Anne Hathaway as Catwoman. I couldn’t buy her as a rough and tumble cat burglar who could hold her own against Gotham’s villains, I didn’t see her as being able to pull off the sexiness required of a Catwoman either.

Bane. Batman’s rogues gallery is so vast that I thought it would have been better to use someone with more of a backstory or past. Someone that people were familiar with. I kind of eased off on this as the movie got closer, after all Bane did break the Bat, right? 

It was filmed in Pittsburgh instead of Chicago. The first two films were filmed in Chicago. Chicago has become synonymous with Gotham in my eyes, that reason is just petty.

But enough about me. 

Hathaway grew on me, I don’t think I’ll ever buy that she can knock out thugs as easily as she did, but she pulls off the manipulative and seductive nature of Catwoman in her own way. Bane ended up being a good choice for the film. Nolan’s take on Gotham and the world of Batman has always been more “realistic” so to speak. I think that Poison Ivy, or Mr. Freeze or someone of that nature would have made it more difficult for us to believe his version, a realistic version, of Gotham. Besides, we’ve seen those characters before. 

I do have a problem with Bane’s character, but it might spoil something so I’ll keep it to myself. Ask me about it after you’ve watched it.

Grr…actually I might have to stop here, some of what I have to say might give stuff away. I will say this, I thought that Joseph Gordon-Levitt was awesome, he almost stole the film as officer Blake. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman are excellent as usual. Like I said earlier, the film wraps everything up nicely and you’re left with well…closure. It’s not perfect and it might not even be the best of the three films but The Dark Knight Rises is a fitting end to the Dark Knight trilogy that reminded me of one of my favorite Batman story arcs of all time, No Man’s Land. 

Finally, it would be remiss of me to talk about this film without mentioning the tragedy in Colorado. The Fandads would like to extend our sympathies to the families and loved ones of the victims affected by this tragedy. On a personal note, I can’t understand why these idiots feel the need to involve innocent people in their selfish acts. Yes, I realize that these are the acts of a madman, a person who may not be in control of his or her faculties, I don’t know. It’s just sad and upsetting. 

I will admit that I thought twice about watching this film over the weekend, even as I sat in the theater I found myself paying a little extra attention to where I was sitting and where the emergency exits were. However, once the movie began, it did what all good forms of entertainment should do, it took me away. Any anxiety I had soon vanished and I was able to enjoy the film. 

People have already started to point the finger at movies, video games, etc. I think we should try to comfort and support the victims and their families as much as possible at this time and quit pointing fingers. I’m also not sure how much good it does to keep repeating that monster’s name in the media, I understand that people want answers, how could someone do this and why? I’m just not sure that we go about in the right way at times, maybe it shouldn’t be up to ABC and NBC to answer those questions, don’t glamorize these animals.

At the same time I realize that there are people who are mentally ill and that often times our society is ill equipped to handle mentally ill children and adults. There are a huge number of people in our country that suffer from mental illnesses and a great number of those people are either untreated or inadequately treated. Now I’m not an expert and I’m not saying that this latest shooter was mentally ill…but wouldn’t you have to be to commit such a heinous act of violence?