Finally made it to the cinema to see The Dark Knight Rises. I was not disappointed. I thought it contained some very strong performances from Michael Caine and Joseph Gordon-Levitt who is fast becoming another one of my favourite actors. Near the end of the movie I did find it rather bizarre when the battle between good and evil descended into a bit of a scrap between the entire police force of Gotham City and all the bad guys, Bane and Batman included, which basically consisted of several minutes of people just cuffing one another as hard as they could. I guess they got bored of using their rocket launchers, machine guns and atomic bombs. I was actually glad when Batman and Bane managed to take an exit from that scene by boxing one another into the indoors. It was only then that the film came back to semi-reality. However, it did seem odd that it only took a few well aimed fisty-cuffs for Batman to momentarily gain the upper hand over this clearly physically superior opponent. All in all it was good entertainment (if a little bit over-manipulative with the constant driving soundtrack).

I found myself in quite a tightly packed cinema, one of the smaller screens as it seems to be coming to the end of its run, but every seat was filled. Not all audience members were as satisfied as I was by the end of the movie. I heard one woman remark that there was "just killing killing and killing and no storyline," while leaving at the end of the movie with her young son. Number one, why would you bring your son to a movie if you had no idea of the content? It wasn't such a departure from the other Nolan films in the trilogy and the trailer certainly didn't leave you in any doubt as to what to expect. There were some very young kids in there I might add. I'm not convinced all of them were 12. Number two, there was indeed a storyline and a very strong, long and convoluted one at that. The script/dialogue was very good compared to most action films but I suppose that's the risk with these kind of movies, audiences pay more attention to the visuals than to any underlying messages they might have, messages which in this case related to the nature of justice, revenge and heroism etc.

So, whilst I was snivelling into my tissues at Batman's final line, "Anyone can be a hero. Even a man who put a coat around a young boy's shoulders to let him know the world hadn't ended", other disgruntled viewers were off to book themslves tickets to the next Alvin and the Chipmonks movie. I'm not saying I enjoyed the violence quite as much as the psycho who was sat next to me, who laughed every time someone got their back or neck snapped, but come on, this is the Dark Knight we're talking about not the latest offering from Dreamworks.

As for other charges levelled against the film, well I didn't think that Bane mumbled too much. I could pretty much understand everything he said. The only thing I remain bemused about is my fellow audience members, including one woman who immediately got up and moved to another seat the moment I sat down and unwrapped my Subway sandwich. No, it was not bought on the premises but no, it was not very smelly and no, I did not intend to eat it at all noisily. Next time I'll bring sardines. Clearly she felt I was impinging on her own private living room space and would likely ruin her viewing pleasure and that of her eight year old son who was sat next to her watching a cert 12A film. Sorry!