dark knight rises

we finally get the highly anticipated conclusion to the dark knight trilogy.  batman begins was good, dark knight was phenomenal, and now we get dark knight rises which is just back down to good.  not bad, mind you, but about equal to the first one.  and in many ways it feels as though it is a more fitting sequel to batman begins than to the dark knight.  granted, this one couldn't have existed without the story events, particularly those that revolved around the harvey dent character, but this one is much more connected with bruce wayne's past, his return to gotham, and his ties to the organization that trained him.
the story starts up 8 years after the events of the last film, dent is lifted up as a hero while batman is seen as the villain, which is why he has been MIA since then.  we follow bruce as he is called back into action to confront the latest bad guy, called bane, who has threatened gotham with a nuclear device.  its a good movie, but i have some real problems with it.  first of all, this isn't a batman movie, its a bruce wayne movie.  that doesn't make it a bad thing, but it is a bit decieving to think that there will be much batman in the film.  it feels as though the cape and cowl are only in the movie for about thirty minutes.  and for a two hour and forty minute movie, that's not a lot of costumed crusading!  now, that is by no means a deal breaker, a movie can still be great without much batman, but the plot itself is so epic, so grandiose, that it is completely unbelievable.  granted, its a comic book movie, but the director christopher nolan has always grounded his batman films in a gritty realism.  so the absurdity of the plot developments that happen when bane steps forward and begins his reign of terror is just too much to follow along with.  the plot holes and leaps in logic are just too much.  its been five months and the US government still hasn't stepped in to do something?  really?  the cops would be stupid enough to fall for the ploy bane uses?  how exactly did bruce get all the way to the middle east?  how did he get back in time with no resources if he had already lost all his money?
also, i dont think bane was done in a way that was very interesting.  i felt like tom hardy, the actor who played him, didnt really do anything with him.  granted, he was really handicapped by the fact that most of his face was completely covered!  as for that voice?  there was a lot of hubbub about banes voice being too hard to understand.  they fixed that in post production, whatever.  my problem with the voice was that it just didnt fit the character at all.  it was too high, british (?), and quite obviously unconnected to the character on screen.  whenever he would talk it sounded like it was a voice over, not a voice that was actually emanating from anyone on the screen.  he works fine for what the story calls for, but he is certainly not the charismatic perfection that was the joker.
what about cat woman?  well, theres not much to say, really, because there's not much there. her role in the film is completely useless and feels shoehorned in because they needed a second 'bad guy' for the film.  she serves no purpose other than eye candy.  she isnt even a bad guy at all, just a common thief who always happens to be exactly where she is needed depending on the script.
all in all, i hate to admit it, but the movie was only 'meh'.  the grand ideas and allegories presented were interesting, but the rushed pacing and haphazard logic kind of stopped it dead in its tracks.  this is obviously the end of the line for this iteration of batman, but i'm sure we wont have to wait much more than 4 or 5 years before we see another one.  i, for one, will be eagerly waiting.