The final installment in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy ticks all the graphic novel action movie boxes: spectacular stunts, surprising plot twists and a flash of romantic frission. Despite this, it doesn’t quite match up to either the promotional hype or the film’s predecessor, The Dark Knight.

Gotham has been thrown into a dystopian turmoil as Bane, the monstrous masked villain, arrives in town with a nihilistic army and a fully primed nuclear bomb. The city is cut off from the rest of the world and as society implodes, mobs roam the streets and sham courts condemn dissenters to death. Batman must return from self imposed exile to avert the inevitable detonation of the bomb and to save twelve million souls.

It’s a great plot; gripping and compelling, with plenty of persuasive moral rights and wrongs to mull over. The film rattles along at great pace, holding the audience rapt with action and stunning special effects.

Christian Bale is as charming and intelligent as ever as The Batman and Anne Hathaway is effortless as the sexy, slinky, deadly cat burglar.

However, something is lacking. Perhaps it’s the fact that, hampered by a facial mask and a voice modification device as the baddie Bane, Tom Hardy couldn’t really deliver the terrifying performance that was required to light up the apocalyptic face-off with Batman – so brilliantly done in the last film by Heath Ledger as the Joker.

Maybe, it was that some other character developments were too predictable – Batman battles his personal demons to save the day; the cat burglar, the always selfish feline, has deep down a heart of gold.

Overall a satisfying action flick, but don’t expect to be blown away.

The Dark Knight Rises is playing at Legend and Cineplex.

To contact the reporter on this story: Anna Brown at [email protected]