Grade • A-

"The Dark Knight Rises" delivers all the bombast of an action movie, just not in the ways you expect.

Director Christopher Nolan sums up his brooding "Batman" trilogy by showing not only how much Gotham City needs Batman, to battle the brutish villain Bane (Tom Hardy), but how much the embittered Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) needs to be him for his own salvation.

A strong cast — Anne Hathaway as cat burglar Selina Kyle, Marion Cotillard as a mysterious socialite, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a stalwart young cop, and Nolan's returning players (Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine) — make Nolan's last Batman adventure engrossing. —

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