Honestly, the sheer scale of it blew my mind. They really went all out for this one. All the actors are great, and Tom Hardy as Bane is brilliant - in some of the publicity shots he looks small but in the film you see just how massive he is. The voice is a little weird at first but once you get used to it it really adds a lot to the overall menace of the character - and most of the time you can understand him.
Anne Hathaway as Catwoman is perfectly cast. Joseph Gordon-Levitt gets a really prominent role as well as Marion Cotilliard. See it in IMAX if you can, the story definitely has some plot twists. A few wonky moments at the beginning, and it might not *quite* be as good as The Dark Knight since Heath Ledger just made that film but Nolan's definitely done it again
Oh and I live in NZ and the release date was 19th, so we got it a day earlier than the rest of the world!
EDIT: Also I forgot to mention the soundtrack, it was spot on and really drove the film. It's predominantly orchestral but Zimmer used a few synths sparingly to great effect - there's this amazing ominous pad at the beginning for example. There's a mix of the themes from the previous two films in addition to new material as well.
i've been browsing the internet cautiously this week, waiting for a spoiler to pop up somewhere.
