Everyone knows the epic anticipation we’ve all had as “Dark Knight Rises” came closer and closer. Will Batman die? Will Batman be broken like in the comics? Will Bane be done well, or will he be as stupid as the Bane from Joel Schmuckmaker, er uhm, I mean Schumacher‘s 1997 “Batman and Robin” atrocity?

Christopher Nolan continues to not disappoint with the third and final installment of the greatest story arc for Batman since, well, since Frank Miller wrote a Batman comic. By the way, Nolan has said he drew inspiration from Miller’s 1986 “The Dark Knight Returns” and Charles Dickens’ 1859 “A Tale of Two Cities” in a ComingSoon.net interview, so check those books out if you want some extended reading for understanding.

The final piece of the Batman trilogy follows one of the greatest rules of quality film-making by going back to the start to address how things all came about, but with information previously unknown. What this boils down to is a cameo appearance from Liam Neeson as Ra’s al Ghul and some pleasant twists in the manner M. Night Shyamalan only wishes his last few movies held to.

The whole of the story remains coherent, despite the regular changing between the story of Batman and the story of — spoiler alert — the man to next take on the cowl, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Though that part was hardly a surprise, given the previous understanding every comic book fan world wide has of the “Knightfall” series and Bane’s breaking of the Bat, and Azrael’s taking on of the Batman persona.

As to acting, Christian Bale maintains his hold as the best actor to portray the Caped Crusader on the silver screen, even with the sore-throat rumbling voice he uses when not appearing as Bruce Wayne. Newcomer to the Batman world, Anne Hathaway, has fine chops as Selina. And yes, the role is like Catwoman, but thankfully she is never called by that silly name even once in the film; her little “cat ears” appear courtesy of her goggles for a little homage to the sexy female cat burglar. Though Hathaway doesn’t do any really standout acting — at least nothing on the level of Heath Ledger in the 2008 “The Dark Knight” — anything you could hold against her is, well, something you want to hold against her due to her insanely sexy outfits and the accenting her curves receive from Nolan’s directing. Seriously, there is some great stretching of her body in the skin-tight suit action going on toward the end of the movie.

Gordon-Levitt does a fair job as a Gotham cop, but then it isn’t a very difficult role. Frankly, I think Gordon-Levitt would have been better cast at a later date to reprise Ledger’s Joker role — blasphemy to suggest possibly tarnishing such an epic performance of a character with a new actor, yes I know, but I want more Joker. Ledger and Gordon-Levitt look remarkable similar, and in Joker makeup I doubt it would even trigger in most folks minds; look at “10 Things I Hate About You” if you want some good screen time of the two of them together for comparison. Gordon-Levitt certainly has the acting chops to pull it off. And a replacement like that would be leagues better than the annoying shift from Katie Holmes to Maggie Gyllenhaal.

The remaining returners from previous films fill out their roles with nary a flaw, including another fun cameo from Cillian Murphy. But the real standout comes from Tom Hardy as Bane. Despite the actor being unable to use about half his face to establish emotion and expression, Hardy’s body language finally made Bane into the heavy hitting villain he should always have been. No longer is Bane to be confused with a Luchadore wrestler, Bane is intimidating after the fashion of pissing off a UFC fighter that happens to have an Ivy League education. Bane’s ruthless nature along with Hardy’s relaxed and almost casual portrayal of Bane’s violence is second only to Ledger’s role as the Joker.

I really wish we could have had Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page in “Dark Knight Rises,” so we could argue that the Batman series was all a deep dream thanks to the appearance of the main cast from “Inception” across the three films.

But like anything good, there has to be some bad. And “Dark Knight Rises” has more than a few flaws. Oh, and there are going to be some mega spoilers coming up, so skip to the end if you … wait, why are you reading a review if you haven’t seen the movie? Stop reading, go out and watch the movie and then come back and finish.

First on my hit-list of problems is the bomb explosion at the end of the film. It is a fission-fusion thermonuclear bomb. Its blast radius was set at something like six miles. But here is the catch, a neutron bomb carries more damage through radiation than through the explosive power of your run-of-the-mill nuclear weapon. Why does this matter you ask? Well, the fallout range for the distance Batman likely got the weapon to in the few minutes he had remaining wouldn’t cover the extra threat distance the prevailing winds running at Gotham create, added to the already increased range for radiation that is deadly to humans that neutron bombs are so good at. Oh, and the massive energy released by the detonation would have had enough influence on the Bay it was detonated over to cause some wave action splashing up on the edges of the city.

Yes, yes, I might be going too far with this, so I’ll move on.

The plot itself was a little dragged out. Not bad, mind you, but after coming off of “Dark Knight” it was not even batting in the same league. The action was really cool at some parts — the first fight between Bane and Batman — and at other parts the combat had a bit too much of “the bad guys attack one at a time” rather than the bad guys are more skilled than Stormtroopers.

Bane even had a storytelling flaw, as there is no scene lasting even a mere 15 to 30 seconds where he replaces a part of his mask so the audience can maybe have some comprehension of how the seemingly perpetual pain reliever operates to allow him to soldier on; just a brow wrinkle of pain while a knob is turned or a filter replaced would have been sufficient.

How does Batman recover from a broken back by someone punching the vertebrae back into place? I just cannot understand how the writers couldn’t think of a better way to un-cripple Bruce Wayne. Oh, and how does he recover so quickly? I’m no M.D., but I’m damn sure you cannot have had your spine cracked like that and then heal to better than ever conditions, while strenuously working out, in less than 90 days.

And speaking of him in the pit of despair, what about the rope climbing? If the rope is attached toward the top, why not just use your upper-body strength to climb the rope to the point it is attached instead of the more difficult climbing of the small outcroppings? Once you have reached the leap of faith ledge, why not send the rope back down so others can tie things to it — a secure beam or bar perhaps — and lift those back up so that instead of jumping, you can hand over hand or just slowly walk the gap? Isn’t Batman supposed to be some great detective, couldn’t he reason this sort of thing out?

As with the usual gadgetry, the physics of the Bat-wing and the Bat-cycle don’t really work for me. Maybe I don’t understand physics well enough. Maybe tires swiveling and balance of a motorcycle would work the way it did in the film. Frankly, I would still bet using those contraptions would result in crash and burning.

I can continue on and on about details both trivial and profound as to flaws with the movie, but I can do that with any movie — and I do so when with colleagues and other lovers of film because I am an insatiable fanboy. But all together, the problems do not outweigh the positive aspects to make “Dark Knight Rises” into a good time for all and a worth-your-money investment for theater viewing. I’m going to see it for the third time this first week, mainly because I want to find more details to complain and marvel about, but also because I feel fine investing that many hours for the entertainment the final Batman flick provides.

Oh, and I leave you with one thought: In the final scene, when Alfred sees Bruce with Selina, does Alfred really see them there, or is it his wishful thinking that Bruce escaped to find happiness in life with the one woman that was on par with him? If you’ve seen “Inception,” think about its ending and the top that doesn’t drop.