This movie was a great follow up from the previous well received and highly memorable movie in the batman series, The Dark Knight.  The Dark Knight Rises, featured mind blowing action sequences that were well choreographed and well captured on camera. The movie once again features a cast of well-known, familiar faces, both from the previous Batman movie and a few new faces joining the team. Each of these actors and actresses did a fantastic job in bringing their comic book characters to life. The movie also introduces Catwoman, to the new revamped Batman series – and probably the best looking Catwoman, to date.

With all this said above, I wasn’t too sold on the film when the movie began. I mean, I myself am not a Batman fanatic – or any super hero fanatic for that matter – so it is always difficult for me to get into these movies and actually enjoy them; which I rarely do.

With this movie, I found the first half absolutely uninteresting, nor enjoyable. During this section, the movie spends its time bringing the audience up to speed. They talk about the events that happened in the previous movie and what had happened since then regarding Bruce Wayne and the whole Batman character. This information was vital and highly interesting for all Batman fans all over the world, but for someone who was just looking for a decent comic book action flick to pass time – I really didn’t care less about the back story. Each movie has their own principle villain, that’s what separates that particular movie from the rest, so why bother trying to make all three of the revamped movies look like one long continues movie? The average movie goer doesn’t care. I think this is what people like me miss from the Batman movies of the 1990’s.

But upon watching this movie, halfway through, my opinion changed to a more positive note.

When the halfway mark arrived and the villain of this movie, “Bane,” played by Tom Hardy, revealed to the people of Gotham City his sinister plan on destroying the entire city with a nuclear bomb, completely wiping it off the face of the earth. This was when the movie really picked up and became a non-stop action pact ride as the heroes of the city race against time to save Gotham City from nuclear extinction. Now that’s what I call: a decent comic book action flick. And believe me, the last half of the movie was epic – especially the ending. Money very well spent there.

Now, let’s talk about the two main characters in this movie – Batman and Bane. Batman is played again by Christian Bale, a very diverse and talented actor (one of my favorites, in fact). I think Christian plays a great Bruce Wayne. He fits the role comfortably and is well received – globally – by audiences - much more than any other batman that had appeared over the past few decades. But one thing really gets to me with his performance as actual, Batman - his voice.

Yes, his voice does come across as the Batman voice we all imagined and believed, but why does he only sound like that when he is playing Batman, not Bruce Wayne? No other actor did that - why? Because with or without the mask you are still the same guy! Christian Bale’s Batman has to be the only comic book hero that by putting on a mask changes his tone of speech and accent. What makes it even more bizarre is that he even does it towards the people who already know Batman’s true identity. If they already know who he is behind the mask, why is he still continuing the charade with his voice? I love the actor, I really do, but when playing Batman (not Bruce Wayne), he sounds like a poor man’s Clint Eastwood. Why do it? It comes over more of a joke than anything else.

Now, let’s talk about Tom Hardy as the evil, Bane. Tom Hardy is another talented and diverse actor. Tom looked amazing in his role! You couldn’t even tell it was him. It even made a few viewers question his true identity. His presence on screen was so dominant, intimidating and incredibly lethal and sinister.  Now, with all this said, the character, Bane, also has a very odd sounding voice, especially for a character being played by Tom Hardy. Strangely, the character, Bane, sounded like Sean Connery in his later years. Did this tone of voice and accent make his character come over more twisted? I don’t know. But every time he spoke, all I could picture was Sean Connery dubbing his voice (he didn’t. It was all Tom Hardy. He did it very well too, I may add).

To make this whole issue on voices even more comical – during the final fight between Batman and Bane (no spoilers. Pretty obvious final battle), yes we see Batman and Bane kicking each other’s asses visually, but if you closed your eyes, audibly you would hear a final battle between Clint Eastwood and Sean Connery – a long awaited battle between movie legends. Some people may be raising eyebrows right now, but hey, I was just saying.

OVERALL: This was a movie aimed towards fans of the batman series. Fans of Batman would be captivated from the get-go until the rolling end credits. But for the average movie goer, it starts off pretty slow – in fact, incredibly boring – but picks itself up halfway through and grabs your attention until the very end, leaving you almost as satisfied as a true Batman fanatic.

To close my review, does Bane succeed his goal in destroying Gotham City or does Batman save the day once again? Watch it and find out!

RATING: 8/10