Before I continue, I'd just like to make clear that I enjoyed this movie very much. A lot. It was a fitting and well-done conclusion to Nolan's Batman trilogy that left me feeling very satisfied. I would certainly see it multiple times.
Now to poke at it in no particular order. I don't think I'll be giving any spoilers, but just in case, POTENTIAL SPOILERS BELOW.
Mostly ignores The Dark Knight
I understand that the death of Heath Ledger complicated a lot of things, and that the history of the 'lie' of Harvey Dent played a significant role in The Dark Knight Rises, and I still felt this third movie could have tied in better with the second movie as they did so in this movie with Batman Begins. I'd say this was my biggest complaint about the movie. At the end of the second movie, Batman seems intent on continuing to be "the hero the city needs" while on the run from the cops, and yet at the beginning of the movie, it opens to 8 years later with Batman not in action because "he's not needed." I think it would have made more sense if they had said Batman was still in action over those years and gradually doing less -- that, or have made the timeframe shorter, say a couple years. I have no problem with the Joker not making an appearance of any sort (even if later in the movie you might ask where he is, though I didn't at the time), but I felt his presence should have had a bigger impact on the characters, but he's not mentioned at all. As for how they use the history of Harvey Dent, while good for the most part, I feel Bane's part could have been a little more show then tell.
Bane suffers from the gravel voice too
It's not as bad as it was with Two-Face and Batman at the end of The Dark Knight, but especially at the beginning of the movie, it can be hard to make out what he's saying. I realize the mask makes that expected, and admittedly, I grew accustomed to it towards the end of the movie. Batman still has the gravel voice too, but I think it's irksome levels are more on par with Batman Begins.
The Dark Knight Rises continues the Republican vibes
It had already been pretty strong in The Dark Knight, and I felt the subtlety dropped a touch in this third movie. "Hey look, socialism is bad!" Otherwise, I guess I can't technically knock this as a fault, since it does mostly fit.
Batman's first fight with Bane wasn't epic enough
Again, I realize they set it up where Batman's not entirely on his A-game (having been out of action for almost 8 years) and, in a small way, I think that set-up does a bit of discredit to Bane. Obviously Batman needs to fall in that fight (I don't think I'm spoiling anything here) and I feel that fall should show Batman doing so from closer to his peak. Up to this point in the movie, it was clear that Batman was "sloppy" or "rusty" and it goes with an overall theme they were going with through the movie, and I think it was a theme they could have at least tweaked to have made Batman's fall bigger and Bane an even more intimidating villain. Calling back on my first point, it felt like they were almost disregarding what skill and wisdom Batman had built up previously, and with that in mind, is my other major complaint.
The "Bat" (Batplane/whatever) was...weird.
I know it's a similar thought to when the first movie revealed the Batmobile, and maybe I'll accept it after time and more viewings, but looking at it fly through the city seemed so WEIRD. "Is that thing really flying through the city?" It wasn't bad - it's actually an interesting design. It just throws me for a loop when I see it.
I feel like I had some others, but I can't think of them at this moment. Mostly I'm super-tired from getting less than 4 hours of sleep. @_@
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