good as we all hoped/needed it to be.
If you haven't seen the movie in the first two days, you'll be happy to know that my fears were misplaced. This is a very good movie. It left me riveted, fascinated, and anxious to go out and see it again. But, that doesn't mean it's flawless.
Rather than catalog all the little problems with this movie, I'll just lump them into one big problem: the first hour. The first sixty minutes or so of the movie are, for lack of a better word, dumb. Another good descriptor for the initial hour would be sloppy.
