(MCT) — Christopher Nolan’s a victim of his own success.

Under other circumstances, his latest venture into the dark and gritty world of the comic book hero Batman, “The Dark Knight Rises,” would be a triumph. But it comes in the wake of his nearly perfect “The Dark Knight,” the second film in the trilogy. By comparison, the last film falls short from plot to villain to those wonderful toys.

“The Dark Knight Rises” takes place eight years after Batman’s epic battles with the Joker (Heath Ledger) and Two-Face (Aaron Eckhart) that left the crime fighter wrongly marked as a criminal. Batman’s not been missed.