By Peter Covino

Lifestyles Editor

It is never a good thing going into a movie that you know will run almost three hours that the tedium factor starts to build after only ten minutes.

That’s not saying that this third and final chapter in the Christopher Nolan take on Batman is a really bad thing — but it certainly could be more amazing.

To be fair, those first ten minutes are pretty good — from an action standpoint. You get to meet The Dark Knight Rises’ villain Bane (Tom Hardy) and before the opening sequence is over, a large plane is pretty much obliterated.

Meanwhile, at Wayne Manor, Bruce Wayne a.k.a. Batman (though a lot of people seem to know the Bat guy and Wayne are one in the same. Maybe it is that horrible voice disguise Christopher Bale uses),  Bruce Wayne is still a recluse.

He has never recovered from the dark ending of his last adventure, even though it has been eight “Bat” years.

He needs a cane to get around and never leaves his room (though there must be a 100 rooms in Wayne Manor).

But with crime on the rise again in Gotham (thanks to this Bane guy), the caped crusader decides to abandon his Howard Hughes act.

(Note: The Orlando press preview was at an IMAX venue, and for The Dark Knight’s big action scenes, the large screen format is a plus. But this is, once again, a dark Batman film, and the larger format is an unnecessary extra expense for much of the movie).

Bane, who has a fairly long history with DC comics (1993)  was born in a prison and his ordeal has left him with a weird mask breathing device that seems to be part-Hannibal Lecter and part-Darth Vader. While he is a formidable advisory for Batman, he uses a Darth Vader type of voice too.

Somewhere in the film vault there has to be some unused dialogue that goes like this:

Batman: “Growl, growl, Bain, I will (indecipherable growl).

Bane: “What did (indecipherable)  Batman, growl, growl, growl?”

Batman: “I said (indecipherable) growl, growl, Bane (indecipherable).”

Bane: “Oh. That is what I thought you said. Growl, growl, growl (indecipherable).”

Bane does deliver a painful blow to Batman (when they are not exchanging  growls). This sets in motion his plans to steal a wondrous energy device that he wants to convert into a nuclear bomb to destroy Gotham City. He wants to extract some kind of revenge for his miserable life, if you have to have a reason.

I didn’t have much use for Bale or Hardy this time around, but Anne Hathaway does liven things up as Catwoman, who is mostly out for her own greater good, but can be counted on to mix things up as well.

Returning to the cast are Michael Caine as the ever loyal, Alfred, Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon and Morgan Freeman as Fox (the gadget guy). Batman has a new young ally as well —beat officer John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who still believes in Batman even though the rest of the city has turned against him.

There is not much in the way of memorable dialogue to make this final installment (for now) of Batman great movie-making, nor is the overall plot, which is needlessly complex, approach anything that spells O-S-C-A-R.

But the ending is satisfying enough, I suppose. And it probably fulfilled director/writer Nolan’s goal  (without giving anything away) of completing the series.

Critic's Rating: C

Rated PG-13