Just got back from seeing it. Good movie, but flawed in ways that made me feel like it wasn't a real Batman movie.
I liked the nods to Frank Miller. I thought all of the main actors except Hardy did a good job. Hardy's a good actor but given the mask and the dubbed in voice, he was wasted in the part. Anne Hathaway was a great "Batman Year One" style Catwoman. Definitely the best Catwoman since Julie Newmar. Bale didn't overdue the "frog throat" voice this time around. Oldman is always good.
The action scenes were very good.
Mxy is correct when he points out that Nolan did a good job of turning two or three crossover stories (that weren't that great to begin with) into an actual coherent and compelling story.
And I loved that the whole subtext of movie was basically "Batman vs Occupy Wall Street."
As for the flaws, the biggest was that it didn't have enough actual Batman in it.
First off, you had the whole "he retired eight years ago after his girlfriend and Harvey were killed" thing. They hinted his injuries were also to blame but that wasn't really established in the prior film (and his injuries were obviously not that bad if he could overcome them-and the broken back-while in the League of Shadows prison). Furthermore, if I recall correctly, the whole point of the last movie being called "the Dark Knight" was the idea that Batman would now, after being framed for Dent's death, continue to guard Gotham as its hated protector. Instead, he retired. That contradicted the prior movie. Furthermore, it contradicts a pretty basic idea of Batman: when he loved ones get killed by criminals he goes for revenge.
Then, they never adequately explained why Bruce suddenly decided to come back.
This meant the first 45 minutes of the movie wasn't about Batman. It was about Bane and Catwoman and Bruce being a recluse. The would have been better off just having him still operating as Batman the whole time after the last movie.
Similarly, while I understood WHY Nolan did it, the film spent too much time on "fake Robin."
As for why it didn't always feel like a proper Batman movie, Nolan missed the essential component of Bruce Wayne's psyche. Whether Adam West or Frank Miller, "real" Batman is not about "cleaning up Gotham," or saving it. He knows that will never happen. As Gordon mentioned, even a perfect city has crime. Bruce Wayne is Batman because his parents were murdered and now he is obsessed with fighting criminals. If there's even one criminal left in Gotham, Batman is going to be after him. And Batman isn't Bruce's idea of a symbol to inspire people. Batman is supposed to scare them. So having Bruce "retire" twice: first after Dent's death and then at the end of the movie is not Batman. Even at the end of "the Dark Knight Return" comic book, Bruce didn't really retire, he just changed his method of operation. And, yes, there were hints of this in the prior Nolan films, but at the end of TDK it seemed as if Batman had given up this whole idea of retiring in order to be Gotham's "Dark Knight" forever.
Again, I liked the movie. I just think it missed the mark on that one aspect of Bruce Wayne's persona.
