I'll be honest, I'm a huge Batman fan. Even before Nolan's films gained the popularity that they have, I've been a fan. From Batman: The animated series to Justice League, Batman has been my favourite superhero and Nolan's films just reaffirmed my love for this complex character. In honour of Nolan's magnum opus, I'll be exploring the themes, failures and successes of the trilogy. Starting with:

Batman Begins

A great origin story exploring Bruce's training and transformation into the Dark Knight. The first film is about fear, Bruce's and the city's; and about overcoming that fear by confronting it. This film introduces you to Ra's Al Ghul and the League of Shadows who pop back up in the third, as well as, Scarecrow who makes an amusing cameo in subsequent films. Although the pace is a bit slow, when Batman finally appears the movie kicks it up a notch and keeps you going until the rather satisfying conclusion. All in all, I'd give it a HIGH FULL PRICE!

The Dark Knight 

In terms of tone, pacing, action and character development this is easily the best of the series. Almost perfect in its execution, this film raised the bar for superhero movies and film in general. It also gave us one of if not THE most memorable villains of the decade in the Joker, played to haunting perfection by the late Heath Ledger. In this one Batman is at his peak and has found a successor to pass the mantle of Gotham's protector to, Harvey Dent played to underrated acclaim by Aaron Eckhart, until the Joker appears and blows Bruce's plans to hell, literally. The climax is one of the most satisfying and inspiring I've had outside the bedroom, so I'll give it a BETTER THAN SEX!!! 

The Dark Knight Rises

In all honesty, this is the most problematic of the trio for several reasons:

1. Comic book plot- this takes a lot more from the Batman comics than the other two, unfortunately to the films detriment. Many of the film's dumber plot elements feel like something they would have done(and probably did) in the comics e.g. the magical clean energy reactor, Bane taking over the city and holding it for months, Bruce's unbelievable recovery time etc.
2. Mishandling villains- up until the big reveal of Talia, Bane was shaping up to rival the Joker and Ra's in terms of on screen presence. His backstory was very interesting and his portrayal as both terrifying and intelligent was spot on by Tom Hardy. Unfortunately, it was invalidated by the reveal because all of the backstory we got up to that point was actually about her, leaving a gaping chasm where Bane's motivation used to be.
3. Characterisation- There are several instances where characters act against the personality established in previous films and even within this particular film e.g. Alfred leaving felt wrong given how dedicated we know him to be, Bruce being totally ok with Selina setting him up for a beat down, Batman fighting like a bruiser given his skill as a ninja and the weaponry available to him.

That said, I loved this movie! The script needed tightening up but overall, it was an epic piece of film making which brought the trilogy to a satisfying conclusion. The entire cast brought their A-game for this one with special mentions for Christian Bale (made the Bruce scenes as good as they were in BB), Anne Hathaway (played catwoman to perfection, wanted more), Joseph-Gordon Levitt (John Blake got better the longer the movie went on and that ending!!) and finally Tom Hardy( made Bane terrifying and extremely interesting at the same time). I'd give it BETTER THAN SEX!!!!!!

In conclusion, Christopher Nolan has done for blockbuster superhero movies, what Peter Jackson did for fantasy with the Lord of the Rings and will go down as a modern classic along with Star Wars, LOTR and Harry Potter. The only question is, where do we go from here? Nolan has said he is finished with Batman, but the end of TDKR left enough room for a continuation of the story. Maybe the legend hasn't ended just yet....