The Dark Knight Rises quite fittingly rises above its predecessors, at least in my view. First, let me get something out of the way: I am not a massive fan of The Dark Knight and I've never seen much of Batman Begins simply because I'm too connected to Batman comic books for me to really enjoyment. I still maintain that The Dark Knight, at least, would be much better if Nolan had created a Batman-like superhero (such as Nocturnus, featured in Mark Waid's web comic Insufferable). However, The Dark Knight Rises is one of the most fantastic films I've ever seen, though I don't exactly classify it as a superhero movie.
I had serious doubts about the story; I'm the kind of person who doesn't like certain types of stories. These include: characters losing their powers, characters foregoing their identities, characters' secret identities being discovered by supervillains or revealed to the public, and others of this nature. I expected the The Dark Knight Rises to have plenty of these, and it had a few. However, the story is very well done and inspiring, despite the fact that I felt there could have been a very good "cheering moment" where the civilians decide to convert and support Batman as he battles evil. There's a very interesting character arc for Bruce Wayne as far as his identity as Batman, and I was saddened inside when Alfred leaved him to try to help him. The prison scenes are especially fascinating, introducing an idea that Batman cannot be a hero if he fears death; there is nothing to drive him to keep fighting if there is no fear of death. On the way home from seeing the movie, the realization came to me that, to me, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight were plot devices in the overarcing story in the Nolan trilogy to set up the story of The Dark Knight Rises. The ending I found to be one of the best parts of the film. I never really picked up on Bruce's nudging to John Blake that anyone could be Batman-that's why the mask exists-until the end when he passes the Batman mantle on to John Blake.
I found a similarity, almost impossibly, with The Avengers. Like the characters in The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises' characters are very good characters, though they are very little like the comic book characters. This is not as valid a point, as The Avengers is more of a comic book movie than The Dark Knight Rises, but I found some real problems in this case with Batman. In this film, he's a bit naive at first and not as sensible as Batman truly should be.
Now, on to my problems with the movie...
Of course, there are my usual qualms with the Nolan films: the costume looks fake, the Tumbler looks more like a tank than a cool Batmobile, and Batman's voice sounds dumb. But on to more valid complaints: First, I felt that giving John Blake the name of Robin was a good intention, but would have been INFINITLEY better if Blake's fully name had been Jean Paul (or John Paul, I suppose) as a nod to Jean Paul Valley, who replaced Bruce Wayne as Batman after Bane broke Wayne's back in the first story he appeared in. This would be applicable to Blake's adoption of the Batman mantle. Secondly, I greatly appreciated how Bane was initially portrated as both brutal and intelligent like in the comics, but at the end he was really someone's lackey. Alright, not a lackey perse, but it wasn't really his idea to achieve Ra's Al Ghul's dream. Talia, similarly, is guided by her father's dream, not the struggle portrayed so well before between her love for her father and he love for Batman. Also, I know the impact of the falling truck killed her, but that wasn't very well displayed. Wouldn't the windshield have shattered? Next, couldn't the government have detonated some kind of electromagnetic pulse to deactivate the timer on the bomb or the bomb entirely? On the topic of the bomb, Batman jostled it pretty severely. Couldn't it have broken in half or even exploded? It probably wouldn't be a nuclear explosion, but still...Next, I think that Batman's triumph over Bane could've been a lot better; He simply won because he knocked the drug tubes from Bane's mask, where he could have trained harder and triumphed over Bane physically and mentally. Finally, I think that adding the Venom element to Bane to make him stronger would've made him a much more interesting character.
In conclusion, The Dark Knight Rises is a must see. I would highly reccomend viewing Batman Begins and The Dark Knight first, as, in my view, they are set-ups for the real story, The Dark Knight Rises.
