many calling it even grittier and darker then the Bale trilogy!

I am not sure that means much to me, I hope it is good, but a part from potentially Batman Begins I did not find the movies to be that great and Dark Knight Rises I thought was bad.

Dark Knight was good, but almost totally because of Ledger's Joker in my book. If he was not in it I do not think it is half as good or memorable.

Just my two cents though, I hope the new movie is enjoyable enough though. Pattenson is a pretty good actor really and has done alot to dig out of the whole Twilight thing. Lighthouse was particularly good.

I agree with your assessment. Batman Begins was very good and Dark Knight would have been a step down if not for Ledger's performance. Rises was not good.

I don't care about gritty. Penguin looks good in the new one but I'm not sold on the Batman and we haven't really seen the Riddler.

I mean gritty is fine, I expect a Batman movie to have some of these things, but I also think there are holes to fall in.

A Batman movie must be dark and brooding. It must be gritty and so on and so forth. Alright, to an extent I will grant you those things but on the other end some of these movies, like many DC has liked to push, delve too much into what it means to be a hero.

Or rather (since what I just said applies to all comic book movies) the line between a hero and a villain. That is great to a point but it is fun to watch them be heroes at times too. Not if Superman goes rogue he will be terrible, why not focus on Superman being Superman. Or Batman being Batman.

It makes those moments of conflict more meaningful when they do come up. IMO.

Ledger was a once in a lifetime acting role, so the bad news is that he tainted any and all performances of the Joker to come after him, so maybe best to never see Joker on the bat movie?

looks like this batman will be more akin to what if the Punisher was in DC!

Just do not show bats as being as "nuts" as the Joker!

I think there is something to that. I still think my favorite is Mark Hamill in Batman the Animated series and the Arkham games, but Ledger is good.

Honestly, given the number of villains Batman has I would think they should be able to touch on new ones and not just keep repeating all of the more classic ones.

Richard Roeper said that after Unforgiven, western movies have gotten cerebral (Lots of talks, explanations, complicated).

So, after the Dark Knight, Bat's villains and movies, have gotten very complex, cerebral, and their crimes became very very complicated.
Halfway through the movie, I couldn't help but feel that I'm watching the Dark Knight. Going through the crime drama, stories, themes, twists and turns of the complex villain scheme.

Plus, Pattinson needs to WORK OUT!!! Yeah, Bats is a smart man, got to show he's deducing, figuring out the plan, yadda yadda, ... but Bat/Bruce is a PHYSICAL FIGURE! I don't expect to see a six pack on him, at leash show SOME MUSCLE DEFINITION! Bats needs to show that he can pound thugs into the ground, and also show that he can take those thugs attacks, and survive crashing into concrete, vehicles and garbage cans.

I don't expect the Powers-that-be will change Batman much in later movies, us audience and consumer want a complex PG-13 crime story involving Bats. There were many entertaining moments (and twists) and characters that made this movie worth watching in theaters. I am giving this movie a very above average grade, ...but 'Must watch' level, nope.