The Dark Knight Rises

I don't go to the movies as much as I'd like to.  I saw The Avengers a couple weeks after it came out so as to avoid the crowds.  I liked it.  I went to see The Dark Knight Rises on a Monday afternoon, again to avoid the crowds, and was treated to a half empty theatre with very little in the way of distractions.  Some dude a few aisles ahead of me got up twice, and left early for some reason, but with it being a 3 hour movie, I was surprised how into the movie I was, and how I only really wondered 'where' in the film we were a couple of times.  Again, for a 3 hour film, I was impressed with how things were always moving, and they even rushed through a couple of spots that I wish they hadn't.

I thought Anne Hathaway was great, and totally proved my theory about Christopher Nolan right.  His casting choices just work.  I thought Heath Ledger was a strange choice for the Joker at first, and this time, I had a hard time seeing Hathaway pulling off the iconic role.  I think she's talented, but just didn't see 'Catwoman' there.  My mistake.

Its even hard to grade how much I liked this film compared to Nolan's other Batman films...at first I was ready to rank this one a bit below The Dark Knight, but then thought about how good Batman Begins was, and how it might then be the worst of the three.  Surely that can't be.  I think, instead, I'll think of these three films as being parts of one epic...much the same way I view The Godfather and The Godfather II.  Star Wars also gets that epic treatment, even though I clearly have a favourite film in that franchise (Empire Strikes Back).  Lord of the Rings is epic in my opinion as well.  But that's about it.  Four films?  That's pretty good company.

So how long will it be before we see another Batman movie?  I say about 5 years.  I don't know how they top this though?